Second Sundays Classical Guitar Concert Series

Simon Powis
September 12th 2010, 4pm

A passionate and expressive style coupled with a formidable technique has garnered attention for Simon Powis as a talented soloist, chamber musician and innovator. Growing up in Sydney, Australia, Powis began his studies at the age of five on the cornet. Inspired by his brother’s musical pursuits he took up the guitar at age eleven and began an enduring obsession that would result in performances throughout Europe, Australia and the Americas. After completing his studies at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music with Raffaele Agostino and Greg Pikler in 2004, Powis traveled extensively throughout Europe to study with some of the world’s most renowned virtuosos. Oscar Ghiglia, David Russell, Pavel Steidl and Aniello Desiderio have had a great impact on the musical style and technical foundation that Powis possesses. In 2006 Powis was invited to undertake a Masters of Music at Yale University on a full scholarship and upon completing this degree he was accepted as the first guitarist in over two decades to undertake doctoral studies at Yale. During his time at Yale the professor of guitar, Ben Verdery, offered instruction, support and guidance that readied him for a career as a professional musician. Powis has toured extensively as a soloist with performances in the Kennedy Center (Washington D.C.), Australia House (London), and the Banff Center for the Arts (Canada). A strong passion for chamber music has resulted in international collaborations ranging from traditional groups such as the Modigliani String Quartet and Ian Swenson (violin) to less common performances with double bass, electronics, T even the tuba. Powis’s openness to innovation is exhibited by his devotion to performing new works. In the past years he has collaborated with a variety of composers to premiere over thirty new works on the concert stage. As a teacher Powis has instructed masterclasses in Lima, Mexico City and New York and at Yale he was employed as both a guitar instructor at the school of music and a teaching fellow in the department of music. With a growing interest in pedagogy he decided to undertake research in sight reading for his doctoral thesis. Insights and encouragement from Jerry Willard, David Leisner, John Williams and Ben Verdery have helped develop sight reading seminars that Powis has given in music schools, guitar societies and guitar festivals around  the world. www.simonpowis.com

Irene Gómez
October 10th 2010, 4pm
Born in Bogotá, Colombia, Irene Gómez graduated with the gold medal in guitar and chamber music at the Conservatory Claude Debussy in Saint Germain en Laye, France, with maestro Javier Quevedo. She was the first guitarist to graduate from the National University in Bogotá with maestro Ramiro Isaza. Gómez has released four albums with contrasting repertoires that have been highly acclaimed. Irene has toured extensively in France, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Germany, The United States, and Colombia. She has both taught and coordinated the Guitar Program at the National University in Bogotá, and in the fall of 2010 will be relocating to New York to study at The Juilliard School with Sharon Isbin.

Michael Nicolella
November 14th 2010, 4pm

With a repertoire spanning from J.S. Bach to Jimi Hendrix, Michael Nicolella is recognized as one of America’s most innovative classical guitar virtuosos. He has received wide critical acclaim for his performances, recordings and compositions. As a concert artist, Michael has performed throughout North America and Europe as solo recitalist, chamber musician and soloist with orchestra. Nicolella’s most recent album, Shard, was described in Frets magazine as “an exciting textbook on how to honor classical tradition and kick it in the ass at the same time”. A uniquely eclectic and versatile artist, Michael blurs the lines between musical styles and disciplines. He is part of a growing trend in classical music to revitalize the role of the composer/performer. As a concert artist he frequently programs his own works for guitar in solo recital and chamber music settings. Known for his creative programming, he has introduced electric guitar into his “classical” programs and extended the repertoire and audience of his instrument not only with his own compositions and transcriptions, but also by premiering and commissioning works by some of today’s most exciting emerging composers. In the last five years alone, he has premiered over a dozen new works for classical and electric guitar in solo, chamber and orchestral settings. In reference to his abilities on the classical and electric guitar, noted guitar composer, scholar and critic John Duarte stated in a recent issue of “Gramophone” magazine that:”Others have ‘crossed the track’ in one direction or the other but none has done so with the technical and/or musical success as Nicolella, who,chameleon-like, achieves comparable distinction in both fields”. Most recently, Nicolella ‘s new work for electric guitar and orchestra commissioned by 4Culture entitled “Ten Years Passed”was premiered by the Northwest Symphony Orchestra with Nicolella as soloist. Michael has performed with the Seattle Symphony, Merce Cunningham Dance Company, Seattle Creative Orchestra, Ensemble Sospeso, Seattle Guitar Quartet, Contemporary Chamber Ensemble, Seattle Choral Company, and the Northwest Symphony Orchestra. His newest CD Shard was released in May 2005. The recording features his composition for classical guitar and orchestra, Guitar Concerto performed with the Northwest Symphony Orchestra led by conductor Anthony Spain, along with music of Reich, Carter, ter Veldhuis, DeLaurenti, Mesler and Kohl. The album was described in Frets magazine as “an exciting textbook on how to honor classical tradition and kick it in the ass at the same time.” It is the stylistic follow up to Nicolella’s critically acclaimed 2000 CD release of contemporary music for classical and electric guitar entitled Push. In Gramophone John Duarte called the CD “a display of stunning technical skill and unfailing musicality over a very broad spectrum” while Classical Guitar magazine described the disc as “remarkable… breathtaking… superb” and characterized Nicolella as “a fully enlightened musician of our time.” Composer John Fitz Rogers’s epic, Transit, for electric guitar and computer-driven virtual ensemble, with Nicolella as soloist, was released on CD in April 2002 reaching into the top 10 best-selling classical CDs on Amazon.com. Following Transit’s first New York performance, New York Times classical music critic Anne Midgette declared Transit “an impassioned, intense manifesto that used the guitar and a wide palette of electronic sounds to comment on, it seemed, the whole of music history… expertly played by Michael Nicolella.” As a performer and composer, Michael has received awards, grants, commissions and fellowships from ASCAP, the American Composers Forum, 4Culture, Wisconsin Arts Board, Washington State Arts Commission, King County Office of Cultural Resources, Seattle Arts Commission and was first prize winner of both the Portland and Northwest solo classical guitar competitions. Michael’s education ranges from undergraduate studies at Berklee College of Music, where he studied improvisation with jazz greats Gary Burton and Billy Pierce, to Yale University where he received his Master of Music degree, to post-graduate studies at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, Italy, as a scholarship student of Oscar Ghiglia. At Yale, he was awarded the George Knight Houpt Memorial Scholarship as a student of Benjamin Verdery and studied composition with Martin Bresnick and Jonathan Berger. From 1991-95 he served as head of the classical guitar programs at Lawrence University and the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music. He currently resides in Seattle.

The Back Bay Guitar Trio
January 9th 2011, 4pm

The Trio formed in 2002 and has performed throughout New England from Dartmouth College and Longy School of Music to Berklee College and The House of Blues.  . The BBGT have also been featured artists at the world renowned Boston Hatch Shell, the Boston Classical Guitar Society concert series, and have opened for guitarist Al Dimeola at the Lebanon (NH) Opera House. David Newsam currently works as an assistant professor in the guitar department at Berklee where he has taught since 1989. He is also employed as a senior lecturer in music at Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH where he teaches guitar and jazz improvisation. David created the jazz guitar program at the University of New Hampshire where he teaches, directs the UNH Jazz Guitar Ensemble and coaches jazz ensembles. He is a former faculty member of the National Guitar Summer Workshop. David performs solo and group engagements throughout New England. He has performed in concerts and clinics with many noted musicians, among them guitarists Jim Hall, Bucky Pizzarelli, Gene Bertoncini and Howard Alden, pianists Dave McKenna and James Williams, drummers Ed Shaugnessy, Louis Bellson, Bob Moses and Alan Dawson, and jazz legends Clark Terry, Phil Wilson, Joe Williams and Milt Jackson. He has extensive theater experience including performances with Jack Jones, Mitzi Gaynor, Dianne Carroll, The Fifth Dimension, The Shirelles, and Carol Channing. Dave is the former Artistic Director of the Boston Classical Guitar Society. David is the author of the book, Making Money Teaching Music, published by Writer’s Digest Books, and the DVD, How to Accelerate Your Classical Guitar Playing, produced by Rittor Music.

John Mason grew up in Westwood Mass and currently resides in Northampton Mass. He studied at Middlebury College, graduating in 1984 with a bachelor’s degree in music. He furthered his music education at the Berklee College of Music the following year. In 2002, he won the Guitarmageddon National Championship at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. He is currently on faculty at Westfield State College, Holyoke Community College and the Northfield Mount Hermon School. In addition to being in the Back Bay Guitar Trio, he performs with the improv group Solo Mission with drummer Gary Rzab.

Sharon Wayne received her BM and MM degrees in Classical Guitar Performance from the University of Southern California where she studied with William Kanengiser and James Smith. First Prize winner of the 1991 ASTA Solo Guitar Competition, she was also a semi finalist at both the Guitar Foundation of America’s International Competition in Buffalo, New York, and the Great Lakes Guitar Competition in Akron, Ohio. Ms. Wayne has played in the U.S. and Japan, and has twice been invited to perform at the Piccolo Spoleto Festival in Charleston, South Carolina. She has shared the stage with world renowned guitarists including Liona Boyd and Scott Tennant, and as a founding member of the San Francisco Guitar Quartet has been involved in the generation of new repertoire for guitar, commissioning works by Carlo Domeniconi, Eitan Steinberg, and others. Sharon appears on five CD’s, including “In the Midst of Winds” (M.A.Recordings, Tokyo) with guitarist/composer Dusan Bogdanovic; “Black Opals” (SFGQ2001) with the San Francisco Guitar Quartet; and her solo CD “From the Heart,” (Joplin and Sweeney) which features works by 20th Century composers. Her playing has been lauded as “spectacular” with “superbly executed style” (Charleston Post and Courier) and the San Jose Mercury News called her “one of the most appealing new classical guitarists around.” Now living in New England, Sharon is the former Artistic Director of the Boston Classical Guitar Society. A former member of the guitar faculties at San Francisco Conservatory of Music and Santa Clara University, she currently serves on the faculty of the Community Music School in Springfield, MA.

Read more: http://www.myspace.com/backbayguitartrio#ixzz0wVwRS2Jf

Tracy Anne Smith
February 13th 2011, 4pm
Called “a great musician…full of feeling and colors,” by composer Jacques Hétu, Tracy Anne Smith is garnering increasing praise for her expressive performances, rich tonal palette and musical control. Cuban guitarist/composer Leo Brouwer praised her “polyphonic hands” and “tremendous sound” while American virtuoso Benjamin Verdery commended her “ability to express the emotion of a work to its core.” Even 80’s icon Sinbad offered, “I don’t know what she’s doing — but I know it’s deep.” Smith has performed in concert in her native Canada, the U.S., Mexico, Italy, Germany, Spain and England. Her solo CD, Lilac.Star.Bird, brings to light masterworks of the 20th and 21st centuries, including the Prix d’Eté winning title track written for her by the outstanding Taiwanese composer Ying-Chen Kao. Soundboard Magazine called Lilac.Star.Bird “exceedingly beautiful,” and exclaimed, “Smith gets some of the loveliest sounds I have ever heard from a Matthias Dammann guitar.” Minor 7th Online Magazine described it as “masterful…an absolute success…an opportunity to display her incredible versatility as a guitarist. The rich and oftentimes thundering tones Smith can produce are truly breathtaking.”

In addition to solo work, as a founding member of ChromaDuo with Canadian guitar visionary Rob MacDonald, she commissions and performs new music from across Canada and the United States. ChromaDuo’s debut CD features dedications from such luminaries as Stephen Goss, Christopher Pierce and Roland Dyens.

Isaac Bustos
March 13th 2011, 4pm
Classical Guitarist Isaac Bustos enjoys an extensive performing career that has taken him to Canada, Central America, Europe and all over The United States.  Bustos has gained critical acclaim and is recognized as one of the top guitarists of his generation.  He has made radio and television appearances and has been invited to perform in some of the most prestigious festivals: Guitar Foundation of America Annual Convention, Portland Guitar Festival, Southwest Guitar Festival, Brownsville Guitar Festival and the Classical Minds Festival.  Bustos has appeared as a soloist with the Orchestra of New Spain, The Baytown Symphony Orchestra, The Nicaraguan National Symphony Orchestra and the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Maestro JoAnn Falletta. An impressive array of top prizes include : First Prize – 2006 Miami International Guitar Competition, Miami, FL; First Prize – 2005 Texas International Guitar Competition, Dallas, TX; First Prize – 2004 Lachine International Guitar Competition, Lachine, QC, Canada; First Prize – 2004 St. Joseph International Solo Guitar Competition, St. Joseph, MO; First Prize – 2004 Portland Solo Guitar Competition, Portland, OR; First Prize – 2004 East Carolina University Solo Guitar Competition, Greenville, NC; First Prize – 2002 University of New Hampshire Concerto Competition, Durham, NH; Top Prize – 2003 Appalachian State University Solo Guitar Competition, Boone, NC; Top Prize – 2006 Second International JoAnn Falletta Concerto Competition, Buffalo, NY; Top Prize– 2006 Columbus State University Solo Guitar Competition, Columbus, GA; Top Prize – 2007 Southwest International Guitar Competition, San Antonio, TX; Top Prize – 2008 Boston Guitar Fest International Guitar Competition, Boston, MA; Top Prize – 2008 IX Concurso Internacional Guitarras Alhambra, Valencia, Spain. In the fall of 2008, Isaac released his debut CD titled Caprichos y Sonatas which continues to receive great reviews by critics and audiences alike. In addition, Bustos has performed several premieres of new music for guitar. Most recently, works by composers Peter Askim for solo guitar, Andrew Dickinson for four guitars, a work for two guitars and electronic sound effects by Jeremy Cumbo and “After Sylvius” a solo guitar work written for Isaac by composer/guitarist Frank Wallace. In the summer of 2010, Bustos will premiere a new guitar Sonata commissioned and dedicated to him by renowned American Composer Peter Lieuwen. Isaac holds a Bachelor of Music degree in guitar performance from the University of New Hampshire, where he was the only guitarist to ever hold a full scholarship, a Master of Music degree from the University of Texas at Austin where he also completed a Doctor of Musical Arts degree under the tutelage of world-renowned American guitarist Adam Holzman. Isaac is currently on faculty at Texas A&M University Department of Performance Studies where he is director of Guitar Studies.

Nicolas Ciraldo
April 10th 2011, 4pm
Praised as “an exceptionally musical and accomplished guitarist,” Nicholas Ciraldo is a leader among his generation of American classical guitarists. He has won awards and reached high levels at several prestigious solo competitions, including the Tredrez-Locquemau International Guitar Competition (France), twice at the MTNA Guitar Competition (USA), the Gaetano Zinetti International Chamber Music Competition (Italy), the GFA Solo Guitar Competition (USA), and the Portland International Guitar Competition (USA). Ciraldo has enjoyed numerous solo, chamber, and concerto performances throughout the United States, South America, and Europe, from Boston’s Jordan Hall to Berlin’s Berliner Dom to Brazil’s Teatro José Maria Santos. An avid chamber musician, Nicholas Ciraldo has collaborated with many fine
performing artists, including harpist Franziska Huhn, flutist Thomas Robertello, guitarist Eliot Fisk, violinist Stephen Redfield, and the Quadrivium Guitar Quartet. Currently, Dr. Ciraldo enjoys a busy concert schedule with his wife, flutist Rachel Taratoot Ciraldo, as the Ciraldo Duo. Their recent concert venues include the National Flute Association Convention, the Pelican State Chamber Music Series of Baton Rouge, the Christ Church of Pensacola, and the Escola da musica e bellas artes do Parana, Brazil.
A participating member of the arts community, Nicholas Ciraldo has held diverse
positions with several arts organizations, including Artistic Director of the Boston Classical Guitar Society and Vice President of the Austin Classical Guitar Society. Dr. Ciraldo is also founder of the Hammer/Nail Project, a program that links student composers with guitarists and shows how to write for the guitar in the most idiomatic way possible. He currently serves as faculty advisor to the USM Guitar Society.

Another of Dr. Ciraldo’s activities is as artist/teacher. The Quadrivium Guitar Quartet performed as artists-in-residence throughout rural Kentucky under the auspices of New Performing Arts. The Ciraldo Duo twice has been invited by the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra and the Austin Classical Guitar Society to be artists/teachers-in- residence. Dr. Ciraldo has given numerous lectures and masterclasses throughout the U.S. and Brazil. Dr. Ciraldo is on the faculty of the University of Southern Mississippi’s School of Music in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.

Nicholas Ciraldo holds a Bachelor of Music from Indiana University, where  he studied with Ernesto Bitetti and Luis Zea. He also holds a Master of Music with Academic Honors from the New England Conservatory of Music, where he studied with David Leisner and Eliot Fisk. He holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Texas at Austin, where he studied with Adam Holzman and received the Freeman Fellowship. His most recent research involved the “1928 Manuscript” of the Villa-Lobos guitar studies.

For more information about Nicholas Ciraldo, please visit www.usm.edu/music.
Be on the lookout for his debut CD, to be released by the end of 2010.

Lynn McGrath
May 8th 2011, 4pm
While studying Spanish as a foreign exchange student in Mexico, Lynn McGrath bought a guitar on a whim and asked a visiting professor (Alfredo Sanchez) for lessons, never imagining that years later she would be invited back as a professional musician. Since then, Lynn received her Master and Doctorate of Musical Arts Degree from USC and has studied with some of today’s most prominent guitarists including William Kanengiser and Pepe Romero.  She has performed in many international festivals including the XIX Festival Internacional de Guitarra (Lima, Peru), the Guitar on the Mediterranean Festival (Italy), the Nikšić Festival (Montenegro), the III Muestra de Guitarra Ajijic (Mexico) and the 2009 GFA Convention. In her unique rendition of Platero y yo by Castelnuovo-Tedesco, she has astounded audiences and received critical acclaim by performing the role of guitarist and narrator simultaneously. She serves as the Tour Director for the GFA and presently lives and teaches in Albuquerque, NM. Lynn McGrath has performed and given masterclasses for prominent guitar programs including the University of Veracruz (Mexico) and Oberlin Conservatory, and has appeared on a number of arts series and for colleges across the United States. In 2008, she completed a 6-concert tour of Peru, and has been an outreach artist for organizations such as the Austin Classical Guitar Society and the Da Camera Society (Los Angeles). She has appeared as a soloist with the Northern New York, has adjudicated a number of international competitions, and in 2009 was the selected as the clinician and conductor of the Albuquerque Honors Guitar Group. After having received degrees in Spanish Language and Literature, Education, and in Music, Lynn received her Master and Doctorate of Musical Arts Degree from the University of Southern California. She has studied with some of today’s most prominent guitarists, including William Kanengiser, Pepe Romero, as well as James Smith and Douglas Rubio. Lynn McGrath is a former faculty member of the Crane School of Music, State University of New York at Potsdam, where she received a Student Choice Award in 2006. She also serves as the Tour Director for the Guitar Foundation of America and presently lives and teaches in Albuquerque, NM.

John Lehmann-Haupt  

June 12^th 2011, 4pm 

John Lehmann-Haupt, a New York based guitarist, has been playing since he was five years old. Known equally for his arrangements of popular and traditional songs, as for his classical interpretations, he has performed throughout the Northeast and in the homes of such prominent New Yorkers as Tom Brokaw, Madeleine Albright, and Donald Trump. His twelve year engagement at Windows on the World (atop the World Trade Center) was cited for musical excellence by The New York Times. John’s 2002 CD Songs of the Guitar was hailed by The Audiophile Voice as “a tantalizing musical mix…He makes the guitar sing.” Of his 1978 record Unsung Guitar, Guitar Player wrote: “John Lehmann-Haupt’s aptitude is beautifully displayed on this disc.”

John was a staff instructor at New York’s American Institute of Guitar from 1982 until its 2008 closing, and he continues to teach privately. He has written extensively on music for The New York Times, Acoustic Guitar, Family Life, and several other magazines, and has prepared liner notes for releases including Deutsche Grammophon’s boxed set The Segovia Collection. He is also a contributing author to the String Letter Press books Swing Guitar Essentials and 21st Century Cellists.

Scott Borg 

July 10^th 2011, 4pm   

Praised as a guitarist with “enormous facility on the guitar, a fluent technique, who plays with total confidence and professional expertise, panache and artful spontaneity”, by Grammy Award-winning guitarist Sharon Isbin, Australian classical guitarist Scott Borg performs extensively as a soloist and chamber musician, he has been a featured artist at major concert halls such as Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center and New York’s Apollo Theatre with rock legend Carlos Alomar. As a winner of Artists International, he made his Carnegie Hall debut at Weill Recital Hall where New York Concert Review described his performance as “well balanced, gracefully presented, and expertly played”. Previous engagements have included performances and masterclasses at the Merida International Guitar Festival in Yucatan, Mexico, ICPNA International Guitar Festival in Lima Peru, Shell Darwin International Festival Australia, the 92nd Street Y, New York City Classical Guitar Society and Sydney Classical Guitar Society. A recipient of many awards and grants, he has received the Augustine Guitar Foundation Award, Nescafe Big Break, and the Marten Bequest Travelling Scholarship. He has also been a multiple winner of the Dame Joan Sutherland Award from the American-Australian Association, and the Skills and Arts Development from the Australia Council for the Arts. By the age of 16, he held both the Licentiate Diploma (L.Mus.A) and Associate Diploma with Distinction (A.Mus.A) from the Australian Music Examinations Board, and further went on to receive the Australian Music Examination Boards highest honour, the Fellowship in Music, Australia (F.Mus.A) in 2002 where he was the sole recipient throughout Australasia. He has been a prize winner in several international competitions including the Aaron Brock Memorial International Competition and the VII Texas International Guitar Competition.  Currently a candidate in the Doctorate of Musical Arts program at New England Conservatory in Boston under the tutelage of Maestro Eliot Fisk, he previously completed his Artist Diploma from Yale University School of Music, Masters of Music from The Juilliard School, and Bachelor of Creative Arts with First Class Honours graduating valedictorium in music performance from the University of Wollongong.  Scott began his guitar studies at the age of 7 with his father Victor, and was soon after accepted into the young artists program at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. His teachers have included Grammy Award winning guitarist Sharon Isbin, and critically acclaimed guitarists Benjamin Verdery and Gregory Pikler. He has performed in master classes with leading guitarists such as John Williams, Pepe Romero, David Russell, Aldo Minella, Hopkinson Smith, and Carlos Barbosa-Lima.
An advocate of music outreach and education, he will serve as Artistic Director of the Boston Guitar Project for the 2008-2010 seasons and in association with the BCGS, is Founder and Conductor of the Boston Guitar Orchestra. He is currently on faculty at the New York City Guitar School and at the New York Conservatory of Music. For more information please see www.scottborgguitar.com