All Strings Considered

In this second installment of highlights from the 2013 Guitar Foundation of America Festival and International Concert Artist Competition, All Strings Considered brings you music from the solo and chamber music concerts, a mini-lesson from a pair of the technique workshops, and some exciting and newly discovered projects from David Chapman and the guys behind Seconda Prattica.

You’ll have a chance to listen to lots of new music, new arrangements, and strikingly original interpretations from Rovshan Mamedkuliev, Laura Young, Zoran Dukic, Scott Tennant, and Aniello Desiderio, along with several All Strings Considered exclusives featuring live performances and previously unreleased recordings of Marcin Dylla, Les Freres Meduses, and the Tantalus Quartet.

I felt amazingly rejuvenated and inspired by the end of this year’s GFA in Louisville. So if you couldn’t quite make it to the festival, this episode will most certainly help fill that void. Although you might not quite make it to the end, as it’s quite likely you will find yourself needing to hit pause in order to go play your guitar.

This year’s Guitar Foundation of America festival and International Concert Artist Competition was held in the lovely city of Louisville, Kentucky and hosted by the University of Louisville School of Music and Dr. Stephen Mattingly. The GFA, now close to its fortieth year in existence, presented an awe-inspiring week of concerts, lectures, classes, and of course, one of the most prestigious competitions in the world. It was a joy to meet so many people dedicated to furthering our art form, so many excellent performers, scholars, and teachers, not to mention partaking in the excellent after-concert hangs sampling bourbon at Dish on Market! Perhaps unsurprisingly, there is simply too much information to share in the span of a single All Strings Considered episode, and so this will be the first of a two-part series. This episode focuses on the past, present, and future of the Guitar Foundation, as well as a few special moments paying tribute to another forty-year legacy: Bruce Holzman’s incredibly influential career in teaching. Finally, All Strings Considered has been given a special dispensation to play you some live excerpts from the competition finals – you’ll hear select pieces from Chad Ibison (bronze), Artyom Dervoed (silver), and Anton Baranov (gold).

This year’s Guitar Foundation of America festival and International Concert Artist Competition was held in the lovely city of Louisville, Kentucky and hosted by the University of Louisville School of Music and Dr. Stephen Mattingly.

The GFA, now close to its fortieth year in existence, presented an awe-inspiring week of concerts, lectures, classes, and of course, one of the most prestigious competitions in the world. It was a joy to meet so many people dedicated to furthering our art form, so many excellent performers, scholars, and teachers, not to mention partaking in the excellent after-concert hangs sampling bourbon at Dish on Market!

Perhaps unsurprisingly, there is simply too much information to share in the span of a single All Strings Considered episode, and so this will be the first of a two-part series. This episode focuses on the past, present, and future of the Guitar Foundation, as well as a few special moments paying tribute to another forty-year legacy: Bruce Holzman’s incredibly influential career in teaching. Finally, All Strings Considered has been given a special dispensation to play you some live excerpts from the competition finals – you’ll hear select pieces from Chad Ibison (bronze), Artyom Dervoed (silver), and Anton Baranov (gold).

Today’s guest Marcin Dylla is the perfect performer to hear from just a few shorts days before one of the biggest guitar competitions in the United States, not only did he win the Guitar Foundation of America's International Concert Artist Competition in 2007, but has won virtually every other major guitar competition in the world; nineteen first prizes. So not only is he an authority on competitions, but he also has an incredibly positive and original outlook on why competitions are so important, and it’s certainly not prizes or fame. Many of today's modern classical musicians have a new look, we have all seen the new breed of classical player with a rock’n’roll/pop-star makeover. To a certain degree this is great, as classical music is in dire need of a youthful and engaged audience. But sometimes on stage this rock-star type presence often means something close to head-banging to Bach. While we all love to see a musician that is engaged in the music they are playing, Marcin discusses when musicians cross the line between being emotionally connected and actually wasting the energy needed to make truly expressive music. Finally you'll hear a live recording of Marcin playing Granados's Valses Poeticos, an All Strings Considered exclusive, along with his exquisite interpretations of sonatas by Antonio José and Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco. Enjoy!

London-based guitar duo, Eden-Stell stopped by my place in L.A. for a coffee and a chat during their last U.S. tour. Mark Eden and Chris Stell have been playing as a guitar duo for more than two decades and today have an impressive catalog of recordings encompassing a wide range of musical styles and time periods. They are frequently invited to give concerts and perform at festivals all over the world. They are the first guitarists since Julian Bream to receive Editor’s Choice in Gramophone magazine for their album “Follow The Star,” a lovely set of works composed by Stephen Dodgson. While they were here we talked about their time studying with the Assad Brothers, about some of their newest projects, about their inspiring experiences with outreach, their particular take on playing duets, and lots more. During the show you will hear an excerpt of Stephen Dodgson’s piece written specifically for Eden-Stell, his Concertino for Two Guitars and Strings “Les Dentelles,” as well as Sergio Assad’s Baiao, works by Rameau and Couperin, and you’ll get a sneak peak at Johaness Moller’s new duet When Buds Are Breaking. Enjoy!

This episode features Brazilian music from Duo Partido. On their new EP, vocalist Alicia Ramirez and guitarist Dario Griffin bring some really fresh ideas to some Bossa nova classics you already know, alongside a few tunes from the more modern school of Brazilian music. You'll hear selections their new EP, including their excellent interpretations of music by A.C. Jobim, Sueli Costa, Guinga, and others. You'll also hear a little about the origins of Bossa nova, and about a really interesting thumb technique that helps to create some really beautiful and exotic sounding chords. We also continue our search for prospective careers in music that lie outside the traditional combination of performing and teaching. In this case, we take a moment to talk about musical therapy. You'll get a glimpse at Alicia's path in this field and some suggestions for further exploration into music's connection with the mind, about its ability to help and heal in a diverse set of circumstances. By the way, you may notice their EP was recorded really nicely. Well, that’s because it was recorded at Universal Exports Studio, owned and operated by our good friend Kai Narezo.

I had a great chat over some of my almost-as-good-as-Scott-Tennant's espresso with the Grammy winning guitarist and composer Andrew York. We talked about a whole series of interesting topics, and you will have the chance to hear lots of new music from his recently released double album Yamour. Andrew shared his thoughts on playing and composing with the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet and a bit about the origins of his piece Sunburst, such as how it ended up on one of the landmark records of the classical guitar repertoire: John Williams's album Spirit of The Guitar. He also gives some invaluable advice to those amateur composers out there, gives a glimpse into his compositional process, shows his incredible appetite for surprisingly varied creative avenues, and even talks about art and software programming.

Let me introduce you to musicologist and classical guitarist Dr. Walter Aaron Clark. Dr. Clark is the founder and director of the Center for Iberian and Latin American Music at the University of California, Riverside, where he is currently on the faculty. Additionally Walter is an accomplished guitarist, holding bachelors and master’s degrees in classical guitar, his M.A. earned studying with Pepe Romero. He’s written numerous books and articles on all our favorites, most recently Tórroba and Albeñiz. For those of you out there that want music, and probably guitar, to be part of your primary career path, but are looking into alternatives to being a touring concert artist or teacher music history might be the way to go. Walter is a great example of this career choice, as he has been able to maintain his connection to the guitar world by writing about many classical guitarists’ most beloved composers. On the show today Dr. Clark will discuss the life of a guitarist-musicologists, we will hear some interesting history about Albeñiz’s piece, which is incorrectly titled Asturias (Leyenda), and for those of you who love Spanish music but a little tired of the same old repertoire, Walter gives us some suggestions for new transcriptions and arrangements in the substantial repertoire of Spanish light opera, Zarzuela.

There are certainly some clear parallels between flamenco and heavy metal guitar playing: the search for an ever more blindingly virtuosic technique, the attraction to complexity, their driving rhythm and aggressive edge. A highly sought after accompanist of flamenco dance and cante, Benjamin Woods is the creator of some really great fusions in this vein. On the show, Benjamin gives some insight into the arduous task of learning flamenco guitar the right way, that being in part the willingness to dedicate a decade of study to just reaching a proficiency level of OK. Hear his open-minded take on some of the more commercial flamenco acts like the Gypsy Kings and Ottmar Liebert. He also talks about his metal roots and you will hear tracks from a plethora of his projects including groups Flametal and Heavy Mellow, as well as his heavy metal classics for solo guitar. So if you’re even a little bit nostalgic for the music of nineteen eighties or nineties, you are going to love hearing Ben’s excellent versions of music by bands like Metallica, Rainbow, Iron Maiden, some of his originals, and even a bulería based on Manuel de Falla’s Canción del Fuego Fatuo. I had a great time making this one, and I think you'll enjoy it too!

Unlike any other guitar duo I have come across, the Andreas Kapsalis and Goran Ivanovic Guitar Duo (maybe just the AKGI Duo?) have created a truly distinct sound with their blend of steel string, eight-finger tapping, and the refinement of beauty and refinement of the classical guitar. Their compositional style effortlessly blends jazz, classical, pop, and experimental musical styles, adding a heavy dose of Balkan folklore among other rhythmically complex traditions. During their All Strings Considered interview, Andreas and Goran discuss their very different backgrounds in guitar playing, they give insights into improvisation and composition, and basically made me want to go out and start up a rock band. Andreas recounts his discovery of tapping technique resulting from a serious injury to his left hand and his experiences composing film music, while Goran tells of his classical training at the Mozarteum in Salzburg with Joaquín Clerch and Eliot Fisk, and his explorations into his musical roots in the folklore of Macedonia, Romania, Croatia, and Bulgaria. You will hear some really evocative music from their eponymous album, as well as get a sneak preview of their upcoming release titled Blackmail with “The Imposter” and the groovy 7/8-meter of “Kalkutation.” Enjoy!