For the most up-to-date information about performances, check the Facebook page.
11/6/24 The Virtual Guitar Orchestra released its recording/video of the first movement from Celestial Navigation - The Sun.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFgdFcoQtHo
www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFgdFcoQtHo
8/23/24 Album release, East Meets West - works of Ian Krouse and Ronald Pearl, Robert Trent, guitar.
3/6/2024 - Premiere of Music From a Distant Room, for Electric Guitar and String Quartet. Zane Forshee and the Bergamot String Quartet.
Livestream
Livestream
3/2023 Just published: Together Apart, now available from Guitar Chamber Music Press.
9/2023 - Premiere recording of Meditation, by Emmanouil Makridis; First live performance 11/2023 in Thessaloniki, Greece.
10/22 The Sigh of the Weary, for solo guitar. Premiere by Larry Almeida, Pinehurst ID.
8/5/22 Goya, for solo guitar. Premiere, William Feasley, Walnut Creek CA.
7/28/22 Slowly Winter Approaches, for guitar octet. Premiere - Santiago, Chile, conducted by David Tanenbaum.
5/8/21. Premiere of Together Apart for guitar quartet; Atlantic Guitar Quartet, Baltimore Classical Guitar Society concert series
5/7/21. Premiere of Motherless, for solo viola; Carlos Boltes, Hartford CT
10/4/19 Premiere of Late, for cello and piano ; Lars Hoef, Alexandra Aubert; Campinhas, Brazil
7/31/19 Premiere of Reflection, for solo guitar; Zane Forshee at the Peabody Guitar Intensive, Baltimore MD
3/11/19 The Avanti Guitar Trio - new CD, Ladders to Light. Includes the first recording of Jacob's Ladder. More info here: https://www.avantiguitartrio.com/audio
3/3/19 - Premiere of Celestial Navigation for Guitar Orchestra. This will be part of Fret Fest, at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, Julian Gray conducting.
Zane Forshee will be performing My Name is Red and Four at III in various combinations at the following venues:
2/10/19: Mainstay (Four at III & Red) - Rock Hall MD
2/24: University of Minnesota-Duluth
3/7: Portland, OR: All Classical FM Thursdays at 3
3/9: San Francisco, CA: 1337 Mission
3/15: Seattle: King FM NW Focus Live
3/16: Bellingham, WA: Red & Four at III
3/18: Seattle: Jewel Box Theatre:
4/13: St. Louis, MO: Flood Plain
4/26: Baltimore: Motorhouse
7/02: Scotland: Classical Guitar Retreat
2/10/19: Mainstay (Four at III & Red) - Rock Hall MD
2/24: University of Minnesota-Duluth
3/7: Portland, OR: All Classical FM Thursdays at 3
3/9: San Francisco, CA: 1337 Mission
3/15: Seattle: King FM NW Focus Live
3/16: Bellingham, WA: Red & Four at III
3/18: Seattle: Jewel Box Theatre:
4/13: St. Louis, MO: Flood Plain
4/26: Baltimore: Motorhouse
7/02: Scotland: Classical Guitar Retreat
Alturas Duo will be performing several movements from Night Music:
2/10/19 Connecticut Guitar Festival - Westport CT
2/23 International House of Rhode Island - Providence RI
2/10/19 Connecticut Guitar Festival - Westport CT
2/23 International House of Rhode Island - Providence RI
Robert Trent in concert - My Name is Red, and the Impromptu I composed for him are on the programs:
2/18/19 Radford,VA
2/25 Spartanburg, SC
2/27 & 2/28 Charlotte, NC
3/1 Roanoke, VA
4/10-12 Long Island, NY
2/18/19 Radford,VA
2/25 Spartanburg, SC
2/27 & 2/28 Charlotte, NC
3/1 Roanoke, VA
4/10-12 Long Island, NY
3/24/18 - Zane Forshee will perform two works - My Name is Red, and the West Coast premiere of Four at III, at the Naked City Brewery and Taphouse in Seattle WA.
3/11/18 - the Sheu-Pettit duo will be giving a concert for the Philadelphia Guitar Society. They will include Fast, and A Clear Quiet Night on the program. More info here: https://pcgs.wildapricot.org
2/24/18 - Robert Trent will premiere a small piece I dedicated to him, Impromptu. the concert is at Radford University, Redford VA.
11/17/17 - The Sheu-Pettit duo will be performing two works of mine for the Salon Series of the New York Classical Guitar Society. Fast, which they premiered last year, and a new work I composed for them this past summer, A Clear, Quiet Night will be on the program. nyccgs.com/sheu-pettit-duo/
10/15/17 - Zane Forshee will perform My Name is Red for the Friends of Music Concerts at Eliot Unitarian Chapel in St. Louis.
10/5/17 - The ADAA trio - the Alturas Duo and Alexandra Aubert will premiere two songs at Loyola University Maryland. The songs have texts by Violeta Parra - No Llores, and Nicole Lafourcade - Violeta Cascabelera.
5/13/17 - The Central Maryland Chorale and the Alturas Duo will give the premiere of Songs of Water/Canciones del Agua. The concert will take place at The Lutheran Church of St. Andrew in Silver Spring, Maryland. The work is on seven movements, with texts by Lorca, Joyce, Jimenez, as well as haiku translated by Jonathan Clements. For SATB chorus, it calls for guitar, viola, and charango. The movements are:
La Balada del Agua del Mar
The pure morning dew
The first snow
Across the Stream
She weeps over Rahoon
Its sail dips in the sea
Mares
La Balada del Agua del Mar
The pure morning dew
The first snow
Across the Stream
She weeps over Rahoon
Its sail dips in the sea
Mares
3/29/17 - I will be giving a solo recital at Loyola University Maryland. This performance will feature all new/recent works: Four at III, A Breathing of the Hand; Three Winter Pieces, and It's a Beautiful Glass.
3/28/17 - The Sheu-Pettit Duo will perform Fast on their concert at Oklahoma City University.
3/17/17 - The Sheu-Pettit Duo will perform Fast on their concert at the Pasadena Conservatory. Also on the program will be a wonderful selection of Castelnouvo-Tedesco's Well-Tempered Guitars.
3/16/17 - The Avanti Guitar Trio will perform Jacob's Ladder at the First Park Congregational Church, 10 East Park Place Northeast Grand Rapids, MI
2/7/17 My Name is Red – Robert Trent; Radford University, Radford VA
1/15/17 - Kenji Haba will give the premiere of the solo guitar work, Four at III, at the Cornelia Street Cafe. The concert will also feature works for guitar and cello, with the fine cellist, Molly Aronson.
12/29/16 - Robert Trent will perform My Name is Red at the III Festival Internacional de Guitarra de Guimarães, in Guimaraes, Portugal.
12/10-11/16 Performances in Vietnam - Robert Trent will be performing My Name is Red at the Saigon International Guitar Festival. The following day, the Radford University Guitar Ensemble will perform three movements from Be Not Afeard at the same festival.
12/2/16 The Sheu-Pettit Guitar Duo is scheduled to perform Fast for two guitars at the Pasadena Conservatory (CA).
11/10/16 - The Avanti Guitar Trio will perform Jacob's Ladder at the Ethical Humanist Society of Chicago.
11/9/16 - The D'Amore Duo will perform Abraham and Isaac at Georgia College in Milledgeville GA.
9/25/16 - Duo Anova will be performing on the Sunday Afternoon Concert Series, Harford Community College. Included in the program will be Frozen Columns, which they premiered last spring in Hartford.
8/20/16 - New recording: Drake Michael Duffer has just released a wonderful album, Scordatura. Works by Johanson, Domeniconi, Bogdonavic, Dyens, Diabate, and yours truly (My Name is Red). You can hear My Name is Red, below. Check out the rest of the album - it is terrific. http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/drakeduffer
6/24/16, 6/27/16 The D'Amore Duo will be performing Abraham and Isaac in Kromeriz, and Prague, Czech Republic, as part of the Festival Forfest
6/28/16 The D'Amore Duo performing Abraham and Isaac in Banksa Stiavnica, Slovakia
6/28/16 The D'Amore Duo performing Abraham and Isaac in Banksa Stiavnica, Slovakia
6/16/16 Kenji Haba and Molly Aronson: Frozen Columns - Composer's Voice Series, The Firehouse Space, 246 Frost St, Brooklyn, New York 11211
5/15/16 Emily Tsai, oboe and William Feasley, guitar - the D'Amore Duo - gave the premiere of Abraham and Isaac, on their concert at the Shepherd International Guitar Fesitval, Shepherdstown, WV.
Upcoming performances:
4/18/16 Zane Forshee: My Name is Red - The Makespace, Harrisburg PA
5/6/16 The Alturas Duo: The Places We Left Behind - http://www.maisondemai.org/ Paris, France
5/7/16 The Alturas Duo: The Places We Left Behind - Iglesia Evangélica Rubí, Barcelona, Spain
5/9/16 The Alturas Duo: The Places We Left Behind - Johann-Sebastian-Bach-Musikschule, Vienna, Austria
5/12/16 The Alturas Duo: The Places We Left Behind - San Marcos Rincon de la Guitarra, Segovia, Spain
4/18/16 Zane Forshee: My Name is Red - The Makespace, Harrisburg PA
5/6/16 The Alturas Duo: The Places We Left Behind - http://www.maisondemai.org/ Paris, France
5/7/16 The Alturas Duo: The Places We Left Behind - Iglesia Evangélica Rubí, Barcelona, Spain
5/9/16 The Alturas Duo: The Places We Left Behind - Johann-Sebastian-Bach-Musikschule, Vienna, Austria
5/12/16 The Alturas Duo: The Places We Left Behind - San Marcos Rincon de la Guitarra, Segovia, Spain
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Upcoming premiere: Duo Anova will present Frozen Columns, in concert at the Connecticut Guitar Society, Saturday, March 5, 8 pm, in Hartford Ct. For cello and guitar, this is the third movement of the four movement work Dream of Mountains. |
Upcoming performance of Three Roads to the North, by TrioconBrio, in Stuttgart, Germany. This wonderful ensemble will be celebrating its 25th anniversary as a performing ensemble. TrioConBrio – Jubiläumskonzert Theaterhaus Stuttgart 17.01.2016
Upcoming premiere: The Arabesque Duo - Troy King and Kathrin Murray - will premiere The River, for two guitars, at their concert for the Philadelphia Guitar Society's concert on February 14, 2016. The piece is a series of interconnected movements that flow from one to the next, at times still, at times racing - hence the title. I'm excited to hear them play the piece. They are fine players individually, and they are a terrific ensemble.
Talking with Zane Forshee and David Revill after the concert at Livewire. (We look so serious!) David's piece Harihara is wonderful - very glad I was able to hear it!
Zane Forshee/Livewire performance. My Name is Red will be performed at University of Maryland Baltimore County's new music festival, Livewire. I'll be speaking as part of the composer's panel on Saturday, 10/24/15.
Premiere
Duo Vitare will premiere the next movement in the cello-guitar suite In the Mountains, on August 26th, Nikolai Hall, Jyväskylä, Finland. The title of the movement is Soaring.This will be followed by a performance on August 28 in Turku, Finland, at the Turku Art Museum. Update - premiere happened as scheduled, performance went well. Audio can be heard here.
New Review:
American Record Guide - November/December 2014
Atlantic Guitar Quartet
BENSA: La Grande Terre; PEARL: Be Not Afraid: Prospero’s Island; SMOOKE: Topographies 2; GAINEY: Meltwater; PART: Variations for the Healing of Arinuschka AGQ 0—63 minutes (732-904-6188)
The quartet—Petrit Ceku, Kevin Shannon, Zoe Johnstone Stewart, and Jonathan Zwi—is dedicated to performing the music of living com- posers (yes, Arvo Part is still alive). There is little information about these composers, though there are descriptions of the music, mostly by the composers, with varying levels of coherence. And it’s all set in “death to the aging” type—tiny white characters on black background. Lots of abstract expressionistic illustrations, though the music isn’t expressionist.
They play quite well, given the demands of these works, many of which require unorthodox techniques. Ensemble is precise, and they are capable of truly lovely sounds when called for. And the works are quite varied. Olivier Bensa’s Grande Terre—The Great Land, a local name for New Caledonia—is in five movements, each with rather primal titles: Mineral, Eclosion, Circle, Words, Memory. The work blends sonic effects with minimalist repetition, but doesn’t leave much of an impression.
But Ronald Pearl’s Be Not Afraid: Music From Prospero’s Island, while sharing the minimalist textures and occasional effects, makes a very strong impression. This is truly beautiful music, and though it brings to mind both Philip Glass and John Adams, Pearl has a distinct personality. This is another five-movement suite, also recalling an island—the one in Shakespeare’s Tempest—and the titles are taken from a passage where the newly stranded travelers are introduced to the island. The sounds they will hear are strange sounds that yet “give delight and hurt not”. This disc is worth acquiring for this work alone (it’s also the longest). The recurring rising scale of ‘The Clouds Methought Would Open’ creates a purely magical, and so beautiful, world.
With David Smooke’s Topographies 2: (maps and distortions), we’re back in the world of sound effects, but this work is more coherent than Bensa’s—delicate sounds that remind me of George Crumb. Like Crumb, he also uses bottleneck effects for quarter tones. The com- poser’s notes refer to “this idea vision of impossible maps” and he largely succeeds in evoking how that might be experienced in sound. Christopher Gainey’s Meltwater is a beautiful minimalist work, inspired by various water systems he has lived near—the Chesapeake Bay in Pennsylvania and Maryland, the Mississippi in Iowa, and the various tributaries leading to the Salish Sea in the Pacific North- west. Minimalist language is perhaps even better at evoking the flow of water than the impressionists—the repeated sounds that grow and grow, like streams leading into larger streams, rivers, bays, oceans.
I’m fond of the music of Arvo Pärt, but his 1977 piano piece Variations for the Healing of Arinuschka leaves little impression. It has his usual sublime simplicity, but it’s so spare that it lacks the power his music can convey.
KEATON
Atlantic Guitar Quartet
BENSA: La Grande Terre; PEARL: Be Not Afraid: Prospero’s Island; SMOOKE: Topographies 2; GAINEY: Meltwater; PART: Variations for the Healing of Arinuschka AGQ 0—63 minutes (732-904-6188)
The quartet—Petrit Ceku, Kevin Shannon, Zoe Johnstone Stewart, and Jonathan Zwi—is dedicated to performing the music of living com- posers (yes, Arvo Part is still alive). There is little information about these composers, though there are descriptions of the music, mostly by the composers, with varying levels of coherence. And it’s all set in “death to the aging” type—tiny white characters on black background. Lots of abstract expressionistic illustrations, though the music isn’t expressionist.
They play quite well, given the demands of these works, many of which require unorthodox techniques. Ensemble is precise, and they are capable of truly lovely sounds when called for. And the works are quite varied. Olivier Bensa’s Grande Terre—The Great Land, a local name for New Caledonia—is in five movements, each with rather primal titles: Mineral, Eclosion, Circle, Words, Memory. The work blends sonic effects with minimalist repetition, but doesn’t leave much of an impression.
But Ronald Pearl’s Be Not Afraid: Music From Prospero’s Island, while sharing the minimalist textures and occasional effects, makes a very strong impression. This is truly beautiful music, and though it brings to mind both Philip Glass and John Adams, Pearl has a distinct personality. This is another five-movement suite, also recalling an island—the one in Shakespeare’s Tempest—and the titles are taken from a passage where the newly stranded travelers are introduced to the island. The sounds they will hear are strange sounds that yet “give delight and hurt not”. This disc is worth acquiring for this work alone (it’s also the longest). The recurring rising scale of ‘The Clouds Methought Would Open’ creates a purely magical, and so beautiful, world.
With David Smooke’s Topographies 2: (maps and distortions), we’re back in the world of sound effects, but this work is more coherent than Bensa’s—delicate sounds that remind me of George Crumb. Like Crumb, he also uses bottleneck effects for quarter tones. The com- poser’s notes refer to “this idea vision of impossible maps” and he largely succeeds in evoking how that might be experienced in sound. Christopher Gainey’s Meltwater is a beautiful minimalist work, inspired by various water systems he has lived near—the Chesapeake Bay in Pennsylvania and Maryland, the Mississippi in Iowa, and the various tributaries leading to the Salish Sea in the Pacific North- west. Minimalist language is perhaps even better at evoking the flow of water than the impressionists—the repeated sounds that grow and grow, like streams leading into larger streams, rivers, bays, oceans.
I’m fond of the music of Arvo Pärt, but his 1977 piano piece Variations for the Healing of Arinuschka leaves little impression. It has his usual sublime simplicity, but it’s so spare that it lacks the power his music can convey.
KEATON
Review:
Ludwigsburger Kreiszeitung - 5/9/15
I'm posting this in the original German - I have to get it translated by a person: the online versions are still nice, but have some rather hilarious locutions... This was a review from a concert that included
Three Roads to The North.
Mit Kammermusik weit mehr als 100 Besucher anzuziehen, noch dazu am Abend eines ganz gewöhnlichen Werktags, das ist nicht selbstverständlich. Dem mit hervorragenden Musikerinnen besetzten TrioConBrio ist das gelungen. Albéniz‘ Stücke gingen regelrecht unter die Haut. Den Musikerinnen gelang es, die in dem Stück des US-amerikanischen Komponisten Ronald Pearl mitschwingenden Gefühle mit ihrer äußerst emotionalen Spielweise zu transportieren. Mit „Buenos Aires Color Pastel“ von Máximo Pujol fand das Konzert einen äußerst temperamentvollen Abschluss.
Upcoming premiere: TrioConBrio will be giving the premiere of Three Roads to the North, for flute, viola, and guitar. The concert will take place in Stuttgart, Germany, at the Vesperkirche, February 1, 2015. That makes two premieres on consecutive days (see the Encuerdas info below), in two countries, 180 miles apart. Never had that happen before! Both works are on the Audio/Video page.
Upcoming Premiere: Encuerdas, the fine cello-gutar duo, will give the premiere of "The Lullaby of Ice and Snow", one of movements of my recent work "In the Mountains". The concert will take place at the Villa Sträuli, Winterthur Switzerland, on January 31, 2015. The work was written for four cello-guitar duos, and each will have a movement to premiere (more info below - see New project below). UPDATE: There is a video of the performance on the Audio/Video page.
Work finished with the Atlantic Guitar Quartet. 5/10/14 - Played the last concert with the AGQ, with works by Garth Baxter, Joshua Bornfield, and Stephen Goss. It was a great experience playing with them while Zoe Johnstone-Stewart was on a maternity break. She's back, and they are sounding as good as ever. I had a wonderful time playing and rehearsing with them. Fine musicians, fine people. Very fortunate experience for me!
Zane Forshee in recital. Zane will be performing My Name is Red, as a part of his concert at University of Maryland Baltimore County. Thursday, April 10, 8 p.m., in the Fine Arts Recital Hall.
New Recording
Zane Forshee has released a recording of My Name is Red. For limited time, you can download it for free from his website - ZaneForshee.com
Also, the trailer below is pretty cool, too.
If you don't manage to get the free version, you can get it very reasonably here.
And last, but not least, you can see Zane performing the piece here.
Zane Forshee has released a recording of My Name is Red. For limited time, you can download it for free from his website - ZaneForshee.com
Also, the trailer below is pretty cool, too.
If you don't manage to get the free version, you can get it very reasonably here.
And last, but not least, you can see Zane performing the piece here.
Some upcoming appearances/events: March-April, 2014 - I will be giving a workshop/coaching as a part of Peabody's Fret Festival 2014. Some great people there - Ben Verdery, Julian Gray, Kim Perlak, and the ThreeFifty Duo. After that, I'm giving a workshop on Effective Practicing for the Baltimore Guitar Society's Guitar Day. And lastly, I'll be sitting in for one of the members of the Atlantic Guitar Quartet on the Baltimore Composer's Forum concert. We'll be playing a few works by Garth Baxter, a fine local composer - check him out on Youtube, where you can hear clips from his soon-to-be-complete opera, Lily.
Project: Jan. 2014. In addition to the consortium composition below, I have been commissioned to write a piece for the Arabesque Duo - Troy King and Kathrin Murray. They are both fine soloists, and their recent CD of piano music arranged for two guitars is wonderful (I had the pleasure of acting as producer/extra set of ears for that recording).
New project: Dec. 2013. I will be composing a four movement work for cello and guitar, and will be working with four different duos. While the work will be a large piece, each duo will get its own movement to premiere; once all the movements have had their initial moment(s), the the piece can played in any combination - the whole things, or subsets of the movements. I am thrilled to be working with the Arpeggione Duo, Encuerdas, Duo Vitare, and the Patterson/Sutton Duo. They are all fine performers, with a wide range of repertoire interests. I'm excited and inspired to be writing these pieces.
And here it is - it sounds great! A big congratulations to the quartet. Also, a big tip of the cap to Joe Hannigan of Weston Sound - he is a sound engineer who really is able to capture the guitar well, and in this case, four of them.
The CD can be purchased here.
The CD can be purchased here.
The Atlantic Guitar Quartet will be giving a performance as part of their CD release celebration, Sunday, November 17 at 6:00pm in The Engineers Club in Baltimore, Maryland. My work, Be Not Afeard: Music from Prospero's Island is on the disc, as well as works by Bensa, Smooke, and Gainey.
New Works Completed
9/29/13 - Two new works completed, both for Flute and Guitar - Melancolia, and Introduction and Allegro. Both works were a little different - instead of composing for any particular ensemble or performers, they came about as a result of my attraction to the medium. I can't say why it has taken me so long to write for such a natural - and popular - combination, but there it is. Sometimes these things can't be explained...
Score and parts are available to interested performers.
Score and parts are available to interested performers.
The Baltimore Classical Guitar Society Ensemble - Season 14
The BCGSE will commence its rehearsals for our fall season in early September, 2013. New members are always welcome, and all skill levels are invited to participate. This season will feature works by Grieg, Britten, Bach, and others. If you are interested in joining, contact me, and I'll send you parts. We are always happy to have new members.
Upcoming performance:
Robert Trent will be performing My Name is Red in Lanuvio, Italy next month, August 2013 - details here: http://www.chitarracaroso.it/prog_trent_13.php
Atlantic Guitar Quartet - Kickstarter Campaign.
The AGQ has recorded their debut CD, and has a Kickstarter campaign to help it come to fruition. If you are so inclined, here is the link: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/agq/atlantic-guitar-quartet-debut-album
They are fantastic players, and I'm certain this will be a great CD. Of course, I am biased - one of my works is on the disc.
They are fantastic players, and I'm certain this will be a great CD. Of course, I am biased - one of my works is on the disc.
Atlantic Guitar Quartet - performance of Be Not Afeard
The Atlantic Guitar Quartet will be giving a concert on Thursday, May 2, 2013 in Griswold Hall, at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, MD. Concert is at 8. Other works on the program will be Le Grande Terre, by Olivier Bensa (very cool piece, and they play it really well), Topographies 2, by David Smooke, a fascinating work that creates a soundworld all its own, and Meltwater, by Christopher Gainey. Free!
Upcoming plans: Sabbatical
In the Spring of 2014, I will be on sabbatical from my duties at Loyola University Maryland. This is such a gift! It will give me a chance to work on a few ideas that I have not had the time to address in recent years. There are a number of projects I have in mind, but I have not fully settled on them, nor the order. I hope to have a clearer sense soon - much of it involves how the requests for pieces/commissions play out. So, still in the idea/formative stages. If you have thoughts or suggestions, pass them along!
New Track added: i Midvinter
I have uploaded my latest solo piece - i Midvinter. It is on the Music for Guitar page. I hope to have Places of Stillness and Light up soon, as well.
Upcoming performance - solo recital.
I'll be giving a solo recital at Loyola University Maryland on Tuesday, March 26, 2013 at 7:30 p.m. On the program will be Bach, Carlevaro, as well as some of my pieces: My Name is Red, Places of Stillness and Light, and the first performance of i Midvinter – all for solo guitar. The concert will be in the Recital Room – a fine room for the guitar, and chamber music. Admission is free.
Zane Forshee to perform My Name is Red
Zane Forshee, a fine guitarist based in Baltimore will have My Name is Red on a number of concerts this coming fall. You can catch his performances at the following venues:
-10/04/12 Troubadour Concert Series, Wofford College, Spatanburg, SC
-10/08/12 Newberry College Concert Series, Newberry, SC
-10/14/12 North Carolina School for the Arts, Winston-Salem, NC
-10/27/12 Chalice Concert Series, Columbia Maryland
-10/04/12 Troubadour Concert Series, Wofford College, Spatanburg, SC
-10/08/12 Newberry College Concert Series, Newberry, SC
-10/14/12 North Carolina School for the Arts, Winston-Salem, NC
-10/27/12 Chalice Concert Series, Columbia Maryland
Ready to roll - Baltimore Classical Guitar Society Ensemble gets to work!
Beginning September 6, rehearsals for the Baltimore Guitar Society Ensemble will get under way. We will perform on Dec. 1, as a prelude to the BCGS 25h Anniversary concert. If you are interested in participating, contact me. We'll be performing works by Falla, Brahms, Dvorak, and myself.
New works.
-July 2012. I'm in the process of finishing up a solo guitar work. Midvinter (working title - these things change...).
-March-July 2012. Finished three movements for the Exsacorde Guitar Quartet. The working titles are The Passing Moon, Still, Very Still, and Moving. The instrumentation is 2 requintos, one standard guitar, and one 8-string guitar ( I love the low B!).
-March 2012 - completed a short work for viola and piano, Late.
-March-July 2012. Finished three movements for the Exsacorde Guitar Quartet. The working titles are The Passing Moon, Still, Very Still, and Moving. The instrumentation is 2 requintos, one standard guitar, and one 8-string guitar ( I love the low B!).
-March 2012 - completed a short work for viola and piano, Late.
Upcoming concert:
The Atlantic Guitar Quartet will repeat the program from a few weeks back (May 2012), at the Jordan Faye Gallery in
Baltimore - Click Here
While I'm delighted they are performing Be Not Afeard, you should really go to check out the Smooke, Gainey and Frith pieces, as well as a beautiful performance of a short work by Part. Fantastic programming!
Baltimore - Click Here
While I'm delighted they are performing Be Not Afeard, you should really go to check out the Smooke, Gainey and Frith pieces, as well as a beautiful performance of a short work by Part. Fantastic programming!
Nice review:
The Atlantic Guitar Quartet's recent concert at the Engineer's Club in Baltimore got a nice review from singer Megan Ihnen. While it's great to get nice press, and I was of course happy with the review as well as the performance, the new pieces the quartet premiered by David Smooke and Christopher Gainey were fantastic. If you get a chance to hear these pieces performed, don't hesitate. Two very nice - and very different - additions to the repertoire for guitar quartet.
Yes, I can speak! I recently did an interview with Dave DeDionisio on the eclectic website, Those Who Dig. You can check out the website, or you can get directly to the interview here: Dave and I talking about music (and baseball).
Be Not Afeard: the Atlantic Guitar Quartet will perform this again on the Evolution Concert Series, Feb 7, 2012 at An Die Musik in Baltimore. UPDATE: This concert had to be postponed. It has now been re-scheduled for May 9 - composer's talk at 7 pm, concert at 8. More info: Evolution Concert Series. On this concert, the quartet will be performing all five movements.
New Work premiere:
The Alturas Duo will give the premiere of a work for Guitar and Viola - The Places We Left Behind.
The performance will take place on Sept. 30 at the University of Texas-Dallas. I wrote this work for them this past spring (May, 2011). They will follow that with performances in New York, Baltimore, and Hartford. There is now a video of their performance here on the Audio/Video page.
The performance will take place on Sept. 30 at the University of Texas-Dallas. I wrote this work for them this past spring (May, 2011). They will follow that with performances in New York, Baltimore, and Hartford. There is now a video of their performance here on the Audio/Video page.
Premiere in Baltimore:
The Atlantic Guitar Quartet will premiere 3 movements from a five-movement work I composed for them this past summer (2011). The is titled: Be Not Afeard: Music from Prospero's Island. The work's five sections take their titles from a small passage spoken by Caliban - they are highlighted below:
Be not afeard. The isle is full of noises,
Sounds, and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.
Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices
That, if I then had waked after long sleep
Will make me sleep again; and then in dreaming
The clouds methought would open and show riches
Ready to drop upon me, that when I waked
I cried to dream again.
Shakespeare - The Tempest, Act III
The performance details will be posted as soon I can get them. Update: The quartet gave a wonderful performance - the three movements are posted on the Music for Guitar page, and some video on the Audio/Video page.
Be not afeard. The isle is full of noises,
Sounds, and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.
Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices
That, if I then had waked after long sleep
Will make me sleep again; and then in dreaming
The clouds methought would open and show riches
Ready to drop upon me, that when I waked
I cried to dream again.
Shakespeare - The Tempest, Act III
The performance details will be posted as soon I can get them. Update: The quartet gave a wonderful performance - the three movements are posted on the Music for Guitar page, and some video on the Audio/Video page.
New Work premiere:
In March, 2011, I premiered Places of Stillness and Light in Cleveland, OH. Hope to get it recorded soon.
In March, 2011, I premiered Places of Stillness and Light in Cleveland, OH. Hope to get it recorded soon.