Saudade Duo
The Saudade Duo is a half-Cuban, half-Italian ensemble comprised of violinist Eddy Betancourt and guitarist Jacopo Lazzaretti. Both current Live Music Now Scotland’s artists, they created the Suadade Duo in 2022 to explore the possibilities of the guitar and violin repertoire together, with the goal of bringing live music to as many people as possible.
Eddy Betancourt is a virtuoso violinist from Cuba, currently based in Glasgow. He graduated from the Conservatory of Vigo (Spain), the University of Aveiro (Portugal), the Conservatorium Van Amsterdam and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. During this period of intense education, he had the opportunity to study under the guidance of Andrea Gajic, Roberto Valdés, Ilya Grubert, Francesco Belli, Cristóbal Soler, Walter Themel, Rafael Montes, Jean- Marc Burfin, Jean-Sébastien Béreau, Mikhail Bezverkhny, José Francisco del Castillo, Jela Spitkova and Adrian Pinzaru.
While studying at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Eddy enjoyed masterclasses with Nicola Benedetti, Alina Ibragimova and Joseph Swensen, as well as winning the Louis Carus Duo Ensemble Prize, Dunbar-Gerber Prize for Chamber Music, Governors’ Recital Prize for Strings 2017.
Jacopo Lazzaretti is a versatile and exciting guitarist from Rome, currently based in Glasgow. He graduated from the Conservatoire of Santa Cecilia in Rome in 2017 and completed the Master’s Degree in Performance at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in June 2019. Jacopo has performed in many masterclasses with some of the world’s most well-known guitarists and he has been strongly inspired by musicians such as Arturo Tallini, Giulio Tampalini, Matthew McAllister, Allan Neave and Pavel Steidl.
Following on from our successful partnership in 2022, Just Festival are delighted to be welcoming back musicians from Live Music Now Scotland to our stage. Live Music Now Scotland gives outstanding young artists the opportunity of performing at the start of their careers and enables high-quality live music to reach people throughout our communities, especially those who wouldn’t normally have access to it.
Live Music Now Scotland puts on almost 600 concerts a year, with an ever-evolving pool of around 120 musicians, covering a diverse range of musical genres, delivering work in all of Scotland’s 32 local authorities. Initially a branch of Live Music Now Ltd, the organisation devolved in 2013 to have its own charitable status and Board of trustees, bringing governance closer to home as activity continued to grow.
Hundreds of musicians have come through Live Music Now Scotland, and can now be seen in orchestras, ensembles, choirs, opera companies, recording studios and educational institutions, pursuing successful careers in the music profession. Alongside this, Live Music Now Scotland’s expertise and understanding of how music is vital to emotional, physical and social wellbeing has grown over the years, and the organisation is well established and highly respected in this field.
