March 28th, 2011 Posted 6:37 pm
Sponsored by Boston GuitarFest with generous support from the Augustine Foundation
Join Us, April 2
2:00pm- 3:00pm
New England Conservatory ROOM G13 St. Botolph Building
http://kinderguitar.com/
March 21st, 2011 Posted 8:08 pm
—Scott Brown
U.S. Senator from Massachusetts
March 16th, 2011 Posted 12:34 pm
Guitar & Friends Presents Maarten Stragier
Sunday, April 3 at 3pm
Gore Place Period Federal House
52 Gore Street, Waltham MA
Belgian guitarist Maarten Stragier has garnered praise from such luminaries as Oscar Ghiglia and Eliot Fisk for his musical sensitivity and unflagging desire for innovation. At the age of 18, Maarten received early musical recognition by winning top prizes in the Axion Classics Competition and the Hasselt Competition for Musical Youth. Not much later, he joined the KOA guitar quartet, with which he performed extensively throughout Belgium and the Netherlands, recorded the full CD KOA (2005) and performed for live broadcast on the Flemmish classical radio Klara at BOZAR, Brussels (2008).
An ardent advocate of contemporary music, Maarten has brought new works to audiences in Europe and the US, performing solo and in affiliation with the Ictus ensemble (Brussels), the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, the Callithumpian consort (Boston) and the Mimesis ensemble (New York). He has also worked closely with composers such as Chaya Czernowin, Christian Wolf, Nicholas Vines, Caroline Park and Seongyoun Hong.
Maarten studied at the Tienen Music Academy, from which he graduated maxima cum laude in 2003; at the Royal conservatory of Ghent, under Yves Storms; and later under Antigoni Goni at the Royal conservatory of Brussels, where he concluded the masters program in guitar performance magna cum laude and received the 2010 Ingeborg Köberle Award. Currently, Maarten is pursuing a doctor of musical arts degree in the studio of Eliot Fisk at the New England Conservatory.
For more info, visit www.maartenstragier.com.
Program
Berio/Tippett/Vines
Sequenza XI
Luciano Berio
Les Effaceurs
Nicholas Vines
The Blue Guitar
Micha
February 25th, 2011 Posted 4:28 pm
Online registration for Boston GuitarFest 2011 is now available!
For details and to register visit here
February 18th, 2011 Posted 1:35 pm
ROMANTICJerome MOUFFE and flutist Benjamin Smolen, Duo Musagete is one of the country’s most promising guitar & flute duos. |
CONTEMPORARYMaarten STRAGIER has garnered praise from such luminaries as Oscar Ghiglia and Eliot Fisk for his musical sensitivity, intelligence and unflagging desire for innovation. |
FLAMENCOJuanito PASCUAL is acclaimed as one of the top young flamenco guitarists on the international music scene. |
CONCERTFebruary 25th at 8 PM |
February 12th, 2011 Posted 7:00 pm
February 6, 2011
By ALLAN KOZINN
Eliot Fisk has found a way to enliven the confining format of the solo guitar recital: invite friends and share the spotlight, though not so much that a listener might mistake the concert for a chamber music program. At the 92nd Street Y on Saturday evening Mr. Fisk had two guests who played solo works and duets with him. But his own performances remained the center of gravity.
The flutist Tara Helen O’Connor had the first word, a supple reading of Debussy’s unaccompanied “Syrinx,” which led directly — with only the slight pause necessary for a quick change of flutes — into Takemitsu’s “Toward the Sea,” with Mr. Fisk. Takemitsu always acknowledged French Impressionism as a powerful influence, and parts of “Toward the Sea” hint at the winding melodies heard in “Syrinx.” But the interplay between the gentle guitar line and Takemitsu’s expansive, melodic flute writing pushes the score into its own world.
On his own Mr. Fisk filled out the first half with his transcriptions of Baroque works with which he has long been associated. His readings of six Scarlatti sonatas (K. 443, 391, 145, 15, 177 and 178) emphasized the chemistry between Scarlatti’s native Italianate style and adopted Spanish influences. And Mr. Fisk’s account of the Bach Chaconne was a fine balance of focused introspection and incendiary virtuosity.
The Scarlatti and Bach performances showed the extent to which Mr. Fisk’s playing has evolved. Early in his career his signature sound was steely and fire breathing, a refreshing approach that could also grow wearying. These days his playing is as precise and energetic as ever, but he has softened the edges somewhat.
Mr. Fisk’s guest in the second half was Zaira Meneses, an accomplished Mexican-born guitarist who teaches at the Boston Conservatory and who is also his wife. She devoted her solo set to an arresting performance of Leo Brouwer’s swirling, tactile “Paisaje Cubano con Campanas” and a richly shaded account, full of slides and other colorful touches, of Ñico Rojas’s “Guajira a Mi Madre,” a Cuban dance with a trace of Villa-Lobos’s influence in its opening passages.
Ms. Meneses has a fluid, colorful style that seems almost the antithesis of Mr. Fisk’s, even in its more relaxed current manifestation. Yet in a handful of Chopin waltzes, transcribed as duets by Mr. Fisk, the sound was remarkably unified and so full of character that the quintessentially pianistic pieces sounded thoroughly natural on the guitar.
Mr. Fisk closed the program with his own arrangement of John Corigliano’s “Red Violin Caprices,” rendered here with filled-out chords that give the works a more decidedly guitaristic character, and a set of showpieces by the Paraguayan guitarist and composer Agustín Barrios. Among the encores was a high-spirited rendering of Zequinha de Abreu’s “Tico Tico,” for which Ms. O’Connor and Ms. Meneses (as a percussionist) joined Mr. Fisk.
February 12th, 2011 Posted 6:19 pm
The guidelines for the 2011 Boston GuitarFest Competitions are now available online.
February 8th, 2011 Posted 3:29 pm
Guitar & Friends Invites You to:
Dr. Matt Hinsley Lecture & Reception
February 17
Longy School of Music
Pickman Hall
27 Garden Street
Cambridge, MA 02124
6:30pm
Start Building a Successful Non Profit Organization TODAY
Welcome artists, art students, professors, arts organization board members, community leaders, and patrons: anyone with an interest in seeing the arts thrive in Boston.
Register NOW! [email protected]
By phone (617) 876-0956
FREE REGISTRATION
Workshop
February 18 (limited enrollment)
N1-lecture Hall
6:30pm
Share your questions and find the answers with Dr. Matt Hinsley
Since his 1996 arrival in Austin, Dr. Hinsley has been centrally involved in the operations of the Austin Classical Guitar Society. The organization, in 1996, had an operational budget of less than $5,000, in contrast to more than $400,000 in 2008-2009. As Executive Director of the Austin Classical Guitar Society he has raised well beyond $1,500,000 in support of broad programming and has developed services ranging from major concert event presentation to performance outreach, educational outreach, lifetime learning opportunities, and much more.
Dr. Hinsley has developed a range of programming at the Austin Classical Guitar Society that includes: High profile events in its International Concert & Summer Chamber Series; 3 annual Community Concert Series that have played to over 20,000, with guest artists performing 10, free concerts each around the community removing economic, cultural and geographic barriers to hearing great music; Educational Outreach serving over 500 students in 9 schools on a daily basis with classroom instruction and an individual lesson component for low-income students.
These events are sponsored by a generous grant from the Augustine Foundation and are part of a series that included a master class with Naumberg winner Jorge Caballero in November 2010, and will conclude with a session on Children’s Guitar Education with master educator Leo Garcia on April 2nd, 2011.
January 13th, 2011 Posted 10:55 pm
Reception and Workshop February 17-18, 2011
Community Arts Advocacy
Dr. Matthew Hinsley, Speaker & Clinician
Reception, Thursday, February 17 at 6:30PM
Workshop, Friday February 18 at 6:30PM (limited enrollment)
Dr. Matthew Hinsley, author of Creativity to Community: Arts Nonprofit Success One Coffee at a Time, will give an engaging address about the roles our communities, our artists, and the arts leaders among us, can play to promote art of all kinds as a vibrant, relevant part of our society. With 15 years’ experience building a fledgling organization to the largest of its kind in America, Hinsley will share insights and lessons he’s learned, from both success and missteps, building a community service-based arts organization into a significant cultural force in his region with the diverse support to match it.
This is a perfect talk, for artists, art students, professors, arts organization board members, community leaders, and patrons: anyone with an interest in seeing the arts thrive in Boston. The reception following will be a great chance to meet new people with a value for the arts, and also to discuss the ideas presented.
The following evening (Friday, February 18th), Hinsley will conduct an in-depth workshop for individuals who work in the arts, or are considering working in the arts. The free, limited-enrollment workshop will cover areas including Mission and Vision, Strategic Planning, Board Development, Fundraising, and Promotion.
These events are sponsored by a generous grant from the Augustine Foundation and are part of a series that included a master class with Naumberg winner Jorge Caballero in November, 2010, and will conclude with a session on Children’s Guitar Education with master educator Leo Garcia on April 2nd, 2011.
*Suggested donation for Reception
$10.00
Co-Presented by:
Guitar and Friends, Zaira Meneses, Director
Longy School of Music, David Patterson, Faculty
Boston Guitar Fest, Eliot Fisk, Director
New England Conservatory of Music
Northeastern University
January 11th, 2011 Posted 9:30 pm
Guitar & Friends WINNERS Luys Milan
International Chamber Music
Competition 2011
Duo Sonidos brings together the talents of violinist, William Knuth and guitarist, Adam Levin. Based in Boston and Madrid, the duo is at the vanguard of the guitar chamber music world. In November 2010, Duo Sonidos released their debut album Duo Sonidos, which includes works by Manuel de Falla, Astor Piazzolla, Salvador Brotons, and the premiere of a commission by Eduardo Morales-Caso. Recently awarded 1st Prize at the 2010 Luys Milan International Chamber Music Competition in Valencia, Spain, the duo will launch a tour of Spain in addition to the release of a second record album.
Kafka Sonata Jan Freidlin (1944)
Historia de Tango Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992)
Trei Divertimenti Op.68 Salvador Brotons (1959)
*Voláverunt: Homenaje a Francisco Goya Eduardo Morales-Caso (1969) *Dedicated to Duo Sonidos
Canciones Populares Manuel De Falla (1876-1946)
Adam Levin, Guitar The recipient of numerous top prizes, Adam Levin has been recognized by the Society of American Musicians in Chicago, IL, the Lake Forest Concerto Competition, IL, the Schubert Competition, St. Paul, MN; Boston GuitarFest, Boston, MA; Concurso Internacional de les Corts para Jóvenes Intérpretes, Barcelona, Spain and XXXIV Concurso Internazionale Di Gargnano in Italy.
Will Knuth, Violin has earned recognition for his artistry as a solo and chamber musician. Mr. Knuth has recently returned to the United States after spending 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, William was a student of Ernst Kovacic who has personally premiered and/or commissioned most of the major Austrian works for the violin which have been written in the past 40 years.
61 Washington Park
Newtonville, MA 02460
To Reserve tickets
Call New Art Center
617-964-3424
Suggested Donation
$ 10 in advance
$ 18 at the door
$ 5 Students
http://www.newartcenter.org
Welcome, from Eliot Fisk!
Boston GuitarFest is the dream of visionary guitar virtuoso Eliot Fisk. While the main focus is always on the classical guitar, the festival also aims to set the instrument within a broader musical, cultural and social context.
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Boston GuitarFest would like to thank these past and present sponsors for their generous support!
The Robert E. Davoli and Eileen L. McDonagh Charitable Foundation
Russell Cleveland
Thomas Hiksdal Fund
