The ensemble Tlen Huicani (‘the singers” in the indigenious nàhuatl language) is dedicated to immortalizing the music of the Mexican town and province of Veracruz. Its members uncover and faithfully perform new and almost forgotten traditional music.

The repertoire of the group has been enriched during tours through the various countries of Central and South America. During these journeys, Tlen Huicani has augmented their already vast repertoire, assimilating the styles and techniques of innumerable local artists.

Tlen Huicani collaborates frequently with theatre and dance companies. Their numerous tours with Mexico’s Ballet Folklorico have taken them throughout Central and South America, the USA, Europe and Asia.

During its illustrious career, Tlen Huicani has received numerous awards and honors. Critics have celebrated Tlen Huicani as “the finest ensemble of folkloric music in the Mexican Republic”.

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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 and 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 de Isabel la Católica 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 many 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. His 2006-2007 season projects included 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 2009 he premiers Robert Beaser's long awaited concerto for guitar and orchestra with performances at Carnegie Hall and Bruck Ner Haus in Linz, Autria under the baton of Dennis Russell Davies.

During 2008-2009 he began a highly succesful collaboration with legendary guitar virtuoso Angel Romero. Their program, a coast to coast sensation, featured works by Spanish masters including their own transcriptions of popular songs by Falla and Lorca.

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 eight year old daughter, Raquel. His website is www.eliotfisk.com.

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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.

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Marco Tamayo was born in Havana, where he started to play guitar at the age of three under his father’s tuition. He studied with Antonio Alberto Rodríguez and Leo Brouwer, and later in Europe in Munich and at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, where he was a pupil of Eliot Fisk, and studied interpretation as well with Rainer Schmidt (violin), and Anthony Spiri (harpsichord), among others. Winner of numerous major international guitar competitions such as the Michele Pittaluga, Città di Alessandria, in 1999, Marco Tamayo has performed with the Chamber Orchestra of St Petersburg, the Turin Philharmonic, the Chamber Orchestra of Aix en Provence, the Tampere Philharmonic in Finland and the Havana Philharmonic, among many others. He divides his activities between concert appearances and teaching, with master classes in inumerable guitar festivals around the world and in universities such as Seoul University of Arts in South Korea. He has lived in Salzburg since 1995 and has taught at the Universität Mozarteum since 2000.

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Always singing in one form or another, by age six Matthew Hinsley also read music on piano, violin and cello. He was ten when he began studying classical guitar. For him, the guitar held magical power and determined the direction of his life. As a high school sophomore, Matthew enrolled at the Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan. This international school was populated not only by students and faculty, but often by recruiters from all the major American music conservatories. He was a student at Interlochen for scarcely three months when the invitation to study at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music arrived, leading him to depart high school two years early.

A member of the guitar faculty of the University of Texas at San Antonio, Matthew obtained his Bachelor of Music from Oberlin at age 20, and his Master of Music two years later from the University of Texas at Austin, where he also completed his Doctor of Musical Arts in 2003. Matthew's primary guitar instructors were Stephen Aron and Adam Holzman. A recipient of numerous performance-based awards, and an active performer, he regularly gives concerts throughout the United States. Dr. Hinsley has premiered many new works, most recently a collection of five songs written for him in 2002 by Jonathan Kulp on the poetry of Emily Dickinson. In his program notes for the Dickinson songs the composer wrote: "Knowing Hinsley's considerable abilities as a guitarist/singer, I felt free to write fairly challenging parts for both guitar and voice with full confidence that he could pull it off, and he does so with an ease that takes one's breath away."

Matthew has received many foundation grants and significant private donations to run concert series of international performing artists as well as extensive community outreach programs. In 2000 he won the Music Teacher's National Association, Gibson Collegiate Artist Guitar Competition and won Second Prize in the American String Teacher's Association National Solo String Competition. With a strong interest in art history and non-profit art organizations in America, he has published four articles in Soundboard, the international trade journal of the Guitar Foundation of America. His Doctoral treatise is the first in-depth study of Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco's ten-song cycle Vogelweide.

About his debut solo CD Live, in Austin, Michael Barnes of the Austin-American Statesman wrote, "Hinsley plays the classical guitar with rare clarity and composure." Hinsley's second CD release, Two Muses, was recorded with flutist Jennifer Rhyne. Passions Move, Hinsley's third CD, is his debut recording as a singer and guitarist and contains the first commercially available recording of Castelnuovo-Tedesco's Vogelweide. David and Maria Russell, upon hearing Passions Move wrote: "...wonderful recording. We heard the CD you gave us, and we love it. You have a very beautiful voice. We are sure you will be successful because what you do is pretty unique and you do it really well. Congratulations!"

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Alfonso Moreno is one of the greatest interpreters known to the world of classical guitar. Moreno takes a symphonic approach to the guitar, using a broad palette of colors, timbres and dynamics, which often give the listener the sense of listening to an entire orchestra.

Moreno is well known for his prodigious technique and intense musical interpretations. He has give over 3000 concerts throughout Europe, America and Asia, transforming audiences with the sweetness, depth and sincerity of his interpretation.

Born in Mexico into a family with a strong tradition of art and culture, he began his musical studies at the age of four. He has acquired music degrees in violin, composition, conducting, and guitar.

Since 1968, when he won first place in the Paris International Guitar Competition, organized by Radio and Television of France, his career has taken him to some of the world’s most prestigious concert halls including: the Tchaikovski Hall in Moscow, the Bolsoi Hall of the Philharmonic of St. Petersburg, the Philharmonic of Kiev, Carnegie Hall in New York, the Hollywood Bowl, the Concert Hall of Nagoya, the Yamaha Hall of Tokyo, the Wigmore Hall and Royal Festival Hall of London, the Palace of Fine Arts of Brussles, the San Peter Kirche of Zürich, the Principal Temple of Zen in Hiroshima, the Great Theater of Okayama, the Theater of the Ville of Paris, the Rampa Theater of Varsovia, the Atatürk Kültür Merkesi and Great Theatre of Istambul…

In addition to his solo concerts, Alfonso Moreno has been an active proponent of the classical guitar in other capacities. He has given Master Classes and recitals, played in chamber music ensembles, and as a soloist with some of the world’s greatest symphony orchestras. These include the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the National Symphony Orchestra of China , the Atlanta Virtuosi, the Soloists of Münich, the Virtuosos of Sophia, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Wroslaw Symphony Orchestra, the Radio Symphony in Brussles, the Symphony Orchestra of Montevideo, the Philharmonic of Santiago Chile, and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.

In 1995, he became the founder and director of the Guitar Orchestra of Xalapa, which has performed over 250 concerts throughout Mexico, Europe, and Asia.

His repertoire ranges from ancient music to music by contemporary composers. Many composers have written works specifically for him. These include: Peter L. Panin, Francisco González, Armando Lavalle, Raúl Ladrón de Guevara, Jean Louis Petit, and Xavier Camino.

His compact disks have been distributed world wide by the following companies: EMI CAPITOL in London, VARESSE SARABANDE in the United States, DISCOS FORLANE in France and GLOBAL ENTERTAINMENT in Mexico.

Moreno has transcribed more than 50 works for the guitar. One of the most important transcriptions is the Concerto No. 1 in D Major by Niccolo Paganini, originally for violin, now part of the guitar virtuoso repertoire. Moreno took this work to concert halls throughout Europe, Asia and America on over 50 occasions.

In 1999 Moreno co founded the Latin American Guitar Quartet along with guitarists Eugenia Rodriguez (Chile), Marcela Sfriso and Walter Ujaldon (Argentina), which made its debut at the International Guitar Festival in Turkey, as soloists with the Istambul Philharmonic, under Ionescu Galati. For the 2000-20001 season, the quartet has been invited to perform in over 15 festivals, which are paying homage to Joaquin Rodrigo, throughout Mexico, the United States, South America, Asia and Europe.

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Scott Tennant is a founding member of the Grammy®-winning ensemble L.A. Guitar Quartet, and is himself considered to be one of the world’s top classical guitarists.

Mr. Tennant is a favorite guest artist on music series and major guitar festivals around the world. Past seasons have taken him to such festivals in Ubeda (Spain), Milan, Sao Paulo, Tokyo, Osaka, Paris, Orleans, Ansbach and Wetzlar (Germany), Bergen (Norway), Amsterdam, Mexico, Dundee, Bath (UK) among others all over the United States and Canada. He has authored several books and articles on guitar technique, including his best-seller Pumping Nylon, which has attained a “cult” classic status. He has made numerous recordings as a soloist on the GHA and Delos labels, and with the LAGQ he has recorded for GHA, Delos, Sony Classical, Windham Hill, Deutsche Grammophon and Telarc labels. Their Telarc release “LAGQ Latin” was nominated for a Grammy®, and it was their current Telarc title “LAGQ’s Guitar Heroes” which won a Grammy® as the best classical crossover recording of 2005.

He is well-known for his recordings of the music of Joaquín Rodrigo, and equally praised for his interpretations of early music and the guitar’s classical repertoire. Projects currently underway include a five-volume classical guitar method for Alfred Music/Workshop Arts, and new independently produced recordings and instructional videos (available in mid-2008), as well as transcription publications, which will be released by Tennant’s own Plainsong Music.

He lives in the Los Angeles area, and is on the faculty at the USC Thornton School of Music.

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Dennis Conway is a San Francisco film maker. He recently returned from a five week shoot in China where he was camera operator for Cloud At Dawn, an independent narrative. Guitar Holiday is his first film. Dennis has this to say about Guitar Holidy...

Ever since I had the idea to make this movie, after a trip to Mexico, my life has changed in many ways. When I returned to San Francisco, I enrolled in a documentary film production class at San Francisco's Film Arts Foundation. My instructor, George Spies, has become my mentor and close friend. He and his sound recordist girlfriend, (now wife) Elise Hurwitz returned to Mexico with me to shoot Guitar Holiday. We shot thirty six hours of MiniDV tapes of the Mexican National Guitar Festival. We captured concerts, parades, contests, dancers and guitar makers in their shops. Everyone was very welcoming and gave us free access to anything we needed. George, a veteran of many shoots, said it was the most fun he ever working on a movie.

Mexican novelist Carlos Fuentes has spoken about the hispanicization of the United States. I hope that Guitar Holiday is an example of this process, that is a Caucasian film maker making a truly Mexican movie, and at the same time easing this transition by increasing understanding of Mexican culture. Most Hollywood movies portray Latin Americans solely as bandits, drug dealers and soldiers. By seeing Mexican craftsmen at work and townspeople enjoying a traditional festival, I hope audiences see an authentic slice of Mexican life.

The editing process was educational and long. I listened to some very experienced film makers who assisted me in shaping the movie. When I had a one hour version, it still didn’t seem right, so I hired Ryan Firpo to do some editing. He cut the movie to 43 minutes. He improved the movie by cutting out excess that I did not have the heart to do. I indulged myself a little bit by putting back 3 minutes he had cut and I am very pleased with the final result. The titles by Claude Dietrich and the narration by Carlos Bolado are two aspects where professionals pitched in and gave me a great result.

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Adriana Zavala is Associate Professor of modern and contemporary Latin American art in the Department of Art and Art History at Tufts University. She holds an M.A. and PhD. from Brown University. Her book Becoming Modern, Becoming Tradition: Women, Gender and Representation in Mexican Art and Culture is forthcoming with Penn State University Press. She is also conducting new research for a book on images of Mexico City in visual art, literature and film from the colonial era to the present.

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Pianist David Witten’s international career has included numerous concert tours in Ireland, Finland, Russia, Ukraine, Europe, Mexico, South America, and China. As the recipient of a 1990 Fulbright Scholar award, Witten spent five months teaching and concertizing throughout Brazil, and he is frequently invited back to give concerts and masterclasses.

Closer to home, Witten’s performances have included solo appearances with the Boston Pops Orchestra, the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra, and various chamber music collaborations with members of the New York Philharmonic and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Witten has also been active in contemporary music. He has recorded piano music of Nicholas Van Slyck (Titanic Records), and has commissioned over a dozen new works for Soli Espri, a chamber trio he founded in Boston with clarinetist Chester Brezniak and mezzo-soprano D’Anna Fortunato. With flutist Sue-Ellen Hershman-Tcherepnin, Witten formed Dúo Clásico; their recording, Flute and Piano Music of Latin America, is available on the Musical Heritage Society label. More recently, Marco Polo Records released Witten’s solo album, Piano Music of Manuel M. Ponce.

Witten’s involvement in music has not been limited to performance. He is the editor of Nineteenth-Century Piano Music: Essays in Performance and Analysis (Garland Publishing, 1997), which includes his landmark analytical study of the Chopin Ballades.

Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Witten received his early training at the Peabody Conservatory, and at the Rubin Academy of Music in Jerusalem. His undergraduate studies at the Johns Hopkins University led to a degree in Psychology. Later graduating with high honors from Boston University, he earned the degree of Doctor of Musical Arts in piano performance. His most influential teachers have been Reynaldo Reyes, Walter Hautzig, Leo Smit, and Dorothy Taubman. After twenty years as an active recitalist, chamber music pianist, and teacher in the Boston area, Witten accepted a position at the Cali School of Music at Montclair State University, where he is currently Coordinator of Keyboard Studies.

As an enthusiastic photographer, Professor Witten has won top prizes in several international photography competitions. He has had solo photography exhibitions in Budapest and Milan, and his photographs were recently published on www.lafolia.com.

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Alfredo Sánchez began playing the guitar at the age of 12, teaching himself to play with the music of Bach. In later years he studied with Manuel López Ramos, Andrés Segovia (1981), Iván Rijos, Robert Guthrie and Leo Brouwer. He also took master-classes with Manuel Barrueco and David Russell. Between the years 1982 and 1992, Alfredo Sánchez won first and second prizes in several important competitions in Mexico and in Puerto Rico. He toured the Soviet Union in 1983, 1984 and 1987, and has often appeared in Mexico in most of the important concert halls. He has recorded numerous programs for national radio and television. Alfredo Sanchez is active as recitalist, soloist with orchestra, and as a member of numerous chamber music ensembles. In 1994 he was asked to establish the guitar department at the prestigious University of the Americas, Puebla, Mexico where he taught for several years. In 1997 he was appointed professor at the distinguished University of Veracruz, Mexico. Many of his students have gone on to important international careers.

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Sue-Ellen Hershman-Tcherepnin first appeared with the Boston Symphony Orchestra as a flute soloist at the age of 16, and has subsequently performed throughout Europe, Latin America, South America, Russia, and the United States as both soloist and recitalist. With pianist David Witten, she performs as a member of Dúo Clásico. Since 1986 the Duo has represented the US on State Department-sponsored foreign tours, and has gained a reputation for expanding knowledge of Latin-American composers to audiences around the globe.

Hershman-Tcherepnin is both founding member and flutist of Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra of Boston. Other local activities include performances with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra, Boston Lyric Opera Company, New England Ragtime Ensemble, Portland (Maine) and Springfield (Mass.) Symphonies, and Broadway productions in the musical theaters of Boston.

Deeply committed to new music, Sue-Ellen has given many world premieres, including California composer Tom Flaherty’s Flute Concerto and a concerto by Massachusetts composer William Eldridge, written for her in memory of her late husband, Ivan Tcherepnin. Since 1985 she has been flutist with Dinosaur Annex Contemporary Music Ensemble, where she also serves as Co-Artistic Director.

Sue-Ellen was raised in Norwood, Massachusetts (USA). She received her Bachelor of Music degree from Boston University and Master of Music degree from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Her principal teachers were Phillip Kaplan, Jean-Pierre Rampal and Samuel Baron. She has taught at Tufts University since 1989, and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology since 1991. From 1995-1999 Hershman-Tcherepnin also served as President of the 1800-member American Federation of Musicians’ Local 9-535 (Boston).

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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. 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.

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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.

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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.

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.

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.

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. Robert Ward is currently a faculty member at Northeastern University, The Brookline Music School and The New School of Music.

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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.

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Born in Australia, Simon Tedeschi studied piano with Neta Maughan in Sydney and in London with Noretta Conci. Described by pianist Leslie Howard as one of the finest musicians of his generation worldwide, Mr. Tedeschi was named the Symphony Australia Young Performer of the Year performing Ginastera's Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Tedeschi first performed a Mozart Piano Concerto at age 9 in the Sydney Opera House and since then has played as a soloist with the Queensland, Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide symphony orchestras, as well as the Fort Worth Chamber Orchestra, Texas.

He has toured Taiwan, New Caledonia, Italy and Malta as a soloist with the SBS Radio and Television Youth Orchestra. In 2005, he recorded Tchaikovsky's first Piano Concerto and Grieg's Piano Concerto with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Richard Bonynge. In 2006, Mr. Tedeschi performed in New York (for the International Keyboard Institute and Festival) and Pennsylvania (for the Mt. Gretna Festival). The year also featured continuing tours with jazz pianist Kevin Hunt, culminating in a performance in November in the Basement (Sydney's premier jazz venue).

Simon is currently based in the United States, although he continues a very active performing schedule in Australia. He is the Roving Ambassador for The Australian Children's Music Foundation, and he was recently awarded the Centenary of Federation Medal by the Governor General of Australia. Simon's instrument in Australia is kindly provided by Hutchings Pianos of Sydney.

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Cecilio was born in Merida, Yucatan, Mexico in 1983. He started playing guitar at the age of nine with his brother Pedro Perera. After several years, he began studying with Ricardo Vega at the music school in his town, and began to give concerts soon after. He studied at Xalapa University of Music with Consuelo Bolio and Alfredo Sanchez from 1999 to 2005. He has taken master classes with John Williams, David Russell, Angel Romero, Joaquin Clerch, Remi Boucher, Juan Carlos Laguna, Julio César Oliva, Paolo Pegoraro, and Pavel Steidl among others.

Cecilio has played with many famous orchestras including the Cuba National Orchestra, UNAM Philarmonic Orchestra, Yucatan Symphony Orchestra, Xalapa Chamber Music Orchestra, Acapulco Philarmonic Orchestra, Chihuahua Philarmonic Orchestra, Salzburg Youth Philarmonic Orchestra, Italian Orchestra Academia Musical Naonis, Merida Chamber Music Orchestra and Almería Symphony Orchestra. He has performed in Mexico, United States, Canada, Cuba, Costa Rica, Austria, Germany, Slovenia, Spain and Italy. He’s played for TV and radio programs as well in prestigious festivals and theatres in Europe and America. He’s collaborated with several famous composers who have dedicated guitar works to him.

Cecilio is now studying at Mozarteum University in Salzburg, Austria with Eliot Fisk and Ricardo Gallen. His repertoire ranges from renaissance on the lute to contemporary music. He plays with flute, voice, string quartet, and other combinations.

Awards

• First Prize at the VII International Guitar Competition Jose Tomas, Villa de Petrer, Spain, 2008.
• First Prize at the III Boston International Guitar Competition, USA, 2008
• First Prize XII International Guitar Competition Leo Brouwer, Habana,Cuba, 2004.
• First Prize V National Guitar Competition, Taxco, Mexico, 2002.
• First Prize XI National Competition, Morelia, Michoacan, Mexico, 2001.
• First Place II National Competition YOLOTL 2000, Mexico City, 2000.
• Second Prize VII Julian Arcas International Guitar Competition, Almeria, Spain 2006.
• Second Prize II Norba Caesarina International Competition, Caceres, Spain, 2006.
• Second Prize Guitar Foundation of America, International Convention and Competition, 2003.
• Second Prize III National Competition, Culiacán, Mexico, 2003.
• National Prize of Youth in Arts 2003 given by the President of Mexico.
• State Prize of Youth in Music 1999 given by the Government of Yucatan, Mexico.
• University Prize in 2004 given by the Exp magazine.
• Distinguished member of the Friends of the Trova Yucateca at the Museum of Yucatan Song.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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 premiére by the Quartetto Paul Klee in Venice. Upcoming premiéres 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.

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