Profiles
Acsadi, Daniel, guitar (USA/Hungary)
Ashe, Jennifer, soprano (USA)
Benotti, Maria, judge (USA)
Borg, Scott, guitar (USA/Australia)
De Ritis, Anthony, seminar (USA)
Dunn, Alexander, guitar (USA/Canada)
El Mundo
Eskin, Virginia, judge (USA)
Fisk, Eliot, guitar (USA)
Frasca, Dominic, guitar (USA)
Gallén, Ricardo, guitar (Spain)
Gibbons, John, harpsichord (USA)
Goryachev, Grigory, guitar (Russia)
Holzman, Adam, guitar (USA)
Holzman, Bruce, guitar (USA)
Knuth, William, violin (USA)
Levin, Adam, guitar (USA)
Lieberman, Amy, conductor (USA)
Lin, Steve, guitar (USA)
Madiedo, Cristina Pérez, guitar (Cuba)
McStoots, Jason, tenor (USA)
Meneses, Zaira, guitar (Mexico/USA)
Mitta, Nitin, tabla (India)
Mouffe, Jérôme, guitar (Belgium)
Myers, Robert, flute (USA)
Orlandini, Luis, guitar (Chile)
Paraskevas, Apostolos, judge (USA)
Provost, Richard, judge (USA)
Riley, William, judge (USA)
Robinson, Stephen, guitar (USA)
Robison, Brian, judge (USA)
Romero, Angel, guitar (USA/Spain)
Row, Peter, sitar (USA)
Savino, Richard, guitar (USA)
Smith, Ronald Bruce, judge (USA)
Tanenbaum, David, guitar (USA)
Via, Moisès Fernàndez, piano (Spain)
Wallace, Frank, judge (USA)
Ward, Robert, guitar (USA)
Wu Man, pipa (China)
Jon Yerby, guitar (USA)
Photo by Keitaro Yoshioka
A creative innovator linked to the great romantic tradition of the past, guitarist Eliot Fisk is one of the most exciting and unique artists before the public today. Known world wide for his adventurous repertoire and willingness to take art music into unusual venues (including schools, senior centers and even prisons!) he belongs, as his great mentor Andrés Segovia once wrote, “at the top line of our artistic world.”
In June of 2006, by order of King Juan Carlos of Spain, Eliot Fisk was awarded the Cruz of Isabel la Catótlica for his service to the cause of Spanish music. Earlier recipients of this rarely bestowed honor include Andrés Segovia and Yehudi Menuhin.
Eliot Fisk has performed to dazzling critical and public acclaim in recital, as soloist with major orchestras and in a wide variety of chamber music combinations in most of the great concert halls of the world and in 1996 in a command performance in the Palacio de los Cordova in Granada, Spain, for then U.S. President Bill Clinton and King Juan Carlos of Spain and their families.
Eliot Fisk has expanded the repertoire for the guitar enormously through countless ground breaking transcriptions of works by Bach, Scarlatti, Haydn, Mozart, Paganini, and others as well as through commissions from leading composers as varied as Luciano Berio, Leonardo Balada, Robert Beaser, Wiliam Bolcom, Xavier Montsalvatge, Nicholas Maw, George Rochberg and Kurt Schwertsik. His numerous transcriptions and editions are published by Universal, Presser, Ricordi and Guitar Solo Publications.
Eliot Fisk’s numerous recordings for the Musical Heritage Society, DGG, Arabesque, and EMI have elicited unqualified praise and even entered the Billboard charts as bestsellers. Most of these recordings include repertoire never before performed on the guitar such as his legendary reading of the 24 solo violin Capricci, Op. 1 of Paganini (“Has to be heard to be believed!” — Ruggiero Ricci), his recordings of contemporary works by Berio and Rochberg or his recording with Paula Robison of Robert Beaser’s Mountain Songs, which was nominated for a Grammy. Guitar Review wrote that his versions of the complete Bach unaccompanied violin Sonatas and Partitas, BWV 1001-1006 “place him alongside Casals and Gould as one of this century's greatest interpreters of Bach.” On a lighter note, Gramophon Magazine described his transcriptions for violin, cello and guitar of Bach's Violin Sonatas BWV 1014 – 1019: “If exploring the instrumental potential of the continuo is Baroque music's equivalent of exploring Star Trek’s final frontier, then guitarist Eliot Fisk may be its Captain Kirk and his transcription of Bach’s Six Violin Sonatas its Starship Enterprise”.
Eliot Fisk's forays into unconventional territory have included collaborations with chanteuse, Ute Lemper; Turkish music master, Burhan Öçal; jazz guitar legend, Joe Pass; flamenco great, Paco Pena; and master of castanets, Lucero Tena. 2006-2007 season upcoming projects include four major premieres: Leonardo Balada's "Caprichos" (seven movements after songs of Federico Garcia Lorca for guitar and string quartet), Kurt Schwertsik's 25 minute "Ein Kleines Requiem" for solo guitar; Daniel Bernard Romain's concerto for guitar and chamber orchestra (“We March”); and Eliot Fisk's transcription of Mark O' Connor's violin concerto movement entitled, "Winter" for guitar and orchestra.
In 2008 he begins a long anticipated collaboration with legendary virtuoso Angel Romero in a program to include a newly commissioned work for two guitars by Leonardo Balada as well as new Fisk transcriptions for two guitars of works by Scarlatti and others.
Eliot Fisk is founder and director of Boston Guitar Fest, an annual event held in the month of June at the New England Conservatory. This festival is dedicated to exploring cutting-edge possibilities of the guitar in an interdisciplinary cross-cultural context.
Eliot Fisk was the last direct pupil of Andrés Segovia and also studied interpretation under the legendary harpsichordist, Ralph Kirkpatrick, at Yale University from which he graduated summa cum laude in 1976. Called by one New York Times headline “A Fiery Missionary to the Unconverted,” Eliot Fisk devotes considerable energy to teaching. He is Professor at the Universität Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria, where he teaches in 5 different languages, and in Boston at the New England Conservatory. His students have come from all corners of the earth. Many have gone on to become important performers and teachers in their own right.
Eliot Fisk lives in Boston, Salzburg, and (whenever possible) in his beloved Granada, Spain, with his wife, acclaimed guitarist Zaira Meneses, and their six year old daughter, Raquel. His website is www.eliotfisk.com.
Hailed for his superior artistry as the Spanish maestro of the guitar, Angel Romero’s eminence in the music world as soloist and conductor is heralded by audiences and critics alike. One of the most sought-after musicians of his generation, Angel Romero has appeared in the major cultural centers throughout the world including those of London, Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Madrid, Munich, Zurich, Chicago, Los Angles and New York among others. He has appeared as soloist with such leading orchestras as the New York Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic, the New World Symphony, and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. As conductor, he has led numerous orchestras worldwide including the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, the Royal Philharmonic, Germany’s NDR Symphony Orchestra and the Berlin Symphoniker, the Beijing Philharmonic, the Euro-Asia Philharmonic, the Shanghai Symphony, the Bogotá Philharmonic, the Chicago Sinfonietta, the Orquesta de Baja California, the Santa Barbara Symphony, the San Diego Symphony and the San Diego Chamber Orchestra among others. Regardless of his role on stage, his driving intensity and flawless control mark him as a true master of the arts.
Angel Romero’s extensive discography includes highly acclaimed recordings for Delos International, RCA Victor Red Seal and RCA Victor Worldwide, Telarc and Angel/EMI. In 2001, Delos released “Bella,” which includes monumental pieces such as Bach's Air on the G String to Romero's own father's Tango Angelita - a composition dedicated to his late mother. In 1999, “Romero Plays Rodrigo” was released featuring works written for and dedicated to Angel Romero through his long and close relationship with the Spanish composer. In 1998, he was featured as soloist and conductor in an acclaimed recording of Vivaldi’s guitar concertos with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields. In 1995, RCA released a crossover recording of flamenco and pop music, featuring Angel Romero playing a diverse repertoire spanning works from Pachelbel to Bill Conti. This particular recording features Mr. Romero’s world-premiere transcriptions for one guitar.
In February 2000 he was presented with the highest honor that the country of Spain has to offer, the Grand Cross of Isabel la Catolica and was knighted Sir Angel Romero in reverence of his astounding musical accomplishments. In 2007, Angel Romero was honored by the Recording Academy, producer of the Grammy Awards, with the Recording Academy President’s Merit Award for his significant contributions to the music world and for his professional career achievements.
Angel Romero is noted for his activities in the film industry. In 1989, he performed the entire score for “The Milagro Bean Field War” directed by Robert Redford. In 1994, he composed and directed the musical score for the Gabriele Retes film “Bienvenido-Welcome,” which opened at the Muestra del Cine film festival in Guadalajara. For his work on this film, Mr. Romero won the 1995 ARIEL (the “Academy Award” of Mexico) in the category of music written originally for film. He also performed and recorded the entire score for the film “By The Sword” composed by Bill Conti, and played a cameo role in the major motion picture “Bound by Honor,” a Taylor Hackford film.
Born in Malaga, Spain, Angel Romero made his professional debut at the age of six and his United States debut at the Hollywood Bowl when he was 16 giving the West Coast premiere of the famed Rodrigo’s “Aranjuez Concerto.” This occasion also marked the first time a guitarist was featured as soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. In 1991, he gave the world premiere of Joaquin Rodrigo’s “Rincones de España” at New York’s Lincoln Center. Mr. Romero studied conducting privately with Eugene Ormandy, the legendary conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Angel Romero has played for numerous world leaders including his globally telecast 1992 appearance in the United Nations General Assembly Hall with the National Orchestra of Spain under the baton of Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos. The performance was by invitation of then Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali to promote world peace and to celebrate the 500th Anniversary of the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus.
Through his acclaimed performances, arrangements, and teaching, Dan Acsadi is a passionate advocate for both the guitar and the music of his native Hungary. Dan’s arrangements encompass art and folk music of the 18th through 21st centuries, innovatively expanding the guitar’s repertoire. He is firmly committed to the guitar as a versatile chamber music instrument, performing regularly with voice, viola, violin, flute, string quartet, and guitar ensemble. Beginning his musical studies at age six, Dan earned his M.M. from New England Conservatory (NEC) and B.A. from Cornell University, where he double majored in music and economics. He is currently pursuing the Doctor of Musical Arts degree at NEC with Eliot Fisk. Dan has previously studied with Pablo Cohen and John Hall, and has performed in the masterclasses of Manuel Barrueco, Leo Brouwer, Eduardo Fernandez, and Adam Holzman. Dan maintains a large and diverse teaching studio in the Boston area.
Jennifer Ashe, soprano, has been hailed by the Boston Globe as giving a performance that was “pure bravura...riveting the audience with a radiant and opulent voice”. A strong advocate for new music, Jennifer has participated in countless premieres and recordings for composers active in the Boston area and beyond. At New England Conservatory Jennifer studied with Mark St Laurent and Lucy Shelton, receiving the Doctor of Musical Arts in Vocal Performance in May 2006. She also holds the Master of Music in Vocal Pedagogy from NEC. She received the Bachelor of Music from the Hartt School of Music in Voice Performance and Music Education, and is currently a lecturer at College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, MA.
Violinist Maria Benotti is Founder and Artistic Director of Music at Eden’s Edge, the regional resident chamber ensemble serving Boston’s North Shore since 1982. She teaches violin, sonata duo class and chamber music at the New England Conservatory Preparatory School, where she joined the faculty in 1977. A founding and ongoing member of the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra of Boston (1978), she also performs regularly on Baroque and Classical violin with the Handel and Haydn Society Orchestra. She graduated Magna Cum Laude with a BA in music from Oberlin College and received Master of Music degrees in Violin Performance from both the Catholic University of America and the New England Conservatory of Music. Ms. Benotti has held teaching positions at Northeastern University, Gordon College, and Wheaton College.
Australian classical guitarist Scott Borg has performed recitals in major concert halls such as the Alice Tully Hall in the Lincoln Center, the pollo Theatre, and was a featured artist at the Shell Darwin International Festival Australia. In 2006, he was invited to perform for the internationally televised address of President Hu Jintao, Peoples Republic of China, to the United States of America. As a winner of the Artists International, Mr Borg will make his Carnegie Hall debut next season in Weill Recital Hall. Mr. Borg is currently a candidate in the Doctorate of Musical Arts program at New England Conservatory under the tutelage of Eliot Fisk, he previously completed his Artist Diploma from Yale University School of Music, Masters of Music from The Juilliard School, and Bachelor of Creative Arts from the University of Wollongong.
Music technologist and composer Anthony Paul De Ritis was born on Long Island, New York on August 13, 1968. He arrived at Boston’s Northeastern University in 1998 and is currently Chair of the Department of Music and Director of the Multimedia Studies Program. Previously he taught Musical Acoustics at the San Francisco Conservatory as a Collegiate Professor.
De Ritis’ music has been called “cutting-edge,” “revolutionary,” “groundbreaking and earth-shattering,” “ultra-exotic,” and “really cool.” His works have been performed in Europe, North America, Asia, and most recently, Russia. On June 11, 2002 he was presented as a composer and performer (violist) at the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in New York; De Ritis was also required to fill in for maestro Lukas Foss who had taken ill. This performance included De Ritis’ composition Dust and Roses for narrator, viola and guitar, fourteen settings of poems by his father, Paul A. De Ritis. This work was reprised at the 2ème Festival de Musique de Sancerre, France, in a version for flute, harp and viola (August 2002).
De Ritis’ Devolution, a Concerto for DJ and Symphony Orchestra, has received significant recognition on both coasts, including a segment by Tech TV. It received its west coast premiere under the direction of Michael Morgan and the Oakland East Bay Symphony (March 2004); the east coast premiere was under the baton of Jung-Ho Pak and the New Haven Symphony (Sept. 2004) – both performances featured Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky That Subliminal Kid as the soloist.
De Ritis' electroacoustic work Plum Blossoms (1999), based on samples of the Chinese pipa virtuoso, Min Xiao-Fen, received its premiere at the International Computer Music Conference in Beijing, China, and was later the basis for a "live" version for pipa, strings, glockenspiel and electronic sounds commissioned and performed by the San Diego Symphony (2000). His Ping-Pong, a Concerto for Pipa and Chinese Orchestra, was premiered on December 11, 2004 with the Taipei Chinese Orchestra in Taipei, Taiwan with Min Xiao-Fen as soloist; and he recently completed a solo work for pipa virtuoso Wu Man entitled Zhongguo Pop.
Many of De Ritis’ compositions engage the use of amplified instrumentation and orchestration borrowed from popular and jazz music idioms and/or the use of interactive performance technology with the Max/MSP software language. While composer-in-residence at the Interlochen Center for the Arts, the World Youth Symphony Orchestra premiered his work Amsterdam for large orchestra and electronics featuring a Buchla Lightning II conductor’s baton as the performance controller (August 2004). Additional performances include Transparencies (2001) for guitar, viola and electronic sounds at the VI International Guitar/Congress in Corfu, Greece; and Eleggua 1, 2 and 3 (2001) interactive works for instruments and computer at the IX Festival Internacional de Musica Electroacustica in Havana, Cuba. His compositions and performances have received reviews in national and international papers, including the Village Voice, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, San Jose Mercury News, New Haven Register, Classical Guitar (England), La Nouveau Rèpublique (France) and Le Nazione (Italy).
De Ritis’ next large project is a full-length music drama titled The Taking of Miss Janie based on the play by African American playwright, educator and activist, Ed Bullins, a musical collaboration with composer and Guitar Player magazine Associate Editor, Jude Gold, to be directed by Del Lewis, Director, Northeastern University’s Center for the Arts.
De Ritis completed his Ph.D. in Music Composition at the University of California, Berkeley, where he studied with Richard Felciano, Jorge Liderman, and Edwin Dugger, and worked with David Wessel at Berkeley's Center for New Music and Audio Technologies (CNMAT) (1992-1997). He received his M.M. in Electronic Music Composition from Ohio University under Mark Phillips (1990-1992); and his B.A. in Music with a concentration in Business Administration from Bucknell University, studying composition under William Duckworth, Jackson Hill and Kyle Gann, and philosophy with Richard Fleming (1986-1990). De Ritis engaged in summer study at the American Conservatory in Fontainebleau, France under Phillipe Manoury, Tristan Murail, and Gilbert Amy (1991, 1992), the University of Southern California (1990) and New York University (1989).
Other significant accomplishments include his contracting and managing of 112 musicians for the American premiere of Merce Cunningham and John Cage's Ocean 1-95 with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company presented by Berkeley's Cal Performances (1996), and his score for the Macintosh computer game, Step On It, which won the 1997 MacWorld Arcade Game of the Year.
He is the founder and lead developer of the Online Conservatory collaboration between the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Northeastern University, which was featured in the New York Times, the Chronicle for Higher Education, Newsweek, Symphony magazine and the Boston Globe. The Online Conservatory allows viewers to explore BSO programs in-depth before their performances.
De Ritis also holds a certificate in Internet Technologies and a Masters in Business Administration with an emphasis in High Tech.
Since 2000, De Ritis has spent his summers conducting Italian opera and finding his soul in Siena, Italy, the country of his father's birth. www.deritis.com
Canadian classical guitarist Alexander Dunn has performed to enthusiastic acclaim in Canada, the USA, Cuba, New Zealand, Mexico, Brasil, Southeast Asia, China, South Africa, western and Eastern Europe, and Russia. In solo recital, concerto, and chamber music he is consistently praised for his musicality, technique and rich sound. Recent chamber music and recital performances include work with principal players from the Pacific Baroque Orchestra, Seattle Baroque Orchestra, Tafelmusik, in duo with guitarists Pepe Romero, David Tanenbaum, tenor Benjamin Butterfield, and with many other musicians. He has been a featured soloist with the CBC Vancouver Radio Orchestra, Victoria Symphony, Winnipeg Symphony, Pacific Baroque Orchestra, La Jolla Symphony, Malaga Sinfonico, San Francisco Conservatory Orchestra, New England Symphony, and many major US orchestras as guest artists with Los Romeros.
Feature recitals at major music festivals include the Aspen Music Festival, Darmstadt's Ferienkurs für Neue Musik (in the premiere of Spin-Curve Foci. dedicated to him), Salzburg's Sommerakademie der Hochschule Mozarteum , Vancouver New Music (in the premiere of Noche de Ronda , a Canada Council commission for him), International Guitar and Lute Institute, Stetson International Guitar Workshop, Guitar Foundation of America International Conference, Northwest Guitar Festival, the Paracho Festival de Guitarra , the Vancouver Festival, Early Music Society of the Islands, CBC Festival de Printemps , Zihuatenejo International Guitar Festival and others. He has collaborated with numerous musicians on nineteenth-century instruments and vocalists and is regarded as one of the finest performers on period guitars. Mr. Dunn holds a Masters Degree in Performance from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and a Ph.D. in musicology from the University of California, San Diego, where he was a protégé of Pepe Romero; his extensive summer studies were at the Aspen Music Festival and the Salzburg Mozarteum. He is an examiner for the Royal Conservatory Toronto and currently heads what is considered one of Canada’s top guitar programs at the University of Victoria and the Victoria Conservatory of Music.
El Mundois a chamber group dedicated to the performance of sixteenth through nineteenth century Latin American, Spanish and Italian chamber music. Under the direction of lutenist/guitarist Richard Savino and made up of well known period instrument performers, El Mundo combines virtuoso string playing with guitars, lutes and harpsichord in a setting that recreates the distinctive Latin sound of the old and new world Castellanos, and José Quiroz.
El Mundo is Ann Moss, soprano; Paul Shipper, bass, percussion, & guitar; Daniel Stepner, Kinloch Earle, violins; Guy Fishman, cello; Michael Beattie, harpsichord; Richard Savino, baroque guitar.
Virginia Eskin’s concerto appearances include the Annapolis, Buffalo, Louisville, New Hampshire, Rochester, San Francisco, Santa Barbara and Utah Symphony Orchestras, the Boston Classical, the Israel Sinfonietta, and the Boston Pops. She has also performed as a soloist with the New York City and Boston Ballet Companies, and at New York ‘s Morgan Library in New York. Ms. Eskin recently created and hosted “First Ladies of Music,” a 13-program radio series sponsored by Northeastern University and produced by WFMT, Chicago, carried by over 100 radio stations in the United States and abroad. She holds the appointment of Visiting Artist, Northeastern University Department of Music, and received an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Keene State College (NH) to recognize her contributions to women’s music.
Meet the anti-Yngwie. Personally tapped by minimalist godfather Steve Reich to debut his "Electric Guitar Phase" and recent winner of Guitar Player's Guitar Hero competition, Dominic Frasca arrives fully with Deviations. A rebel at every turn, the man Entertainment Weekly called "Eddie Van Halen for eggheads" transmutates formal beauty into elegant atmosphere that can make conversation equally with Philip Glass, post-rock legends Tortoise, or late underground acoustic legend John Fahey.
A dazzling architecture of modern sound looms behind the eight tracks of the acoustic guitarist's solo debut, which includes Glass's "Two Pages," as well as Frasca's own 23-minute title track centerpiece. Underscored by rigorous grids of percussive counterrhythm, Frasca tweaks textures from an arsenal of guitars self-mutated to include nylon and steel strings, as well as individual pick-ups wired to process through his laptop. "Even from day one, I was modifying my instruments," Frasca laughs. Growing up in Akron, Ohio in the late '70s, Frasca -- like many -- first picked up a guitar in response to the crunching siren's call of AC/DC's Back in Black. Unlike many, however, the guitar the teenaged Frasca happened to pick up belonged to his older brother (stashed away in the closet since the '60s), and only had one string. Frasca went to work. A Hendrix phase predictably followed, and in 1985, Frasca traveled west, to the University of Arizona. "I did the serious classical guitar thing for about a year," he says. "But I had this realization at the end of my freshman year: I just wasn't listening to the music I was playing. It wasn't right. I loved the concept of what you could with it, but I just couldn't relate to 19th century parlor music."
Enter minimalism. "It had all the elements of rock: it was loud, it had great rhythm, it had great drive, but it was still heady." Wholly uninterested in the guitar competition mentality fostered by collegiate music departments, Frasca found himself at odds with professors in Ohio, Arizona, and the green pastures of Yale University. Following his own course, he soon began arranging. Though they didn't hit off until after Yale, Frasca also encountered a valuable co-conspirator in composer Mark Mellits. "He was just one of those guys you looked at and thought 'I'd like to be friends with him,'" Frasca says. "You could tell the guy wrote cool music." Reacquainted at Cornell through a mutual friend, the two repaired to Mellits' apartment, where -- removing their shoes -- discovered that each wore a pair of mismatched brown and blue socks, on the opposite feet. "It was kind if meant to be," Frasca assesses. The creative partnership sees full bloom on Deviations. Mellits' pen informs four of the disc's seven compositions, including the ethereal "Lefty's Elegy" (inspired a Lefty Frizzell favorite of Mellits' late father), and the disc-closing "Dometude" (from a series of etudes composed as a Hanukah present to Frasca's family). Not a guitarist, Mellits composes blissfully unaware of the acrobatics his friend might have to undertake to arrange his music.
Necessity is the mother of invention, as the saying goes, and Mellits' music is a brutal parent. Since Frankensteining half of an electric guitar neck (frets filed off) to a six-string acoustic, Frasca has been ready. Whether drilling holes in the fretboard to mount peg-like mini-capos or affixing layers of cardboard to fill rhythms on, Frasca is willing to adapt his 6, 8, and 10-string guitars to any piece of music. It also lends Frasca a theatricality he's been happy to embrace -- anything to shake off the staid traditions of the concert hall. One notable performance at Oberlin College in the mid-1990s included suitably adult background imagery while -- inspired by the same gruesome story which spawned the Coen brothers' Fargo -- Frasca ran a stunt guitar through a wood chipper. Minimalist guitar, indeed. "His performance amounted to an assault on the audience," reported the campus paper of the notoriously liberal conservatory. "Frasca should not be invited back." Necessity reared her head again when Frasca endured career-threatening blowouts on both hands -- his right in 1996, his left in 1999 -- following intense practice. So Frasca arranged Steve Reich's "Violin Phase" for electric guitar, which he could play. Through an intermediary in Bang on a Can's Mark Stewart, Reich heard Frasca's recording, and subsequently featured the guitarist on Triple Quartet (Nonesuch, 2001). With a home base in The Monkey -- his utopian rehearsal studio/laboratory/performance space in midtown Manhattan -- the rebellious student now almost inadvertently wins the type of competition he once couldn't enter. There are many deviations between points A and B, and Dominic Frasca has seen quite a few. Eat your heart out, shredders.
Ricardo Jesús Gallén García was born in Linares (Spain) in 1972. He started to learn the guitar at the age of four and made his debut with his father Manuel Gallen when he was only five. At ten he entered the Conservatorio deMúsica de Linares where he received his first official music lessons with the founder (and by then director) of the Conservatorio, composer Tomas Villajos Soler. He continued his studies in the conservatoires of Jaén, Córdoba, Madrid o Granada, under the guidance of Victor Valls, Miguel Barbera, Demetrio Ballesteros and Carmelo Martínez.
He took Master classes with such personalities as Miguel Angel Girollet, José Tomás, Manuel Abella, Jose Luis Rodrigo, Flores Chaviano, Francisco Ortiz, Joaquín Clerch, Antoni Spiri, Jurgen Hubscher and Christoph Eglhuber.
He has performed all throughout Spain: Madrid, Barcelona, Santander, Oviedo, Córdoba, Sevilla, Granada, Murcia, etc as well as in Italy, Austria, Germany, Belgium, Poland, Finland, Portugal, France, Bulgaria, Mexico, Chile, Argentina, Cuba, Russia, Greece, Hungary, Slovakia, USA, Croatia, Romania and Israel, as a soloist, playing duo with Eliot Fisk or with an orchestra Vogtland Philharmonie Greiz-Reichenbach of Germany, Orquesta Sinfónica of Valencia, Orquesta Joven of Andalucia, Orquesta Sinfónica of Valles, Real Orquesta Sinfónica of Sevilla, Philarmonic Orchestra of Tampres (Finland), Royal French Community Orchestra (Belgium), European Symphonic Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfónica of Alicante, Orquesta Sinfonieta of Barcelona, Orquesta del Principado of Asturias, Junge Salzburger Philarmonie (Austria), National Radio Television Orchestra of Romania, Jerusalem Music Academy Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfónica de Matanzas (Cuba), Philarmonic Orchestra of Lublin (Poland), Philarmonic Orchestra of St Petersburg (Rusia), Orquesta Ciudad de Granada], as well as in international festivals and with conductors such as Sergiu Comissiona or Monica Hugett. He has recorded for radio and TV in Spain, Finland, Belgium, Romania, Germany, Cuba, Mexico, South Korea and Bulgaria.
He has also premiered a number of works from several composers like the works for solo guitar and guitar and orchestra by Tomas Villejos. He has also studied composition with Joaquin Clerch and Villajos himself.
His teaching activity is also remarkable, giving Master classes in Spain, Austria, Germany, Poland, Israel, Chile, Portugal, Mexico, France, USA, Russia, Greece and Romania. He usually assists Joaquín Clerch and Eliot Fisk in their Master classes. He studied Guitar and Ancient Music in the Universities of Salzburg (Mozarteum) and Munchen, with Maestros Fisk, Eglhuber, Spiri, Gilbert, Hubscher and Clerch, graduating in 1999 in Meisterklasse at Hochschule fur Musik in Munchen with Joaquín Clerch. He has recorded, together with Eliot Fisk et al, a charitable CD with music of Spanish composers. Naxos released four CD’s of him performing Giuliani, Brouwer, Takemitsu, etc as well as the guitar and orchestra concerts by Maestro Rodrigo, alongside with Orquesta Sinfónica del Principado de Asturias conducted by Maximiano Valdes. His first CD was in 2001 amongst the top 50 Naxos releases, obtaining an outstanding response by the music press. In August 2000 he was in the cover of Classical Guitar Magazine, interviewed by Cecilia Rodrigo, Maestro Rodrigo’s daughter. His bio is included in the fifth edition of the book The Classical Guitar – its evolution, players and personalities since 1800 by Maurice J. Summerfield, director of Ashley Mark Publishing Company. He has been invited, as a member of the jury, to several international competitions such as those held at Coria, Volos, Krynica, Hallein, Velbert (Andres Segovia), Alcoy (Alhambra) or Miami (GFA). He currently teaches both Undergraduate and Postgraduate at Escuela de Artes Luthier (Barcelona) and assists the Chair of Eliot Fisk at Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria.
The American harpsichordist, John Gibbons, received the Erwin Bodky Prize (1969), the NEC Chadwick Medal (1967), and a Fulbright Scholarship for study with Gustav Leonhardt in Amsterdam.
John Gibbons is a distinguished keyboard artist and member of the Boston Museum Trio. He has performed as harpsichord and fortepiano soloist with major ensembles in the USA and Europe, among them the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, New York Chamber Symphony, Orchestra of the 18th Century, Philharmonia Baroque, and the Da Camera Society of Houston. He performs regularly at such festivals as those in Torino and Spoleto, Italy, Chamber Music Northwest, and the Aston Magna Festival in the Berkshires.
John Gibbons teaches historical performance and chamber music at New England Conservatory, where he also directs the Bach Ensemble.
A native of St. Petersburg, Russia, guitarist Grigory Goryachev has been acclaimed the world over for his blinding virtuosity and extraordinary musical sensitivity. As a master of both flamenco and classical styles he has created a new genre all his own and garnered praise from such guitar luminaries as Paco de Lucia, Christopher Parkening, and Eliot Fisk.
Following his debut at the age of nine, Mr. Goryachev enjoyed an extensive career as a child prodigy, performing regularly before large audiences in the most prestigious concert halls of St. Petersburg, Moscow, Minsk, Riga, and other major cities in the then Soviet Union. He also appeared regularly on Soviet television and radio and was featured in numerous major newspapers and magazines. His participation at the age of 13 in the T.V marathon, “Revival of St. Petersburg”, was transmitted live to more than one hundred countries worldwide.
In 1991 Goryachev was awarded second prize in the Danny Kaye International Children’s Awards held in the Hague, Netherlands. Sponsored by UNICEF, this competition featured participants on all instruments from twenty-six countries. Later that same year Mr. Goryachev was invited to perform at UN headquarters in New York City. Directly thereafter he toured Scandinavia and performed by special invitation for the Queen of Iceland. In 1993 Mr Goryachev was chosen to represent his native city in the “Days of St. Petersburg in Jerusalem” Festival, and in 1994 at the invitation of Vladimir Spivakov, he performed at the “Festival International de Colmar” held in memory of Andres Segovia in Colmar France.
Following a tour of Spain, Goryachev was invited to play for flamenco legend, Paco de Lucia, who soon after personally intervened in support of his application for an American visa (subsequently awarded in the year 1995 on the basis of “Extraordinary Ability”).
Since coming to the United States Mr. Goryachev has continued his lifelong love affair with flamenco while deepening his involvement with the classical style. His repertoire now includes classical solos, chamber music and guitar concertos and more than six hours of flamenco solos by such composers as Paco de Lucia , Vicente Amigo, Manolo Sanlucar and others. As the flamenco repertoire is for the most part unpublished, Mr. Goryachev has performed the somewhat incredible feat of transcribing it all himself by ear from the recordings.
Grigory Goryachev began to play the guitar at the age of seven, studying first with his father, Dimitry, an acknowledged master teacher of the instrument. Since coming to the United States he has also performed in master classes taught by Cristopher Parkening, Manuel Barrueco and John Williams. At present he continues to balance international concert obligations with study at the New England.Conservatory of Music in Boston, where he is earning his graduate degree under American virtuoso, Eliot Fisk.
For more than twenty years, Adam Holzman, recording artist, concert performer, soloist and educator, has been at the forefront of a generation of guitarists. Born in New York City in 1960 Adam began the guitar at the age of 7 as a student of his older brother Bruce and continued his private study with Albert Valdes Blain and Eliot Fisk. He returned to work with his older brother Bruce Holzman at Florida State University where he received his Musical Degrees. In addition he studied in the master classes of Oscar Ghiglia in Siena at the Academia Musicale de Chigiana and at the Aspen music festival. Twice he was chosen to perform in the historic master classes of the legendary Andres Segovia.
Adam Holzman has received rave reviews from concert critics around the world. He as been hailed as “...polished and quite dazzling,” by The N.Y. Times. Mr. Holzman has performed at the prestigious Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, distinguished New York venues such as Kaufman Hall at the 92nd St. Y, Merkin Hall, and Carnegie Recital Hall as well as in music festivals and series from Miami to San Francisco and from Boston to New Orleans. His extensive international performances have taken him throughout Europe, Canada, Mexico, Central and Latin America.
Mr. Holzman’s recording for the Naxos label have been critically acclaimed (see Reviews). The first two are discs of the music of Fernando Sor and have been called “...irresistible” by Gramophone Magazine. Vol. I and II of the music of Manuel Ponce are also now available. Of the Sonata for Guitar and harpsichord on Ponce Volume II Classical Guitar Magazine (England) says “It’s a fine and substantial work and here it receives the finest recording yet...”. His recording debut, on HRH Records, is a collection of rarely or never before recorded selections. According to The American Record Guide this performance is “...so flawless he makes it all sound easy.” Of his release of The Venezuelan Waltzes of Antonio Lauro the American Record Guide had this to say: “The landmark recording was David Russell’s 1980 LP. Now, 20 years later, comes another masterly recording by Adam Holzman: in many ways it raises the benchmark still further.” His newest Naxos release is the Bardenklange, Opus 13, of Johann Kaspar Mertz.
Mr. Holzman’s commitment to new music has led him to co-commission Samuel Adler’s First Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra. He was the first person to perform the music of Roland Dyens in North America and he has also premiered works by composers Robert Helps and Stephen Funk Pearson.
Adam Holzman is founder of the Guitar Department at the University of Texas at Austin where, in addition to his active performing career, he heads a thriving guitar studio. From 1992-1994 Mr. Holzman held the title of “Maestro Extraordinario” given by the Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo Leon, Monterrey, Mexico, where he served as artist-in-residence. In 2001, Adam Holzman was awarded the Ernst von Dohnanyi Prize for Outstanding Achievement from Florida State University and the Robert W. Hamilton Fine Arts Award from the University of Texas.
He lives in Austin, Texas with his wife Carolyn and their son Benjamin.
Bruce Holzman, Associate Professor of Guitar at Florida State University, Tallahassee, is a graduate of the High School of Performing Arts and New York University. His teachers have included Gustavo Lopez (Mexico), Rodrigo Riera (Venezuela), and Albert Valdes Blaine (Cuba). He has been a performer in the master classes of Oscar Ghiglia at the Aspen Music Festival and at the Academia Chigianna, Sienna, Italy. He has also been a performer in the master classes of Alirio Diaz at the Banff School of Fine Arts, Canada; and in Caracas, Venezuela. He has been an auditor in the master classes of Jose Tomas and Pepe Romero. Mr. Holzman's students have won many awards and prizes, and hold positions at numerous universities and colleges.
Holzman has been on the faculties of The Toronto Guitar Fest, The Boston Guitar Fest, The Stetson Guitar Workshop, the Eastman Guitar Fest, and the Domaine Forget Academy of Music and Dance, Québéc, Canada. He has given master classes nationwide. Mr. Holzman has been on the Board of Advisors of the Guitar Foundation of America. He has been an adjudicator for the 42nd International Music Competition of the ARD, Munich, Germany, The American String Teachers Association, the Schadt String Competition, and The Guitar Foundation of America.
Please visit Mr. Holzman's FSU Faculty site for more information.
William Knuth, violinist, has earned recognition for his artistry as a solo and chamber musician. He has spent two years as a US Fulbright grantee to Austria studying the “Viennese Musical Tradition” and the music of 20th century Austria at the Vienna Universitat fur Musik und darstellende Kunst. In Vienna, he was a student of Ernst Kovacic. He was a featured performer multiple times for the American Ambassador to Austria and the Austrian Federal Minister of Culture at the Vienna Diplomatische Akademie as well as at the Ambassador’s private villa in Vienna. Mr. Knuth performed for the American Ambassador to Germany in Berlin as part of the 2004 German Fulbright Association conference. William recently commenced his MM degree at the New England Conservatory of Music where he studied with Nicholas Kitchen of the acclaimed Borromeo Quartet.
Adam Levin has appeared as soloist and in chamber ensembles throughout the US and Italy. The recipient of numerous top prizes, Adam has been recognized by the Society of American Musicians in Chicago (IL), the Lake Forest Concerto Competition (IL) and the Schubert Competition in St. Paul (MN). Most recently, he was awarded the Albert Schweitzer Fellowship, for innovative community work in the Boston area. Adam is currently a Master’s degree candidate at New England Conservatory. He has completed two undergraduate degrees and pre-medical requirements at Northwestern University. www.adamlevinguitar.com
Amy Lieberman is Director of Choral Activities at the New England Conservatory, and is currently a doctoral candidate in Choral and Orchestral conducting at Boston University. Lieberman received her B.A. in Music from Stanford University and her M.M. in Choral Conducting from Yale University. She was the Director of Choral Activities at Wilkes University, where she also conducted and was the Music Director for the Musical Theater program. She has taught for the Orchestra of St. Luke’s in New York City. She has been an assistant conductor and pre-concert lecturer for the Cantata Singers of Boston. She has appeared as guest conductor of the Lexington Symphony, the Tallahassee Symphony Orchestra, and as assistant conductor of the Rhode Island Philharmonic. Lieberman led the Chamber Orchestra in Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem, at the American Choral Directors’ Association Regional Convention in Boston.
Steve Lin has performed for audiences throughout the United States, Taiwan and Italy in solo and ensemble engagements. He has received many prizes at major competitions and has appeared at many guitar festivals. In 2007 he released his debut CD, Eliot Fisk Series Vol. 1 (VGo Recordings label); his second CD will feature the music of Latin America. Currently, Steve collaborates with his mentor, Eliot Fisk, on Boston Guitar Project and Boston GuitarFest. During his free time he enjoys cooking and playing table tennis. www.linguitar.com
Cristina Madiedo Pérez was born in Havana in 1980. She began her musical studies at age 3 with her mother. She later attended Escuela Nacional de Música and Instituto Superior de Arte in Havana to study with Jesus Ortega. From a very early age she was highlighted in national and international competitions, including: Concurso Nacional Amadeo Roldán 1994, first prize and grand prize for best interpretation of a work by Tárrega; Concurso Nacional de La Habana 1996, special mention in the interpretation of Concierto Elegíaco of Brouwer; Concurso internacional para estudiantes “Musicalia” 2001, first prize; Concurso Nacional de Guitarra de La Habana 2002, first prize; and Concurso Internacional Boston GuitarFest 2007, first prize. Since 2004 she has served as lecturer at the Department of Departamento de Música de la Universidad del Cauca, Colombia.
Jason McStoots has been celebrated as one of the “new generation of New England singers” “particularly outstanding” with “a perfect light-opera voice”. He has been described as one of the “strong cast of singers who are beginning to make their names in Baroque opera.” McStoots is a frequent interpreter of Bach having performed over 30 Cantatas, many with Emmanuel Music’s acclaimed cantata series. He has sung with groups around the US including Boston Lyric Opera, Handel Choir of Baltimore, New Haven Symphony Orchestra, Manchester Choral Society, Granite State Opera and Opera Providence; and has performed recitals with Tanglewood Music Center, MIT Recital Series, and Boston French Library. His most recent appearance with the Florestan Recital Project was hailed by The Boston Globe as “at least as polished as it is promising.”
Born in the province of Vera Cruz, Mexico, Zaira Meneses began musical studies at the age of 7. Her unique talents led to participation in the chamber choir of the IPE conducted by Ana Elgarte and Jose Antonio Perez. She soon revealed an extraordinary double talent as singer and guitarist, and during her years of guitar study, she was the recipient of numerous prizes for guitar performances both nationally and internationally. Beginning in 1998 she participated in outreach concerts for children in Vera Cruz, Puebla, Villa Hermosa, and other cities in her native Mexico.
That same year she also won first prize in the Paracho Michoacán International Guitar Competition and honorable mention in the National Guitar Competition of Xalapa. One year later she won the Competition of Guanajuato, Mexico and in the same year, was awarded a scholarship to the "Paco Marin" International Guitar Competition. Zaira Meneses has participated in numerous international guitar festivals, participated in master classes led by Ivan Rijos, Roberto Aussel, Manuel Barruenco, Eliot Fisk, Kosta Kotfiolis, and Joaquin Clerch among others. She has distinguished herself not only as a soloist, but also as a founding member of the Orquesta de Guitarras of Xalapa with which she has toured throughout Mexico and abroad under the Baton of the legendary Alfonso Moreno. She performs widely as a guitar soloist and as a member of various chamber music to public and critical acclaim in both Europe and the America's. Zaira performs with the 2001 light series classical guitar strings.
Nitin Mitta is one of the prominent young tabla players of his generation. Born in Hyderabad , in 1975, and brought up there, Nitin first performed solo tabla at the age of ten. Over the years he has matured into a tabla player of rare technical virtuosity and sensitivity. He has performed worldwide with some of India’s most celebrated and honored musicians – such as Pt. Jasraj, Dr. Prabha Atre, Pt. Rajan Sajan Mishra, Pt.Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, Smt. Veena Sahasrabudhe and Pt. Budhaditya Mukherjee just to name a few. Nitin’s accompaniment – at once dexterous, supportive and spontaneously inventive - combined with the rich repertoire that he has inherited from his guru-s, and the inspiration that he draws from his peers has won him the admiration of music lovers and connoisseurs at an international level.
Jérôme Mouffe is a brilliant guitarist from Belgium who has dazzled international audiences in various countries, including Spain, France, Italy, Austria, Germany, and the United States. He has studied at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels and at the Mozarteum University of Salzburg. In 2007 he won the 2nd prize at the Boston GuitarFest international competition. Jérôme’s repertoire ranges from the Renaissance to the 20th century music. His current focus for concert presentation and his upcoming CD is 19th Century Italian composers. He is now undertaking a Doctorate degree in Musical Arts at the New England Conservatory, under the direction of Eliot Fisk. www.jeromemouffe.net
Robert Myers recently received his M.M. with academic honors from the New England Conservatory, and studied with Fenwick Smith. He received the William H. Grass Memorial Prize at the 2008 James Pappoutsakis Memorial Flute Competition. Robert has been an active freelancer, performing with the MA Philharmonic, the Bristol Chamber Orchestra, and the Boston Philharmonic. He formerly studied with Helen Ann Shanley at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, graduating summa cum laude with a B.M. in flute performance. While at Baylor, he won the School of Music’s Concerto Competition and performed Lowell Liebermann’s Concerto for Flute and Orchestra with the Baylor Symphony. He also performed with the Waco Symphony and other chamber groups in the Central Texas area. Mr. Myers has performed in masterclasses with such notable artists as William Bennett, Bradley Garner, Jill Felber, Jack Wellbaum, and Rhonda Larson.
Born in 1964 in Santiago of Chile, he studied at the Arts Faculty of the University of Chile with Professor Ernesto Quezada. In 1987 he obtains a scolarship from the German government to study with Professor Eliot Fisk, at the Superior School of Music of Colonia, Germany. He also attended classes with Hopkinson Smith and Oscar Ghiglia and Eduardo Fernández's masterclass.
In Chile he has traveled throughout the country, giving Concerts and performing with National Orchestras. In 1989 he obtained the First Prize at the International Music Competition in München, Germany. From that moment on, he began a brilliant, successful international career. He has performed in important Concert Halls, among them: Berlin, Rome, Venice, Paris, Madrid (Reina Sofía Arts Center), Rotterdam (De Doelen), Danzig, München (Herkules Saal), Geneva, Moscow (Tchaikowsky Conservatory), Tokyo, Houston, London (Wigmore Hall and Purcell Room), La Habana, Montevideo, Buenos Aires (Colon Theatre), Lima. He has also performed with orchestras from Peru, Argentina, Uruguay, Ecuador, Poland, Germany, Italy and Spain.
Mr. Orlandini has recorded for many German radios. He has recorded with companies such as Koch-Schwann (Joaquín Rodrigo's music), CPO (complete cicle of Rossinianas by Mauro Giuliani and the Integral of Fantasies by Fernando Sor) and for ARTE NOVA the Concierto de Aranjuez by Joaquín Rodrigo, togheter with Philarmonic Orchestra of Gran Canaria, Spain. The left photo corresponds to a live presentation of the "Concierto de Aranjuez", with the Philarmonic Orchestra of Gran Canaria, in Spain, 1996.
In Chile he has recorded as soloist and with chamber groups: Guitar Duets with Oscar Ohlsen and with the "Cuarteto de Guitarras de Chile". He has premiered more than 45 works of Chilean composers, many of them composed by his own request. He has performed with artists from different countries and at present he plays with the "Cuarteto de Guitarras de Chile".
Luis Orlandini has newly recorded the "Concierto de Aranjuez", as part of a CD that also includes the "Madrigal" and "Andaluz" concertos, all composed by Joaquín Rodrigo. In this recording he plays togheter with the Symphonic Orchestra of Chile, conducted by master David del Pino Klinge.
His penultimate recording "Simpay" was nominated for the Altazor Prize 2004. In 1996 he was awarded with the Critic Award from the Arts Critic Circle and the Trajectory Award from the Chilean Society for Composers Rights. In 1999 he was awarded with "Domingo Santa Cruz" Award from the Chiean Academy of Arts. The "Cuarteto de Guitarras de Chile", integrated by Luis Orlandini, was nominated for the 2002 Altazor Prize, in the cathegory Musical Arts - Serious Music - Concert.
Actually he has an intense career as soloist, besides being a Professor at the Arts Faculty of University of Chile and the Catholic University of Chile.
Photo by Ralph Gibson
Apostolos Paraskevas is a Grammy-nominated composer and guitarist.
Classical Guitar Magazine/London acknowledged him as the only guitarist ever to have a major orchestral piece performed at New York’s Carnegie Hall and the international press as the only musician who performed there in a Grim Reaper’s outfit! Dr. Paraskevas, a Lukas Foss protégé of the early 90’s has being for decades a multi-published and recording artist. Major publishers: Berben/Italy, Clear Note/USA, Centaur and Bridge Records, Santerrelle Verlag/Germany, and PaNas/Greece. He received five First Prizes in International Composition Competitions and is the founder and Artistic Director for 16 years of the International Guitar Congress/Corfu/Greece. He is an Associate Professor of Composition at Berklee College of Music.
More information: http://people.berklee.edu/~aparaskevas/
Founder and chairman of the guitar department at the Hartt School, University of Hartford Mr. Provost is regarded as one of the Country’s leading guitar pedagogues. He was selected to perform in the last of Andres Segovia’s summer master classes in Santiago de Compostella, Spain, as well as master classes given by Julian Bream and Rey de la Torre. Mr. Provost made is solo debut at London’s Wigmore Hall in 1972. He has performed throughout the United States, Great Britain, and Germany. He has authored The Art and Technique of Practice and The Art and Technique of Performance. In 1988 he became a member of the Goldspiel/Provost Duo, where he continues to perform and record with his partner, Alan Goldspiel. Mr. Provost records for GPD and Brioso Records. His fifth CD as a member of the Goldspiel/Provost Duo, Latin Magic, is scheduled for release in late 2008.
Mr. Riley is the Director of Classical Guitar studies at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, on the faculty at New England Conservatory Prep School, and is Director of the Childbloom Guitar Program of Boston. Mr. Riley has won first prize in the ECU National Guitar Competition, fourth prize at the Portland, OR Guitar Festival competition, and semi-finalist at the GFA International Competition. He has also recorded “Remembrances of Jerusalem” by Israeli composer Lior Navok. Recently he appeared as a soloist on the Juilliard School’s “Composer’s Series”. He is also a founding member of the Quadrivium Guitar Quartet. William Riley holds a Bachelor of Music degree from The University of Texas at Austin, and studied on scholarship with world-renowned guitar virtuoso Eliot Fisk at the New England Conservatory of Music, where he received his Master of Music degree, with honors.
Heralded by The New York Times for his “effortless virtuosity with intelligence and good taste,” by The Tallahassee Democrat for his “sweet, pure sound, technique to burn and strong sense of musical and poetic phrasing,” and by (Puerto Rico’s) El Nuevo Dia as a “magnificent North American guitarist, full of virtuosity, magnificent technical precision, and a masterfully delivered diverse range of sound,” Stephen Robinson is a native of New York. He began his guitar studies in 1976 with Bruce Holzman at Florida State University, and worked closely with Andres Segovia, who called him “a magnificent guitarist, one of the most brilliant guitarists of our times.”
A top prize winner in five major international competitions, including the XXIII Concours International de Guitare in Paris and the VI Concurso Internacional de Guitarra in Venezuela, Stephen Robinson has appeared as guest soloist with orchestras including the Cincinnati Symphony and Boston Pops Orchestras, and performs and conducts master classes at leading musical institutions and festivals worldwide, including Eastman School of Music, Yale University, Oberlin Conservatory, Moulin d’ Andé in France, Peabody Conservatory, Cleveland Institute of Music, Germany’s Iserlohn Gitarren-Symposium, St. Louis Conservatory of Music, Boston Conservatory of Music, and Royal Conservatory of Music (Toronto) and The University of Toronto. Robinson appears extensively throughout Florida as a member of the State of Florida Division of Cultural Affairs premier Arts on Tour Program Roster (1992-2010). A Fulbright Fellow and an alumnus of the distinguished Affiliate Artists roster, Robinson’s performances and compact discs are heard throughout the world.
Stephen Robinson’s many recordings for Clear Note, Centaur, and Lakeside Records have received unanimous critical acclaim from the international publications American Record Guide, Fonoforum, Classical Guitar, Soundboard, Guitar Review, On the Air and Fanfare Magazine. He is Professor of Music at Stetson University, where he is the founding director of the Guitar Program (since 1983). Of his multi-faceted career, Guitarra Magazine says “Robinson’s career as a teacher is well known. He founded and runs the guitar program at Stetson University. At the same time, he has won a bunch of competitions, recorded a score of CDs, and continues touring regularly. What you have with Robinson is a player who has married the two opposite ends of the guitar experience (teaching/performing) by finding a way to express the impetus for both simultaneously. It’s a remarkable feat and one to aspire to.”
Brian Robison is a composer whose creative works reflect his performing experience in a broad range of musical styles. Recent awards include composer residencies at Aaron Copland House (2006), the MacDowell Colony (2006), and Norton Island (2005). In 2005 a comprehensive “Brian Robison Collection” was initiated as part of the Contemporary Music Research Collection in the Diehn Composers Room at Old Dominion University (Norfolk, VA), to facilitate scholarly investigation of his music. His string quartet Simiaminimae will receive its première by the Quartetto Paul Klee in Venice. Upcoming premières in Boston in fall 2008 include a 5-minute opera for Boston Musica Viva, written in collaboration with Cambridge poet Kathleen Aguero, and a quartet for clarinet, marimba, theremin, and ’cello for Dinosaur Annex Music Ensemble. Dr. Robison is currently Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Music at Middlebury College.
Peter is a performer on sitar and rudra vina. He is a member of the faculty of New England Conservatory where he served as Dean (1983-1990) and Provost (1990-1996 and 2000-2004). Peter studied sitar and rudra vina in Calcutta, India (1965-1973) with Pandit Gokul Nag of the Vishnupur Gharana and obtained the Bachelor of Music, Master of Music and Doctor of Music (Sangitacharya), from the Prayag Sangit Samiti in Allahabad, India. Peter has performed in concert throughout North America and India and has made numerous radio and television appearances. A former president of the Northeast Chapter of the Society of Ethnomusicology, he is widely published and has lectured about Indian music across the U.S. He was the recipient of a JDR Third Fund Fellowship for Doctoral Studies in India and has been a research associate at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He has also served as a consultant on Asian music for the Smithsonian Institute.
Guitarist/Lutist Richard Savino has been a featured performer and concerto soloist with many groups and on many concert stages including the Frick Collection, Cloisters (Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY), Boston Early Music Festival International Series, Tage Alter Musik, Regensburg, London Early Music Network, Shrine To Music Museum, San Francisco/Seattle/ Vancouver/Victoria Early Music Societies, and the Portland and Los Angeles Baroque Orchestras. In recent years he has been a featured artist, faculty member and judge at numerous festivals throughout the US and Europe the International Guitar Festival in Gargnano, Italy, Guitar Foundation of America Festival and the National Guitar Summer Workshop.
In 1995 he was Visiting Artistic Director of the Aston Magna Academy at Rutgers University and from 1994 - 1997 was Coordinator of Performance Practice at the Monadnock Music Festival in New Hampshire. Since 1987 Mr. Savino has directed the CSU Summer Arts Guitar and Lute Institute and is presently co-director of Ensemble El Mundo which will perform the featured opening concert at the 1998 Berkeley Early Music Festival. In 1982 Mr. Savino was chosen twice by Maestro Andres Segovia to perform in master-classes at the Conservatoire de Musique in Geneva, Switzerland and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
In 1984 and 1986 he was chosen to perform in the International Segovia Fellowship Competition sponsored by New York University and in 1985 became the first solo guitarist to be chosen a winner at the Artists International Carnegie Recital Hall Debut Competition. Mr. Savino has secured grants from the National Endowment of the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, the California State University and has recently been chosen to appear on the CAC touring roster by the California Arts Council. An active accompanist as well as soloist, he has performed in recitals with singers Paul Hillier, Andrea Fullington, Judith Nelson , and Susan Narucki. His recordings include the first period instrument versions of Luigi Boccherini's guitar quintets (3 cd's), Mauro Giuliani's Grand Quintetto and Johann Kaspar Mertz's Bardenklänge for the Harmonia Mundi record label, all of which have received great critical acclaim. In addition to receiving a 10 du Rèpertoire the Parisian journal has also placed his Boccherini recordings in their "Great Discoveries" category which they deem as essential to any classical music collection. His recent releases include a duo recording with British violinist Monica Huggett, featuring virtuoso sonatas by Paganini and Giuliani, on HM, and a collection of sonatas by Ferdinando Carulli on the Naxos label.
Most recently he has recorded an extensive collection of 18th century guitar music from Mexico by Santiago de Murcia(Koch International) and a collection of monody by Barbara Strozzi with soprano Emanuela Galli and Ensemble Gallilei (Stradivarius, Milano). In January 1999 the NPR/BBC program The Worldfeatured the Murcia cd as its "Global Hit." In the coming year Mr. Savino will record music of Giovanni Legrenzi with El Mundo, of which he is co-director, the first period instrument versions of the Boccherini Guitar Symphonia, the Op. 30 Concerto for Guitar by Mauro Giuliani, and music by Biagio Marini with Monica Huggett.
Mr. Savino has appeared on the CBS and PBS television networks, has been heard "in recital" on National Public Radio's Performance Today, Morning Pro Musica, Off The Record, England's BBC and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's Music from Montreal and Music from Vancouver programs. In 1995 he was a contributing author to the Cambridge University Press Studies in Performance Practice series and is presently editing the complete works of Fernando Sor for Editions Chanterelle and a collection of secular monodies by Francesca Caccini for Indiana University Press.
Mr. Savino has studied with Oscar Ghiglia, Eliot Fisk and received his Doctor of Musical Arts degree from SUNY at Stony Brook where he studied with Jerry Willard. He is presently Professor of Music at the California State University at Sacramento where in 1994 he was the first member of the music faculty to be awarded an Outstanding and Exceptional sabbatical and in 1996 became only the seventh CSUS faculty toreceive the prestigious Semester Leave Research Grant Award.
Ronald Bruce Smith, Composition Competition Judge (USA)
Ronald Bruce Smith is a composer who works with interactive live electronics. His music has been described as “fresh and lustrous” (The New York Times) and “wonderfully evocative” (San Francisco Chronicle). Smith has studied at the University of Toronto, McGill University and the University of California at Berkeley, from which he received the Ph.D. in music. He has also studied at IRCAM in Paris, France. He previously taught at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, the University of California at Berkeley and at Stanford University.
David Tanenbaum, Guitar, Teacher (USA)
Recognized internationally as an outstanding performing and recording artist, a charismatic educator, and a transcriber and editor of both taste and intelligence, David Tanenbaum is one of the most admired classical guitarists of his generation. He has performed throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe, Australia, the former Soviet Union and Asia, and in 1988 he became the first American guitarist to be invited to perform in China by the Chinese government. He has been soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, the Oakland Symphony, Vienna's ORF orchestra, with such eminent conductors as Esa-Pekka Salonen, Kent Nagano and John Adams.
David Tanenbaum has been a featured soloist at many international festivals, including those of Bath, Luzern, Frankfurt, Barcelona and Vienna as well as numerous guitar festivals. In 1989, as President of the Second American Classical Guitar Congress, he commissioned five new works, including Rosewood by Henry Brant for a large guitar orchestra. He has subsequently conducted Rosewood more than a dozen times on four continents.
While his repertoire encompasses diverse styles, David Tanenbaum is recognized as one of today's most eloquent proponents of new guitar repertoire. Among the many works written for him is Hans Werner Henze's guitar concerto An Eine Äolsharfe, which he premiered throughout Europe and recorded with the composer conducting, Terry Riley's first guitar piece, Ascención, four works by 1998 Pulitzer Prize winner Aaron Jay Kernis, two pieces by Roberto Sierra, and a suite by Lou Harrison. He is currently working with Terry Riley on a series of 24 guitar pieces. He has toured extensively with Steve Reich and Musicians, was invited to Japan in 1991 by Toru Takemitsu, and has had a long association with the Ensemble Modern. As a chamber musician he has collaborated with, among others, the Kronos, Shanghai, Alexander and Chester String Quartets, dancer Tandy Beal and guitarist Manuel Barrueco. He is currently a member of the World Guitar Ensemble, which regularly tours Europe.
David Tanenbaum's three dozen recordings, which reflect his broad repertoire interests, can be found on New Albion, EMI, Nonesuch, Ars Musici, Rhino, GSP, Albany, Audiofon, Bayer, Acoustic Music Records, Bridge, Stradivarius and others. His 2002 recording as soloist with Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Los Angeles Philharmonic in John Adam's Naive and Sentimental Music was nominated for a Grammy as the Best New Composition. He has produced many editions of guitar music, including the David Tanenbaum Concert Series for Guitar Solo Publications. He has also written a series of three books, The Essential Studies, which analyze the etudes of Sor, Carcassi and Brouwer and compliment his recordings of those works on GSP, and his chapter on the Revival of the Classical Guitar in the 20th Century appears in the Cambridge Companion to the Guitar.
David Tanenbaum is currently Chair of the Guitar Department at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where he received the 1995 Oustanding Professor Award, and he has been Artist-In-Residence at the Manhattan School of Music. He is in demand for master classes worldwide. Mr. Tanenbaum's students have won many international competitions, and his former students hold teaching positions internationally.
David Tanenbaum studied guitar with Rolando Valdez-Blain, Aaron Shearer and Michael Lorimer, attending the San Francisco Conservatory and Peabody Conservatory. Further studies included work with pianist Jeanne Stark-Iochmans and harpsichordist Laurette Goldberg. He participated in the 1981 New York master class with Andres Segovia.
Born in Barcelona on 1980, he began his musical education at the age of ten with Josefina Rigolfas, and made his public debut on 1993 in the French city of Agen, where the press acclaimed him as: “un nom qu’il faudra retenir! ” [a name to remember!].He is guest musician in the piano and orchestra conducting classes at the Rubin Academy of Music in Tel Aviv, thanks to the State of Israel Scholarship. He was an acclaimed winner of the 2001 Scarlatti International Piano Competition in Naples (Italy), before winning many prizes and distinctions in competitions like spanish Jeneusses Musicales, Joan Massià International Piano Competition in Barcelona, Josefine Verdet Competition in Barcelona, International Piano Prize in Berga, Youth National Competiton Villafranca de los Barros, Paper de Música Promotion Award, and Andorra International Piano Competition.
Fanfare magazine describes Frank Wallace as a composer who writes with a “high standard of musical interest” and who performs with “flawless technical proficiency”. His works showcase the classical guitar in solo, duo, trio, and quartet, as well as in chamber works with voice, flute and cello. Wallace has enjoyed a colorful performance career, garnering acclaim as a guitarist, vihuelist and singer. Raised in the Bay area, Wallace attended Occidental College and graduated from San Francisco Conservatory as a classical guitarist. He was appointed to the guitar faculty at the New England Conservatory in 1976. In the early 1980’s, he left that post to dedicate himself to performance of music of the 12th -16th centuries.
After two decades of touring extensively on both sides of the Atlantic as a lutenist and singer with LiveOak and Company, Wallace now performs contemporary song with mezzo-soprano Nancy Knowles as Duo LiveOak and as a soloist. Wallace is a twice-honored recipient of the New Hampshire Council on the Arts' Artist Fellowship Award, in 2001 for Frank Wallace, his own new works(Gyre 10012), his debut recording on Gyre of his own compositions, and in 2006 for the Duo LiveOak CD of his songs, Woman of the Water (Gyre 10082). Recent solo CDs include JOY: songs and carols for a season of light, Delphín, music for vihuela de mano, and Sketches, his second disc featuring his own works for classical guitar. His works have been featured in Guitar Review, Fingerstyle Magazine, and The LSA Quarterly. Wallace currently serves as the artistic director of the Boston Classical Guitar Society. In addition to the New England Conservatory, he has taught at Plymouth State College, Emmanuel College, Keene State College and Franklin Pierce College. Editions of Frank Wallace's complete works as well as his recordings are available at www.gyremusic.com.
Robert Ward, Guitar, Teacher, Performance Competition Judge (USA)
Robert Ward holds degrees in guitar performance from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, BM, and the University of California San Diego, MA. He has studied with Angel, Pepe and Celin Romero, Michael Lorimer, Lee Ryan, and George Sakellariou. He has also participated in master classes with Pepe Romero, Abel Carlevaro, Jose Tomas, Jordi Savall, and Jurgen Huebscher. Mr. Ward has performed extensively throughout the New England area, Texas, California and Hawaii. In Paris, he premiered three works written for him at the famed Theatre de Renalgh. At the 4th International Guitar Congress in Corfu, Greece he was a featured performer and teacher. In San Diego, Mr. Ward was active with both the La Jolla Playhouse and the San Diego Public Theater, as well as participating in rare performances of El Cimmaron by Hans Werner Henze. In Boston, he produced and performed in a concert event memoriam tribute to Andres Segovia shortly after the Maestro's passing in 1988. He served for two years as the Artistic Director of the Boston Classical Guitar Society and remains active with the society as both a performer and an honorary board member. Recent performances include a series of concerts with Music at Eden's Edge, Guitar Foundation of America Inernational Festival, the EOS ensemble, the Enchanted Circle; National Association of Composers at Jordan Hall and the premieres of Underwater (dedicated to Mr. Ward) by Andy Vores and The Jaguar and the Moon for soprano and guitar by Peter Child. Mr. Ward has been a soloist with the New England Philharmonic, the Belmont Symphony Orchestra, the Northeastern Symphony, the Bridgewater Sinfonia, the Mozart Society Orchestra at Harvard and the Newton Symphony Orchestra. He has been a featured artist on radio shows Morning Pro Musica, Classics in the Morning, Off the Record and Chamberworks and has recorded for Centaur Records. Robert Ward is a faculty member at Northeastern University, The Brookline Music School and The New School of Music.
Wu Man, Pipa (China)
Wu Man is an internationally renowned pipa virtuoso, cited by the Los Angeles Times as “the artist most responsible for bringing the pipa to the Western World.” The pipa is a lute-like Chinese instrument with a history of more than two thousand years. Having been brought up in the Pudong School of pipa playing, one of the most prestigious classical styles of Imperial China, Wu Man is now recognized as an outstanding exponent of the traditional repertoire as well as a leading interpreter of contemporary pipa music by today’s most prominent composers such as Terry Riley, Philip Glass, Lou Harrison, Tan Dun, Bright Sheng, Chen Yi, Zhou Long, Bun-Ching Lam and many others. Wu Man continually collaborates with some of the most distinguished musicians and conductors performing today, such as Yo-Yo Ma, David Zinman, Yuri Bashmet, Cho-liang Lin, Dennis Russell Davies, Christoph Eschenbach, Gunther Herbig, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Michael Stern, David Robertson and the Kronos Quartet.
www.wumanpipa.org
Jon Yerby, Guitar (USA)
Born in Celle, Germany Jon Yerby began studying percussion at the age of 5 with the encouragement of his father who would later give Jon his first guitar lessons. Jon went on to study marimba, timpani and drum set at age 7 with percussionist Ron Forbes of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music after which Jon took up the guitar at age 10. After studying guitar for two years Mr. Yerby was accepted to study at the University of North Texas with Thomas Johnson, and later received his Bachelor of Music from the University of Texas in Austin where he studied with renowned guitarist and pedagogue, Adam Holzman.
As an active musician and chamber music collaborator Jon has also made contributions to the expansion of the classical guitar repertoire by commissioning works such as Robert Honstein's Barton's Blues (2003) and his numerous transcriptions which most recently include a set of pieces from Robert Schumann's Album für Die Jugend, Felix Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words arranged for guitar and viola, and songs by R. Vaughan Williams.
In 2005 Jon was awarded the named scholarship from the Henry and Sophie Mydans foundation to study at New England Conservatory where he received his Master's degree with academic honors under the tutelage of Eliot Fisk. In addition to his performing and teaching Jon is an associate director with Boston GuitarFest, an international festival and competition started in 2006 by artistic director, Eliot Fisk. Mr. Yerby continues to reside in Boston and is on faculty at the Belvoir Terrace arts camp and Paul Monte Music studios in Wellesley, Massachusetts.