Bangor student to perform with Frank Zappa's son

A Bangor University music student is looking forward to performing Frank Zappa’s work on a UK tour later this month.

Sioned Eleri Roberts, 30, from Bangor, will be performing one of the legendary guitarists’ songs on the clarinet with his son, Dweezil, who is touring with his band Zappa Plays Zappa.

Sioned was awarded a KESS scholarship last year and is about to complete an MRes degree focusing on contemporary clarinet music at Bangor University. She said: “The band are a group of fantastic musicians, and they approach Frank's music with authenticity and passion and they were awarded a Grammy for 'best rock instrumental performance' a few years ago.

“I am a huge fan of Frank Zappa's music - both his rock and classical works and a few years ago I was very excited to hear that Frank Zappa's son, Dweezil, was touring, performing his father's works.

“I have been to see them perform several times and during their last tour, I was lucky enough to meet Dweezil and took the opportunity to ask a few questions about his father's Clarinet Concerto - Mo N Herb's Vacation, which then led to me posting various audio files of my clarinet playing onto Dweezil's website.

“Months later and out of the blue, I received a message from Dweezil asking whether I would like to join the band on stage to play one of Frank Zappa's songs on a couple of dates during their UK tour. I was, and still am very excited. I have been given a fantastic part to play - it's quite difficult too, so I am now off to practice!”

Sioned will be performing at the Roundhouse in London on November 10th and in Birmingham Town Hall on the November 18th.

Sioned's research scholarship is funded under the Knowledge Economy Skills Scholarships (KESS) Programme. KESS is a major European Convergence programme led by Bangor University on behalf of the HE sector in Wales. Benefiting from European Social Funds (ESF), KESS supports collaborative research projects (Research Masters and PhD) with external partners based in the Convergence area of Wales (West Wales and the Valleys).  Both the Research Masters and PhD elements are integrated with a high-level skills training programme, leading to a Postgraduate Skills Development Award. KESS will run until 2014 and will provide 400+ PhD and Masters places.

Publication date: 7 November 2012