Mariano Aguirre
Mariano Aguirre has performed in the United States and Mexico. Past engagements include performances at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, The Cathedral of St. John the Divine, The Noon Concert Series at Trinity Church, Music from Good Shepherd, and Music in Chelsea. He has appeared at many festivals, including the Young Artist Series at the Aspen Music Festival, Bach and the Baroque Festival, and the Warwick Music Festival in the United States. He has toured in Mexico performing at the National University, Centro Nacional de las Artes, and the Conservatorio de las Rosas. Mr. Aguirre performs with the Duo Cantabile for voice and guitar and is a cofounder of the Six Hands Guitar Trio. Recordings of his work appear on the Vienna Modern Masters label. Mr. Aguirre is on faculty at Mannes College and the Brooklyn Music School.
.jpg "Amadeus")
Amadeus Guitar Duo
Dale Kavanagh and Thomas Kirchhoff, performing as the Amadeus Duo for more than 20 years.
The Amadeus Guitar Duo is counted among the top international guitar duos, receiving enthusiastic reviews from around the world. Canadian Dale Kavanagh and her German partner Thomas Kirchhoff have performed as the Amadeus Guitar Duo since 1991. The secret of their success--a symbol of which is their regular performing schedule of more than 70 concerts per year--is the two artists' deep devotion to their instrument. Their passion allows them to look beyond pieces for duos and concentrate on repertoire for guitar and orchestra. Owing to their support for the genre, repertoire for guitar and orchestra has grown in prominence. The duo played their "Spanish Night" recital, featuring concertos for one, two, and four guitars and orchestra by Joaquin Rodrigo and the world-famous pan flautist Gheorghe Zamfir, in more than 100 cities worldwide.
The Amadeus Guitar Duo has so far appeared in more than 1,000 concerts in some 50 countries in Europe, Asia, and Central, South and North America. The duo's exuberant temperament, virtuoso performance, sensitive creative power, and fulsome, warm, carrying guitar tone has long delighted audiences. Kavanagh and Kirchoff regularly play together with the Prague, Mainz, and Mannheim Chamber Orchestras, the Halle Philharmonic State Orchestra, the International Philharmonie, the Gotha-Suhl Thuringian Philharmonic, the Philharmonia Hungarica, the Capella Cracoviensis, the Ankara President Orchestra, and the South Westphalian Philharmonic.
They have recorded a many productions for radio and television (BBC, ZDF, CBC, WDR, BR, TRT, etc.). The pair has also recorded 16 CDs (on Haenssler-Classic) that document the high quality of the Amadeus Guitar Duo. The two artists' stirring commitment and inspiring style of playing has enabled them to considerably broaden the repertoire for guitar, especially for guitar and orchestra. Renowned composers such as Harald Genzmer, Gheorghe Zamfir, Roland Dyens (Paris), Jaime Zenamon (Curitiba), Christian Jost (Cologne), Carlo Domeniconi (Berlin), Gerald Garcia (Oxford), and Martin Herchenröder (Siegen) have written orchestral concertos for them. Stephen Dodgson (London), Harald Genzmer (Munich), Jaime M. Zenamon (Curitiba), and Christian Jost (Cologne) have dedicated compositions for two guitars to them. All works have been published by Schott‘s (Mainz), Edition Margaux (Berlin), Edition Peters (Frankfurt), and Verlag Hubertus Nogatz (Essen).
In 1992, they founded the International Guitar Symposium in Iserlohn, which today is one of the most important festivals of its kind in Europe, with more than 200 participants from more than 40 countries, concerts featuring world-famous stars, master courses, lectures, exhibitions, and many other activities ( www.guitarsymposium.com).
In the 2011-12 season, these successful musicians have been invited to tour the United States, Canada, South Korea, England, Italy, Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Turkey, Romania, and Poland. Today, Dale Kavanagh and Thomas Kirchhoff live with their daughter Melissa-Rachel in Germany and both are professors who since 2003 have taught at the newly launched guitar class of the Detmold Music School (www.hfm-detmold.de). The Amadeus Guitar Duo plays exclusively D'Addario strings on guitars made in Germany by Toni Mueller, Aarbergen.
Here are some word from the press about The Amadeus Duo:
"Surely one of the most innovative duos in the world."
Gitarre & Laute Magazine , 1998
"Real professionals for guitar and orchestra."
Musikmarkt Magazine, 2003
"Any Rodrigo connoisseur will be thrilled with this."
American Record Guide, USA, 2001
"A great success!" (referring to the Spanish Night 1 CD)
Zupfmusik, 2001
"Once again, thoroughly commendable" (referring to the Spanish Night 2 CD)
Acoustic Guitar Magazine, 2004
Peter Argondizza
Peter Argondizza was born in New York and raised in Brooklyn and Long Island. Argondizza began his career studying Indian music under the guidance of Sri Vasant Rai at the Alam School of Indian Classical Music in New York City. He continued his musical studies on the classical guitar, earning a BA in Music and an MM in Music while studying with Jerry Willard at Stonybrook University in New York. In 1983, he was awarded a scholarship to the Aspen Music School in Colorado to study with Oscar Ghiglia. There, he was guest guitar soloist in the performance of Hans Werner Henze’s “Kammermusik 1958.” Argondizza later earned an MMA and Doctor of Musical Arts from Yale University while continuing his studies with Eliot Fisk, Robert Guthrie and, primarily, Benjamin Verdery. He was later awarded the Andres Segovia Scholarship to attend the winter cycle of the Banff School of Fine Arts (Canada), where he studied with Sharon Isbin and Leo Brouwer.
Argondizza is currently a lecturer in Music at the University of Strathclyde and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, where he teaches guitar, lute, orchestration, and history. As an academic, he is collaborating with the Strathclyde University School of Arts and Humanities to explore instrument specific musical memory with the department of Psychology and, separately, the lute works of Vincenzo Galilei with the department of Renaissance Studies.
Argondizza has been a member of the One Voice Music Ensemble with whom he has performed Poul Rouder’s “Psalmody” for guitar and orchestra as well as Steve Reich’s “ Electric Counterpoint." He has played electric guitar, bass, mandolin, banjo, and classical guitar with the Hebrides Ensemble, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and, most recently, guitar in Scottish Opera’s production of Il barbiere di Siviglia. As a soloist, he has performed throughout Scotland, England, and the United States and has commissioned and premiered the following works by British composers:Madrigal for Solo Guitar (Sally Beamish), Romance for Cello and Guitar(Edward McGuire), Strange Returns for String Quartet and Guitar and Circles for Solo Guitar (Thomas David Wilson) as well as Lullabies for Daft Jamie(Rory Boyle).Recently, Peter has performed both the Ginastera Sonata for Guitar Op. 47 and Berio’s Sequenza in Edinburgh and London and enjoys playing his Telecaster and Stratocaster with a local rock band.
Denis Azabagic
Denis Azabagic is one of the most compelling classical guitarists on the international concert circuit today. He performs concerts around the world, maintaining a balance between his solo recitals, chamber music with the Cavatina Duo, and engagements as soloist with orchestras.
Critics have said the following of his performances:
"And once he started playing his guitar he became ageless. One couldn't imagine where the man, the instrument and the music separated, if at all."
Los Angeles Valley Star, United States
"Azabagic’s playing is virtually flawless and his technical facility is a joy to see as well as hear; increasingly I hear him mentioned in the same breath as John Williams, and while such comparisons are invidious, this one is not without merit."
Soundboard magazine, USA
In 1993, at the age of 20, he became the youngest winner of one of the most prestigious international guitar competitions: Jacinto e Inocencio Guerrero, held in Madrid, Spain. The distinguished Spanish composer Anton Garcia Abril had the following to say about Azabagic:
"I am sure that with time, he is going to be one of the greatest guitarists in the world."
Between 1992 and 1999, Azabagic won twenty-four prizes in international competitions, of which eleven were first prizes. He has written a book, On Competitions — Dealing With Performance Stress, based on his experience during these years, published by Mel Bay.
Azabagic has recorded seven CDs for international labels such as Naxos, Cedille, Opera Tres, and Orobroy as well as two DVDs for the Mel Bay Company. His recordings and live performances are highly praised by music critics, who point to Azabagic's elegant approach to music and his unique way of communicating and reaching the hearts of his audience members.
As a guest instrumentalist and soloist, Azabagic has appeared with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Tallahassee Symphony Orchestra, Illinois Symphony Orchestra, Sacramento Chamber Orchestra, Madrid Symphony, and L’Orchestre Royal de Chambre de Mons, among others.
He is a regular guest at such venues as Chicago’s Symphony Center, Masters of the Guitar at the Royal Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), Radio France (Paris), Aix en Provence Festival (France), El Palau de la Musica (Valencia), Savannah on Stage (United States), Omni Foundation (United States), Ravinia Festival ( Chicago ), National Chang Kai Shek Cultural Center (Taiwan), National Center for the Performing Arts (Beijing).
Azabagic’s performances have been broadcasted live on radio (NPR, WFMT) and television in Asia, Europe, and the United States.
His repertoire includes solo and orchestral music from the Baroque era to the present.
Azabagic is an active member of the Cavatina Duo, whose chamber music repertoire is vast and includes many works written expressly for the duo.
Azabagic’s love for performing extends to sharing with others his knowledge of music making.
Denis Azabagic has been appointed the Head of the Guitar Department at the Chicago College of Performing Arts at the Roosevelt University.
Jorge Caballero
Jorge Caballero, the youngest musician and the only guitarist to win the prestigious Naumburg International Competition, is known for his dazzling virtuosity, his intense musicality, and his spellbinding performances. He is widely regarded as one of the finest guitarists of his generation. Allan Kozinn of the New York Times called him a "superb young guitarist" and praised his rare combination of "a deft, powerful technique and a soft-spoken interpretive persona."
Mr. Caballero's solo recitals have included performances at New York's Alice Tully Hall, the Library of Congress in Washington (as part of the Great Performers Series), The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco (as part of the Omni series), the Da Camera Society in Los Angeles, New York's Midtown Concert Series, BargeMusic, St. Bartholomew's Church, and other venues in the United States and internationally. He has performed as a soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Orchestra of St. Luke's, the New York Chamber Symphony, the Naples Philharmonic, the Kansas City Chamber Orchestra, and the Presidential Symphony Orchestra of Ankara, Turkey, among others.
Critics have praised Mr. Caballero's daring in performing the most difficult pieces in the guitar's repertoire, often together in the same program.
Caballero recorded Dvorak's New World symphony, transcribed for solo guitar, a piece that only he and one other guitarist in the world has performed. His 2000 Musical Heritage recording of the Bach cello suites, which he transcribed, was highly praised by critics. He has also recorded a CD with soprano Theresa Santiago. A recording of Bach's keyboard works is in the planning stages.
Caballero's performances include recitals at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, the Guitar Foundation Convention in Los Angeles, the Katzin Concert Hall of Arizona State University, Weill Recital Hall of Carnegie Hall (with violist David Aaron Carpenter), and tours in 2008, which included performances in Europe, Brazil, and Colombia.
A native of Lima, Peru, Mr. Caballero comes from a musical family. His mother is a well-known singer in Peru, and as a child he spent many evenings sitting backstage at her concerts. He learned to play the guitar from his father but he had already absorbed much knowledge about the instrument from listening to his father give lessons to others. Growing up at a time when terrorists in Peru bombed electrical stations, he became an expert at practicing in the dark.
Caballero began his professional training at the National Conservatory in Lima, studying with Oscar Zamora. He later came to the United States, where he attended the Manhattan School of Music. He is the recipient of top prizes at the Tokyo International Competition, the Luis Sigall Competition, and the First Latin American Guitar Competition, in addition to the Naumburg, which he won in 1996 at age 19.
Mr. Caballero's repertoire is notable for its breadth and scope: When he applied to the conservatory, his teacher suggested that perhaps he should list the pieces that he could not play, since there were so few of them. His repertoire ranges from Bach to Ginastera, from Paganini to Ponce, from Scarlatti and Dowland to Giuliani and Legnani, from Renaissance pieces for the vihuela to compositions by modern composers like Carter and Berio.
Caballero is a founding member of Axis, a string quintet that adds to the conventional string quartet the sensual sounds of guitar, thereby exploring new kinds of sound.
Cavatina Duo
Eugenia Moliner, flute; Denis Azabagic, guitar
BIOGRAPHY
The Cavatina Duo—made up of flautist Eugenia Moliner, from Spain, and guitarist Denis Azabagic, from Bosnia—has become one of the most impressive combinations of its kind in the world.
Critics have this to say about the duo:
"Style, sympathy, and technical aplomb... it's doubtful that the Cavatina's sophisticated and artistic playing could be surpassed."
Fanfare
Cavatina Duo has captivated audiences with their electrifying performances across North America, Europe, and Asia in such major venues and festivals as Ravinia (Chicago), Da Camera Society (Los Angeles), Aix-en-Provence Summer Festival (France), Eem & Veem Festival (Netherlands), International Guitar Festival of Frechen (Germany), Symphony Center Chicago, the National Concert Hall of Taipei (Taiwan), National Center for the Performing Arts (Beijing), National Flute convention Gala Concert United States), among many others.
The duo's repertoire includes music from the Baroque, Classical, Romantic and contemporary periods. A high point of their concerts is music inspired by the folk traditions of their native lands of Spain and the Balkans.
The duo's performances have been broadcast by radio and television stations in Europe and North America. They have been the subject of interviews in the international magazines such as Chamber Music (the publication of Chamber Music of America), Todo Flauta (Spain), Flute Talk (USA), Classical Guitar (UK), Guitarraonline magazine, Soundboard (United States). They are the first guitar and flute duo to be featured on both the cover of Classical Guitar magazine (UK) and the cover of Flute Talk (United States).
Composers from around the world have been inspired to compose and arrange new works for the duo, including Sérgio Assad and Clarice Assad (Brazil); Carlos Rivera, Michael Karmon (United States); Alan Thomas (UK-United States), Erik Otte (Netherlands); Alejandro Yagüe (Spain); Boris Gaquere (Belgium), and V. Ivanovic (Bosnia/Greece). The duo received the Encore Prize in 2003 for their collaboration with Michael Karmon. In February 2010, Cavatina duo premiered the Concerto for Flute Guitar and Orchestra dedicated to them by composer Alan Thomas, performed with Camerata Serbica, in Belgrade.
Cavatini Duo has recorded five CDs for Spanish and North American labels, such as Opera Tres, Cedille, Bridge, and Orobroy Records.
Eugenia Moliner has been acclaimed as a "brilliant young musician" by the British Flute Society. She has performed with the principal and co-principal musicians of the Chicago Symphony and Rotterdam Philharmonic orchestras, and has been featured on radio and television programs in Spain, the Netherlands, Mexico, Taiwan, and the United States. Her discography includes six CDs.
Mrs. Moliner is an artist-faculty member at the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University in Chicago.
Winner of no fewer than eleven international competitions, Denis Azabagic has been described as a "virtuoso with flawless technique" by Soundboard magazine. He has appeared as soloist with orchestras such as the Chicago and Madrid Symphonies, among many others. His discography includes nine CDs, two DVDs, and a manual titled On Competitions—Dealing With Performance Stress. He is a member of the guitar faculty at the Chicago College of Performing Arts of Roosevelt University.
The duo's blend of Spanish passion and Balkan sensibility make their concerts a unique experience.
Visit them at www.cavatinaduo.com
Mario da Silva
Mario da Silva was born in Rio de Janeiro. He graduated in classical guitar at Universidade do Paraná, Escola de Música e Belas Artes do Paraná (EMBAP, 1992) and and received a master's degree in Music Interpretation at University of Rio de Janeiro (Unirio, 2002). He took part in many guitar festivals. He was finalist in several guitar competitions. Besides participation in Brazilian contemporary composers’s CD, he has also recorded two solo CDs 1997 CD Nova Música Brasileira and 2000 CD música contemporanea brasileira desconstruida sob encomenda. Both CDs included a diversified Brazilian styles in composers such as Garoto (Anibal Augusto Sardinha), Edino Krieger, Radamés Gnatalli, Jaime Zenamon, and Arrigo Barnabé. He has been teaching classical guitar at EMBAP since 1991 and he is artistic director of Embap Academic Guitar Simposium (Simpóosio Acadêmico de Violão da Embap) since 2007.
Da Silva has performed as soloist at many guitar concerts highlighting Concert for Two Guitars and Strings by Edino Krieger conducted by the composer. He received a prize to perform Percussion Study 5 for viola alla chitarra by Arthur Kampela at Bienal of Contemporary Music, Rio de Janeiro, in 2007. He is currently developing projects in partnership with choreographer and dancer Rocio Infante, in which the guitar repertoire is “filtered” through dance, gestures, and specific movements within a multimedia work. Collaborative pieces have showed widely in Brazil and Italy. Da Silva has also commissioned works for guitar by Andre Abujamra, a project that is resulting in a CD to include da Silva's own works. Da SIlva has also written compositions for movies and plays.
Since 2009, da Silva has been working on a doctorate in Composition at University of Campinas (Sao Paulo, Brazil). He has been developing his research in Extended Technique on guitar in Brazil under the composer Denise Garcia, PhD . A s a soloist, he has been performing widely in Brazil, Italy, England, Germany, Switzerland, Portugal, Spain, and the United States. In 2011, he performed many concerts in Brazil as well as concerts and lectures in Oslo (Guitar Conference at the Norway Academy of Music), Helsinki (Finland Pop-Jazz Konservatorio), Paris, Toluca (Conservatorio de Mexico), Morelia (Conservatorio de Las Rosas) and Ciudad de Mexico (Radio IMER, Mexico).
Visit Myspace.com/mariodasilvaviolao
Videos
Serenade by Malcolm Arnold -
Study 11 by Heitor Villa-Lobos
Lamentos do Morro by Garoto
Daedalus Quartet
Min-Young Kim, violin; Matilda Kaul, violin; Jessica Thompson, viola; Thomas Kraines, cello
Praised by The New Yorker as “a fresh and vital young participant in what is a golden age of American string quartets,” the Daedalus Quartet has established itself as a leader among the new generation of string ensembles. During its eleven years of existence, the Daedalus Quartet has received plaudits from critics and listeners alike for the technical finish, interpretive unity, and sheer gusto of its performances. The New York Times has praised the Daedalus Quartet’s “insightful and vibrant” Haydn, the “impressive intensity” of their Beethoven, their “luminous” Berg, and the “riveting focus” of their Dutilleux. The Washington Post has acclaimed their performance of Mendelssohn for its “rockets of blistering virtuosity,” while the Houston Chronicle has described the “silvery beauty” of their Schubert and the “magic that hushed the audience” when they played Ravel. The Boston Globe praised the “finesse and fury” of their Shostakovich, the Toronto Globe and Mail cited the “thrilling revelation” of their Hindemith, and the Cincinnati Enquirer described the “tremendous emotional power” of their Brahms.
Since its founding, the Daedalus Quartet has performed in many of the world’s leading musical venues. In the United States and Canada, these include Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center (Great Performers series), the Library of Congress, the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C., and the Gardner Museum in Boston. Thy have also embarked on major series in Montreal, Toronto, Calgary, Winnipeg, and Vancouver. Abroad, the ensemble has been heard in such famed locations as the Musikverein in Vienna, the Mozarteum in Salzburg, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Cité de la Musique in Paris, and in leading venues in Japan.
The Daedalus Quartet has won plaudits for its adventurous exploration of contemporary music, most notably the compositions of Elliott Carter, George Perle, György Kurtág, and György Ligeti. Among the works the ensemble has premiered is David Horne’s Flight from the Labyrinth, commissioned for the quartet by the Caramoor Festival; Fred Lerdahl’s Third String Quartet, commissioned by Chamber Music America; and Lawrence Dillion’s String Quartet No. 4, commissioned by the Thomas S. Kenan Institute for the Arts. The 2010-2011 season features the premiere of Richard Wernick’s String Quartet No. 8, commissioned for the Daedalus Quartet by the Bay Shore Schools Arts Education Fund and the Islip Arts Council. Daedalus will premiere a new quartet from Joan Tower, commissioned for them by Chamber Music Monterey Bay, in April 2012. The quartet has also collaborated with some of the world’s finest instrumentalists, including pianists Marc-André Hamelin, Simone Dinnerstein, Awadagin Pratt, Joyce Yang, and Benjamin Hochman; clarinetists Paquito D’Rivera, David Shifrin, and Alexander Fiterstein; and violists Roger Tapping and Donald Weilerstein.
To date, the Daedalus Quartet has forged associations with some of America’s leading classical music and educational institutions, such as Carnegie Hall--through its European Concert Hall Organization (ECHO) Rising Stars program--and Lincoln Center, which appointed the Daedalus Quartet as the Chamber Music Society Two quartet for 2005-2007. The Daedalus Quartet has been Columbia University’s Quartet-in-Residence since 2005, and has served as Quartet-in-Residence at the University of Pennsylvania since 2006. In 2007, the Quartet was awarded Lincoln Center’s Martin E. Segal Award. The quartet won Chamber Music America’s Guarneri String Quartet Award, which funded a three-year residency in Suffolk County, Long Island from 2007-2010.
The Daedalus Quartet’s debut recording, featuring the music of Stravinsky, Sibelius, and Ravel, was released by Bridge Records in 2006. A Bridge recording of the Haydn’s complete “Sun” Quartets, Op. 20, was released on two CDs in July 2010. An album of chamber music by Lawrence Dillon (fall 2010) and the complete string quartets of Fred Lerdahl (fall 2011) followed, with a recording of quartets by George Perle planned for release in 2013.
Among the highlights of the Daedalus Quartet’s 2010-2011 season are performances at the Bravo! Vail Festival, the Bard Music Festival, the Mt. Desert Chamber Music Festival, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Great Performers at Lincoln Center, the Miller Theatre at Columbia University, the University of Pennsylvania, the Yale Center for British Art, Cornell University, the Tilles Center for the Performing Arts, the Asheville Chamber Music Society, the Mobile Chamber Music Society, and the Islip Arts Council.
The award-winning members of the Daedalus Quartet hold degrees from the Juilliard School, Curtis Institute, Cleveland Institute, and Harvard University.
Duo Cantabile
Lauri Aguirre, soprano; Mariano Aguirre, classical guitar
The voice and guitar ensemble Duo Cantabile has been charming audiences since its inception in 2002. They have received great accolades for their spirited and heartfelt performances spanning repertoire from Renaissance to folk music. Lauri and Mariano Aguirre have performed in the United States and Mexico in such venues as Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, Trinity Church, Templo del Carmen, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, CAMI Hall, and Queen’s Town Hall, to name a few. In 2009 Duo Cantabile presented at the New York Guitar Seminar the world-premiere of American composer Robert Cuckson’s song cycle “Worlds of Wanwood.” The duo has participated twice in the Discover concert series at The Cathedral of St. John the Divine and the Music in Chelsea series at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, as well as at other recital venues in the New York metropolitan area.
In addition to forming this artistic venture, both musicians have active solo careers both here and abroad. Lauri has performed in opera, oratorio, and musical theater venues ranging from the Finnish National Opera Company in Helsinki to the Village Light Opera Group in New York City. She has enjoyed numerous oratorio engagements as soprano soloist for Handel’s Messiah, Mozart’s Requiem, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Dubois’ Seven Last Words of Christ. Her operatic performances have included Le Nozze di Figaro, La Traviata, Lucia di Lammermoore, Don Carlo, Falstaff and Lohengrin. Mariano has performed recitals in the United States and Mexico and has appeared at many festivals, including the Young Artist Series at the Aspen Music Festival, the Warwick Music Festival, and Mexico’s National University and Centro Nacional de las Artes. His awards include the Gregory Award for Excellence in Performance given by The New School and the Artists International Competition. Mariano has recorded with Six Hands Guitar Trio on the Vienna Modern Masters label.
Aside from their performing endeavors, Lauri and Mariano have busy private music studios and are faculty members of the Brooklyn Music School. Mariano is also on the faculty at the Mannes College of Music Preparatory Division. They both are graduates of the Mannes College of Music in New York City and hold bachelor's and master's degrees with honors from this institution. The artists have also found joy beyond their music making: Lauri and Mariano were married in 2005 and in 2007 gave birth to their baby daughter, Sofia.
www.duocantabileny.com
Stephen Goss
“Composer Stephen Goss draws on a variety of sources for his eminently listenable music. Despite the eclectic nature of his influences, which range from Beethoven’s late piano music to the films of former Python Terry Gilliam, Goss’s musical language comes across as brilliantly integrated….”
- International Record Review
Stephen Goss writes communicative and accessible music that draws freely on a number of styles and genres. Sometimes allusions to the music that inspires him are disguised - perhaps only a rhythm or harmony is retained - sometimes they dazzle the ear with unexpected juxtapositions.
Steve's music receives hundreds of performances worldwide each year and has been recorded on over 40 CDs by more than a dozen record labels, including EMI, Decca, Virgin Classics, Telarc, Naxos and Deutsche Grammophon. Recent commissions have come from: guitarists David Russell, Milos Karadaglic and Xuefei Yang cellist Natalie Clein, flautist William Bennett, and the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra. Steve's Albéniz Concerto (2009) for guitar and orchestra was released to great critical acclaim on EMI Classics in November 2010. His collaborative project with Prof. Charles Jencks, The Garden of Cosmic Speculation (2005), for violin, cello, bass clarinet and piano, was profiled on The South Bank Show on ITV1.
Projects for 2012/13 include; a new guitar concerto for the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, works for guitarist John Williams, violinist Nicola Benedetti, and a piano concerto for Emmanuel Despax. Steve is Professor of Music and Head of Composition at the University of Surrey, and a Visiting Professor at the Royal Academy of Music in London.
www.stephengoss.net
Dale Kavanagh
Canadian-born Dale Kavanagh is one of the guitar world’s most gifted interpreters. Between 1986 and 1988, Ms. Kavanagh was a top prize winner in Spain’s Segovia Competition, Italy’s Gargnano Competition, Switzerland’s Neuchatel Competition and won First and Special Prize winner in Finland’s Scandinavian International Guitar Competition.
Kavanagh received her Bachelor of Music degree at Dalhousie University in Canada, then completed her graduate studies with the Solisten Diplom at the Musik Akademie der Stadt Basel with Oscar Ghiglia, in Switzerland.
She performs internationally as a soloist and in the Amadeus Guitar Duo with German guitarist Thomas Kirchhoff and has given recitals in more than 40 countries.
Kavanagh is a regular recitalist and teacher in guitar and music festivals in Canada, Turkey, Poland, Germany, Holland, Sweden, Hungary, England, Argentina, Mexico, China, and the United States and has given more than 1,000 concerts around the world.
Many composers have written works for Kavanagh, including Carlo Domeniconi (Toccata in blue, Chaconne, Oyun), Roland Dyens (Concertomaggio, Lulla by Melissa), Jaime M. Zenamon (Sonta 3, Charisma, Casablanca), Stephen Dodgson (Pastourelle), Stephen Funk Pearson (Five bilboards), Bruce Shavers, Christian Jost (Pegasus, Times 3), and Harald Genzmer (Concerto).
Her six solo CDs and 10 duo-CDs have received superlative reviews in international magazines including Classical Guitar magazine, Fanfare magazine, Fono-Forum, Hi-Fi-Vision, Gendai Guitar, Gitarre & Laute, La Cahier de la Guitare, Musikblatt, Staccato, Soundboard magazine, Gitar och Luta and many others. She has been teaching at the Musikhochschule in Detmold, Germany (www.hfm-detmold.de) since 1999 and is an exclusive artist with Hänssler Classic since 1998.
Here is what press had to say about Dale Kavanagh:
"Overwhelming technique, powerful sound, and fantastic musicality."
Klassik Heute, Jan. 2001
Played with a brilliant sound and with an astonishing technique."
Der Spiegel, Oct. 2000
"Phenominal clarity in her highly emotional playing."
Acoustik Guitar, Jan. 2004
Stunning playing!“
Fanfare, Feb. 2002
The Newman & Oltman Guitar Duo
Laura Oltman and Michael Newman, guitars
Hailed as a “revelation to hear” by the Washington Post, the Newman & Oltman Guitar Duo’s phenomenal musicianship places them solidly at the top of their field. Their innovative programming, matchless technique, and ensemble precision, combined with their commitment to expanding the repertoire for guitar duos, make them a standout chamber ensemble in every way.
Newman and Oltman’s concert tours have taken them to world cultural capitals and premier venues across five continents. Recent highlights include performances in the United States, Asia, major capitals of Europe, South America, South Africa, Canada, the Caribbean, and the South Pacific, with performances at Carnegie Hall, aboard the Queen Elizabeth II, at Caramoor, and at the Grand Canyon, among other locales. The pair have demonstrated extraordinary stylistic breadth in their collaborations with diverse artists such as composer-conductor Marvin Hamlisch and the Pittsburgh Symphony Pops, violinist Arnold Steinhardt, fiddler Eileen Ivers, and numerous string quartets, including ETHEL, Calder, Daedalus, and Turtle Island.
Highlights of this season include the world premiere of “Concierto Buenos Aires” composed for the duo by Nuevo Tango master Daniel Binelli with l’Orchestre de l’Opéra de Reims in France and with the Virginia Symphony (JoAnn Falletta, music director). Also this season, Newman & Oltman will join forces with the dynamic violinist Tim Fain—featured performer in the hit film Black Swan—for a program of works by classical and contemporary composers. The multitalented Grammy Award-nominated Clarice Assad joined Newman & Oltman at the Raritan River Music Festival, in May 2011.
Through their groundbreaking New Music Commissioning Program, Newman & Oltman have built a unique repertoire of works for two guitars created by leading and emerging composers such as Paul Moravec, Augusta Reed Thomas, Lowell Liebermann, Dušan Bogdanović, and Roberto Sierra. The duo’s latest CD, Music from Raritan River (MSR Classics 1298), which was hailed by Fanfareas “top notch” and “a winner all around,” features a collection of world premieres commissioned by the duo over the past decade.
Their artistry has also been captured on nearly a dozen other acclaimed recordings, including Songs of Spain (BMG) Laments and Dances: Music from the Folk Traditions (Music Masters); ones made with the Turtle Island Quartet, Sally Rogers, and Jay Unger; Tango Suite! Romance for Two Guitars (Music Masters); and Christmas Pastorale: 600 Years of Carols, Chorales, Preludes and Pastorales on Two Guitars (Musical Heritage Society). Their recordings uniformly garner critical praise: “A reference standard” (Billboard); “ T heir duet recordings reveal a finely blended sound and true unity of timbre and style” (New York Times); “…beautifully realized performances” (Guitar Player magazine).
Newman & Oltman’s contributions to the world of music have been recognized by grants and awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, Chamber Music America, and other national and international organizations, including the ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming.
The duo has served as ensemble-in-residence at New York’s Mannes College The New School for Music since 1987, and has recently been featured artists-in-residence at Cornell University, University of Puerto Rico, and Lafayette College, in Pennsylvania. Newman and Oltman are founders and artistic directors of the New York Guitar Seminar at Mannes, which takes place every summer in New York City (www.mannes.edu/guitar). They also are founders and music directors of New Jersey’s Raritan River Concerts and the Raritan River Music Festival (www.RaritanRiverMusic.org).
Michael Newman serves on the faculty of Mannes College. Laura Oltman serves on the faculties of Princeton University and Lafayette College. For m ore information, including the latest on the duo’s schedule of appearances, visit their website, www.guitarduo.com .
Laura Oltman graduated with honors from Florida State University. She studied with Bruce Holzman, Oscar Ghiglia, Luisa Sanchez de Fuentes, and Andrés Segovia. Michael Newman is a graduate of The Mannes College of Music. His teachers were Thomas Anthony, Alberto Valdes Blain, and Oscar Ghiglia. In between concert tours, Michael and Laura are restoring their 19th-century house on the Delaware River in New Jersey, where they live with their numerous cats.
Newman Oltman play Thomas Humphrey Pre-Millennium guitars (1978,1981) with D’Addario EXP46C Composite Coated and Titanium Treble High Tension strings.
.jpg "Roldan c")
Francisco Roldán
Colombian-born guitarist Francisco Roldán has performed in Russia, Spain, Colombia, Argentina, and Paraguay. He has played throughout the United States in venues such as Merkin Concert Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Weill Recital Hall, CAMI Hall, Gracie Mansion, the Museum of the City of New York, and the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City; Harmony Hall in Maryland; St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Milwaukee; and for the Philadelphia Guitar Society, the New Jersey Chamber Music Society, the Puffin Gallery, the Colombian Consulates in New York and Boston, the Smithsonian Library in Washington, D.C., the Round Top Music Festival, the Spanish Institute, the Americas Society, and various universities and libraries.
Roldán long career of performing and recording has garnered great acclaim. In 1999, he was invited to perform Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez in two performances with the Celebrate! orchestra under the direction of Laurine Fox, which received public and critical acclaim. In the 2000 season, Roldán played a solo recital at Weill Hall, Carnegie Hall, under the auspices of the Aranjuez Guitar Strings Series. His first CD of solo music, titled Latin Guitar (in which he interprets the music of Barrios, Lauro, and which contains the world premiere recording of the Dominican composer Rafael Landestoy's complete works for guitar), was released in 2003. In 2005, he released his second CD, titled Almost All Bach, in which he interprets the music of Bach and Scarlatti. (They can both be heard and purchased at cdbaby.com.)
During the summer of 2006, Mr. Roldán played a recital in Bogotá at the Fernando Sor School of Music and was immediately invited back to teach in their annual Guitar Festival in November, 2006, and to perform another recital. In the summer of 2007, he participated in a recital as an Invited artist at the Interpretation of Spanish Song Festival in Granada, Spain. In 2008, he was invited back to the festival as a guest artist to teach and play a concert and was invited to play a solo recital in the southern Spanish town of Berja. Roldán also played a concert at the Mannes 2008 Guitar Festival in New York City with his quartet, Zigzag. He has played various concerti and has participated in numerous chamber music recitals with choruses, singers, and instrumentalists. He accompanied acclaimed flamenco dancer Pilar Rioja at the Repertorio Español theater in New York City for eight seasons.
Roldán has been entertaining audiences since his early years at the Mannes College of Music. He received annual scholarships and received a master's degree in Performance from the Mannes College of Music. Mr. Roldán subsequently supplemented his studies by playing in master classes for Manuel Barrueco, Sharon Isbin, David Russell, and Paul Odette. In the spring of 1993, he gave a solo New York debut recital at the Weill Recital Hall, Carnegie Hall, that launched his career as a soloist.
Roldán is currently on the faculty of the Mannes College of Music Extension and Preparatory Divisions and at Lehman College, City University of New York.
Carlo Valte
Arabic lute ('oud) and guitar
Carlo Valte is active as a soloist, ensemble player, and educator in New York and abroad. His acclaimed performances include ones at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, the United Nations, and the Providence Civic Center. He is also a founder of the Six Hands Guitar Trio, which has performed extensively around Mexico and northeastern United States. Carlo has conducted workshops and educational programs with Sendebar (www.Sendebar.org), as ’oudist, at Queens College (CUNY), The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and many public and private schools in New York City and Connecticut. Carlo records with the Vienna Concert Masters and Onesoul Records labels.
Carlo serves on the faculties of Queensborough Community College (CUNY), Mannes College The New School for Music, and the New York Collegium. His own education in classical guitar began with Michael Dadap. He later went on to receive his Bachelor of Science and Master of Music degrees at the Mannes College of Music, where he was a scholarship student of Frederic Hand. Carlo's interest in research and interpretation of early and Middle Eastern music led him to study with Simon Shaheen.
Jason Vieaux
"…among the elite of today's classical guitarists."
Gramophone
One of the “youngest stars of the guitar world” (New York Times, 2010), Jason Vieaux is a musician regularly noted for his engaging and virtuosic live performances, imaginative programming, and uncommon communicative gifts. Recent concert highlights include recitals for Lincoln Center and the 92nd St. Y in New York, Dumbarton Oaks in Washington DC, a debut with the Charlotte Symphony, and recitals for Spivey Hall and Indiana University. Vieaux's 2010-2011 concerto performances include works by Rodrigo, Villa-Lobos, Piazzolla, and Roberto Sierra performed with the Chautauqua Music Festival, Boston’s A Far Cry Chamber Orchestra, and the symphonies of Mexico City, Ft. Worth, Grand Rapids, Illinois, Williamsburg, Reading, and Dubuque. His current chamber music collaborations with the Escher Quartet, flutist Gary Schocker, and bandoneon/accordion virtuoso Julien Labro continue to display Vieaux’s extensive range of musical interests. As one of the “leading guitarists of his generation” (Absolute Sound, 2009), Jason Vieaux has established a lasting connection with his audiences, as evidenced by numerous return invitations in 2010-2011 to series in Toronto, Cleveland, Kalamazoo, Greenville (NC), and the Music@Menlo festival. In October, Vieaux received a 2010 Salon De Virtuosi Career Grant and performed with mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke at the Kennedy Center.
Jason Vieaux is a frequent guest with orchestras across the United States. He has performed as concerto soloist with, among many others, the Cleveland Orchestra, Ft. Worth Symphony, San Diego Symphony, the Florida Orchestra, the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Orchestra 2001, IRIS Chamber Orchestra, and the Auckland Philharmonia in New Zealand, while working with such renowned conductors as Miguel Harth-Bedoya, David Robertson, Michael Stern, Jahja Ling, Stefan Sanderling, and Alasdair Neale. Vieaux’s triumphant programs and collaborations for Music@Menlo, Strings Music Festival, Grand Teton, Jupiter Chamber Players and others have forged his reputation as a first-rate chamber musician. A passionate advocate of new music, Vieaux has premièred new pieces by Jerod Impichchaachaaha' Tate, José Luis Merlin, Eric Sessler, Arthur Hernandez, Gary Schocker, Fazil Say, and frequently plays works by Mario Davidovsky, Roberto Sierra, and John Corigliano.
Jason Vieaux has ten recordings to his credit and many more to come under his multi-record deal with Azica Records. His recording Bach Vol. 1: Works for Lute, was released in the spring of 2009 and, after reaching #13 on Billboard’s Classical Chart after its first week, received rave reviews by Gramophone magazine and The Absolute Sound . His previous CD, Images of Metheny, features music by renowned American Jazz guitarist-composer Pat Metheny. Metheny, after listening to this landmark recording, declared: "I am flattered to be included in Jason's musical world." Sevilla: The Music of Isaac Albeniz , was rated one of the top ten classical CDs of the year by both the Philadelphia Inquirer and Cleveland’s Plain Dealer. Vieaux recorded his first CD when he was 19, and two years later released the highly successful Laureate Series Guitar Recital on the Naxos label. Vieaux's recordings and live performances can be heard on the radio and found on the Internet; he is often a guest of top-rated programs such as NPR’s "All Things Considered," "Morning Edition," and American Public Media’s "Performance Today." Vieaux’s expressive and communicative gifts have been the subject of many newspaper and magazine articles published in the United States and abroad. Acoustic Guitar magazine included Jason Vieaux in its January 2008 cover article The New Virtuosos as “one of three young musicians pushing the instrument beyond the traditional.” England’s MUSO and Gramophone magazines have published feature articles on Vieaux.
Jason Vieaux began guitar studies at age eight with Jeremy Sparks in Buffalo, New York, and continued study at The Cleveland Institute of Music with John Holmquist. He is the youngest First Prize winner in the history of the prestigious Guitar Foundation of America International Competition, a Naumburg International Guitar Competition prize winner, and, in recognition of his prodigious talent and extraordinary professional career, The Cleveland Institute of Music honored Vieaux with their Alumni Achievement Award in 1998. In 1995, Vieaux was an Artistic Ambassador of the United States to Southeast Asia, and performed concerts in Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, India, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Myanmar (Burma). He has also toured Europe, Mexico, Canada, the Far East, Australia, and New Zealand.
Aside from his duties as a performer, Vieaux is highly dedicated to the art of teaching. He currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio, where he is head of the Cleveland Institute of Music Guitar Department, the youngest department head to serve at the prestigious conservatory. He is also affiliated with Philadelphia-based Astral Artists. For more information and to join his newsletter, visit www.jasonvieaux.com.
