Comments Off on OSCAR GHILGIA AT 70: A TRIBUTE
January 3rd, 2011 Posted 5:29 pm
by Eliot Fisk
Oscar Ghiglia first entered my life on March 16, 1968, when he came to Philadelphia to play a recital for the Society of the Classical Guitar. The world was young then. Although the horrible War in Vietnam still raged and the civil rights movement was riddled with dissension between its own doves and hawks, Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy had not yet been murdered. We still thought things could and would change for the better.
Into this world and out of some other magical universe all his own walked Oscar Ghiglia. Although it is almost 40 years ago to the day as I write this, I still remember that first concert and many of the works that were on the program: the “La Frescobalda” Variations of Frescobaldi, the famous harp Fantasia of Mudarra, the Prelude Fugue and Allegro of Bach, Mallorca by Albeniz, La Maja de Goya of Granados, the Fantasia-Sevillanas of Turina, Falla’s Homenaje, Poulenc’s Sarabande, Ohana’s Tiento, Roussel’s Segovia…. I was a boy of 13 just discovering how much he loved playing the guitar. Oscar was 5 months away from turning 30.
Oscar’s concert had a huge effect on all of us in Philadelphia. We had never heard the guitar played with such pure, unaffected elegance. Every note seemed bathed in beauty, yet made sense in some bigger universe governed by the eternal laws of the art of music. The legacy of Segovia was evident, but this was no copy of Segovia, rather a reinvention in an exquisite, personal way of many of the same principles (a vocal approach to melody, intimate knowledge of the different contrapuntal voices, an orchestral approach to color, etc.) that governed Segovia’s cosmos. Anyone who heard Oscar in those years will confirm that his playing forever changed the way we thought of our instrument.
I really met Oscar as Oscar about a year later when he returned to Philadelphia by popular demand. On the eve of his recital he also taught a brief workshop for the Society. At 7 PM sharp he seemed to materialize suddenly on the threshold of a room filled with the cacophony of a bunch of guitarists simultaneously warming up. With his trademark long beard and 1960’s hair style (not too different from his 2008 hair style!) dressed in a hand knit purple sweater, he appeared in a huge cloud of his own cigarette smoke like some immense benevolent genie who had magically emerged from an invisible bottle.
The class had gone on for around three hours and Oscar was obviously really ready to go back to his hotel and rest. As a formality he asked if everyone had played. In fact, I had been waiting the whole time to play the Prelude and Fugue from Bach’s Prelude Fugue and Allegro, but one by one the other players had gone ahead of me. I felt a little sorry that I was keeping Oscar past the agreed ending hour of the class. Nevertheless, I took out my guitar and began to play. I wonder what Oscar thought about this strange little kid. At any rate, once I’d got a few bars into the Prelude he began to solfège along and smile his encouragement, and so our lifelong friendship began right there. For me it was the beginning of a fantastic collaboration.
Through all the travails of the intervening 4 decades Oscar Ghiglia has been and remains my mentor, my colleague and my friend. Surely his influence on generations of guitarists all over the world has been and remains similarly life changing. With complete justification we can say, “The sun never sets on the empire of Oscar’s students.”
Those of us who were in the very first generation of his American followers, people like Phil de Fremery, the late Peter Segal, Bruce Holzman, Tom Johnson and Sharon Isbin have made and are still making contributions to the field that derive from the innumerable lessons he imparted. Many generations later Oscar is still leading other guitarists out of the proverbial platonic cave and toward the light. Michael Newman and Laura Oltman, who have created the marvelous New York Guitar Festival, both worked with Oscar for many years, and indeed to even start a list of those who have benefited from his wisdom risks becoming an endless “ Who’s Who” of important players, teachers and guitar enthusiasts.
On this occasion of his 70th birthday year I join thousands around the world in expressing my undying gratitude, love and respect for this great artist, guitarist and unforgettable friend who has always given so much and asked for so little in return.
Comments Off on Oscar Ghiglia to Teach Master Classes at GuitarFest 2011
January 3rd, 2011 Posted 1:41 pm
Oscar Ghiglia
Born of an artistic family – his father and grandfather both famed painters, his mother a accomplished pianist – O.G. had to choose between a path strewn with brushes and colours and a world cut into harmony and melody. Though his early choice produced a few hundred water colours and a number of oil paintings, he soon realized music was his way. For this decision he thanks his dad, who one day made him pose for a painting showing a guitarist… For this he had to hold his father’s guitar, a companion to his artistic musings in front of his forming works. This painting was the start to a lifetime of disciplined dedication to music.
Graduated from Santa Cecilia’s Conservatory of Rome O.G. began soon is apprenticeship beside the great Master Andres Segovia, who was his major influence and inspiration during his formative years. Later O.G. “inherited” Segovia’s glorious Class in Siena’s Accademia Chigiana and spread his own teaching around the five continents in a sister vocation to his concertizing.
O.G is proud of having founded such strongholds of guitar teaching as the Guitar Department at the Aspen Music Festival (Colorado, USA) as well as in the Festival de Musique des Arcs and the “Incontri Chitarristici di Gargnano”, of having been artist in residence, or visiting professor in such centers as the Cincinnati, San Francisco Conservatories, The Juilliard, the Hartt School and the Northwestern University of Evanston, Ill. In all these centers and elsewhere, Ghiglia has been nurturing talents and forming or perfecting young artists musical outlook and interpretation. Composers as Giampaolo Bracali and, Franco Donatoni, among others have written and dedicated important works to Oscar Ghiglia. Besides touring as a solo performer O.G. has played and recorded with such names as singers Victoria de Los Angeles, Jan de Gaetani, Gerald English, John mc Collum; flutists as J.P.Rampal, Julius Baker; ensembles as the Juilliard String Quartet, the Emerson String Quartet, the Cleveland String Quartet, the Quartetto d’archi di Venezia, the Tokyo String Quartet; violinists as Giuliano Carmignola, Franco Gulli, Salvatore Accardo, Regis Pasquier; violist as B. Giuranna, P Zuckerman; cellists as K. Adam, A Roman, L.Varga; guitarists as E. Fisk, S.Fukuda, L Guerra, Antigoni Goni, Elena Papandreou.
O.G. was a founding member of the the International Classic Guitar Quartet (with, in different
turns: Benjamin Bunch,.O. Koga, Anders Miolin, S. Schmidt, Andreas v.Wangenheim), Presently, after his last CD: “Manuel Ponce’ Guitar music”, the “Stradivarius” label has issued a new CD including some of the most important lute works of J.S Bach.
Retired from the Basel Music Academy (Switzerland) where he held the professorship in guitar from 1983 till 2005, his teaching continues in the summer at the Accademia Chigiana, in Siena: in Gargnano and during the year in Athens, to a select group of pupils flocking in periodically from the four corners of Europe.
In March 2008a selected group of former students of his have celebrated Oscar Ghiglia’s 70th birthday, in a festival held in the Mannes School of music of New York, including concerts, lectures and master-classes, called “THE GHIGLIA LEGACY”. An analogous celebration took place in 2009, in Ithaca, N.Y. Besides having started the guitar program at the Aspen Music Festival Ghiglia was founder (1976) of the International Guitar Competition of Gargnano (Italy) O.G. boasts a very high number of first prize winners among his student, in competitions around the world.
Comments Off on Holiday Classical Guitar Celebration
December 9th, 2010 Posted 3:14 pm
Holiday Classical Guitar Celebration
Presented By: Guitar & Friends
Please join us on December 11 at 7:00 p.m. for a Classical Guitar Holiday Celebration
featuring music of Mozart, Bach and Vivaldi
Zaira Meneses, Director
Mozart Quartet
Rachel Taft and JooYeon Lee – Violin
Elisa Rega - Viola
Melody Giron – Cello
NEC Eliot Fisk Guitar Studio in collaboration with NEC Undergraduates
Bryan Burns - Guitar
Jerome Mouffe - Guitar
Zaira Meneses - Guitar
We invite you to a reception after the concert to talk with the musicians and enjoy some light refreshments.
Tickets: $18 in advance/$20 at the door. Students: $10.
Registration Required: Register Online, or call us at 617.964.3424
New Art Center
61 Washington Park
Newtonville, MA 02460
(617) 964-3424
Comments Off on Hiksdal Scholarship Fund for Boston GuitarFest
December 7th, 2010 Posted 6:12 pm
Following is a little history about the development of the Hiksdal Scholarship fund…..
In May of 2002 my husband Thomas Hiksdal and I went on a wonderful trip to Spain. We ended up spending most of our time in the beautiful and historic city of Granada. We were walking down one of the main boulevards one morning and I happened to see a poster advertising a guitar concert. The name “Eliot Fisk” jumped out at me. Some years ago I owned a music store on Cape Cod, and we bought and sold classical guitars so I knew a bit about that world. Enough to know that a chance to hear Eliot Fisk - one of the world’s best - was not to be missed. And hearing him in Granada was just icing on the cake! The concert was scheduled for the next night, at the Auditorio Manual de Falla, on the grounds of the Alhambra. We bought our tickets.
The next night we walked up the hill, through the Alhambra gates, to the Auditorio, a (relatively) contemporary concert hall. We then were treated to the most incredible concert - a solo performance by Eliot Fisk, alone on the stage with his guitar, holding us and the rest of the packed hall completely transfixed. Thomas and I were almost speechless as we walked back down the hill afterwards in the lovely May evening.
From then on, for the rest of his life, Thomas referred to this concert as the apex of a lifetime of listening to music. The best, the most profound, the most meaningful.
Later, when I was thinking of an appropriate way to remember Thomas, and thinking about what was most meaningful to him, I of course thought of music. Thomas played many instruments, and went to hear live music as often as he could - and, perhaps most presciently, the design of our house (Thomas was an architect) centered around music, around our beautiful Steinway, and around having a space available to present concerts of live music. I immediately thought - well, if it’s music for Thomas, then I have to start with the musician who spoke to Thomas the loudest - Eliot Fisk. And Eliot said yes.
With Eliot’s guiding determination to use our energy and emotion to create something lasting, we then joined forces to create the Thomas Hiksdal Scholarship Fund of the Boston GuitarFest.
Catherine Cramer
Sept. 2009
Thanks to the Hiksdal Fund, it has actually been possible to lower the price for full festival participation this year. In addition, a portion of the Hiksdal Fund supports our various youth competitions. Additional small scholarships may be awarded in cases of extreme financial need. For more information on this please e-mail Sean Hagon.
Comments Off on Young People’s Concert December 7
December 6th, 2010 Posted 10:59 pm
There will be a Holiday Family Concert the evening of December 7 at 7:00 at the Brighton Allston Congregational Church. The Boston Conservatory Guitar Studio, under the direction of faculty member Zaira Meneses, has planned a short (roughly one hour), early-evening performance to help you relax and enjoy this festive season. Abby Quigley, Billy Chi, Nicholas Rinehart and Shota Nakama will be performing on guitar as well as Raquel Fisk on the Clarinet. More information: Lois Corman 617 254 4056
Zaira Meneses was born in Xalapa, Mexico. From an early age she showed great talent for music, studying both classical guitar and voice and appearing frequently in a wide variety of venues both as a guitarist and singer. Since moving to the USA in 2001, Meneses has built a stellar reputation for her warm sound, limpid technique and superb natural musicality performing in many of the great concert halls of the world including Boston’s Jordan Hall, New York City’s YMHA and Salzburg’s Wiener Saal.
Zaira lives in Boston with her husband, internationally acclaimed guitarist Eliot Fisk, and their 9 year old daughter Raquel. She is Director of Community Outreach and Student Affairs for the international festival Boston Guitar Fest and Artistic Director of the new cross disciplinary cultural initiative “Guitar and Friends.” In these positions, as well as in her teaching role with the Boston Conservatory Guitar Studio, she continues to enliven the cultural life of the city of Boston through outreach activities in schools, churches, museums and hospitals while maintaining a demanding touring schedule in the Americas and Europe.
The Brighton Allston Congregational Church is located in Brighton Center at 404 Washington Street.
Guitar & Friends Concert Series
