BYGO with Craig Ogden at the Newbury Festival

Posted on May 21, 2014 by Gerald

Gerald, Steve Christmas, Alison Bendy and Craig

Steve Christmas and Craig Ogden

Craig Ogden and BYGO

Family Concert with Craig Ogden and the Berkshire Youth Guitar Orchestra Sunday 11th May

Under the direction of Steve Christmas and Berkshire Maestros BYGO has established a national and indeed international reputation for excellence.
This was their Festival debut with star soloist Craig Ogden.

The BYGO played South American Dances by Ginastera and Rodriguez, Irish Folk Songs and three Gershwin Preludes. Craig’s solo pieces were by Gary Ryan, Albeniz and Tarrega and Craig and the BYGO came together to play Gerald Garcia’s Le Grazie Concerto for guitar and guitar orchestra.

This was a fine performance under the sure baton of Steve Christmas.
Craig played two pieces by Gary Ryan, including the ubiquitous “Rondo Rodeo” (probably the definitive performance!), and also “Recuerdos de la Alhambra”, “Asturias” and “Sevilla” – squarely aimed at a family audience then!
The orchestra played Gershwin, Ginastera, a duple of Irish arrangements and Le Grazie.
In all, a brilliant performance by any standard from both the soloist and the ensemble.
The video clip below is of an excerpt of their encore of the first movement of Le Grazie.

Le Grazie was originally written for string trio (2 violins and Cello) and guitar as a companion to the Vivaldi D major “lute” concerto.
It was originally performed by its dedicatee Alison Bendy with students from Wheatley Park School in 2001 and has since been a favourite at summer schools in an arrangement for solo guitar and guitar orchestra. It has been performed numerous times all over the world and was conducted by the composer in the 2nd Swedish “Guitar instead of Guns” Gala in 2002 with, amongst others Zoran Dukic, Roland Dyens and Wolfgang Lendle in the orchestra!

It is in three movements in the form of an Italian concerto and the movements are :
Night Sounds (tempo di boogie woogie – homage to Fats Waller)
Clear Day (homage to Vivaldi)
Star Rise (homage to Michael Tippett)

Lennox Berkeley and the Classical Guitar, Royal Academy of Music, review: ‘power and drama’

Posted on May 17, 2014 by Gerald

For some time now, the Lennox Berkeley Society has been promoting the composers music by offering a special prize at the Oxford Music Festival, so it was interesting to come across this in the Daily Telegraph today:

Few concerts have such specialist value as this programme devoted to English composer Lennox Berkeley’s complete works for classical guitar – probably the first time they had been gathered together in one sitting. But then such programming is typical of the Royal Academy of Music, whose consistently stimulating concerts – many of them free to the public, and mixing students with major artists – present sometimes-overlooked treasure on London’s musical scene.

The article, which is a glowing review of the students at the Royal Academy, ends with the words “…these players found power and drama everywhere.” Well done, folks!

Craig Ogden with the BYGO – Sunday May 11th

Posted on May 8, 2014 by Gerald

Family Concert with Craig Ogden and the Berkshire Youth Guitar Orchestra

Sunday 11 May
Time	3:00pm – 4:30pm
Event	BYGO at the Newbury Festival with Craig Ogden
Location	Corn Exchange, Newbury

Under the direction of Steve Christmas and Berkshire Maestros BYGO has established a national and indeed international reputation for excellence.
This is their Festival debut with star soloist Craig Ogden, one of the leading classical guitarists of his generation.

The BYGO will play South American Dances by Ginastera and Rodriguez, Irish Folk Songs and three Gershwin Preludes. Craig’s solo pieces will be by Gary Ryan, Albeniz and Tarrega and Craig and the BYGO will come together in Gerald Garcia’s La Grazie Concerto for guitar and guitar orchestra.

This should be great – I have heard the BYGO under Steve Christmas before, and have known Craig since he was 14 years old when we met in Perth, Australia!
Hope you enjoy the Concerto folks!

INTERNATIONAL GUITAR RESEARCH CENTRE (IGRC) 29th and 30th March

Posted on March 14, 2014 by Gerald

NEWS

In March 2014, the University of Surrey will launch the International Guitar Research Centre. The research centre aims to establish an international hub for guitar-centred research in all styles of music.

Surrey has had a strong association with the guitar since the 1960’s when Reginald Smith-Brindle was Professor. In more recent times, the Guildford Guitar Weekend has become a permanent fixture in the annual cycle of significant guitar events in the UK. The University has a large cohort of guitarist PhD students and alumni.

The research centre will work in close affiliation with various partner institutions including the IGF (International Guitar Foundation, King’s Place, London), the IGRA (International Guitar Research Archive, CSUN, Los Angeles, California) and the University of São Paulo (Brazil).

The launch will comprise a two-day event on 29th and 30th March that will include academic papers, seminars, public discussions, lecture-recitals and concerts. Guest artists will include John Williams, Xuefei Yang, The Amadeus Guitar Duo, Bridget Mermikides, Declan Zapala and Michael Partington.

Here is the programme

[gview file=”http://geraldgarcia.com.c51.previewmysite.eu/WPress/wp-content/uploads/IGRC_Flyer.pdf”]

National Youth Guitar Ensemble – calling all teachers. Also players aged 13-18

Posted on December 6, 2013 by Gerald

The National Youth Guitar Ensemble is looking for players, grade 5-6 to audition for this prestigious and fun ensemble.
Do you have young students who enjoy a challenging musical experience playing original works for guitar ensemble?
This year’s guest artists are the Vida Quartet (Mark Eden, Chris Stell, Helen Sanderson, Mark Ashford), and the programme will feature original concertos for guitar quartet and guitar orchestra.

Details below

Continue reading →

Leeds Castle 1981- a piece of guitar history

Posted on November 29, 2013 by Gerald

Some very familiar faces, and some no longer with us.
A scary but great competition!
Thanks to Oren Myers for bringing this to my attention.

There were some notable events from this competition – Tsuyoshi Horiuchi, the first prize winner had a tragic accident with the little finger of his left hand; Paul Galbraith, who won second prize was only 17 years old at the time, and there was an incident involving a prize sherry goblet and Eliot Fisk!

Here is a quote from Graham Wade’s second volume on Segovia:

“After the playing of three movements from the set repertoire and a movement from Fantasia para un Gentilhombre, the finalists were Eliot Fisk, Tsuyoshi Horiuchi, Cheryl Grice, Paul Galbraith, Stefano Grondona, and Yoshinobu Iwanaga. The competitors then went into the performance of a concerto and when this was completed the unanimous choice for winner was Tsuyoshi Horiuchi, with the youngest competitor, Paul Galbraith, second, and Stefano Grondona, third.

All finalists were given a silver sherry goblet, though it was at first reported that Eliot Fisk, disappointed with the result, threw his goblet into the moat at Leeds Castle. This story was eventually clarified in an editorial in Guitar where it was reported that the goblet had been thrown from a taxi and later retrieved by the driver, who was allowed to keep the article.”

Plus des Frères Méduses

Posted on November 13, 2013 by Gerald

This is an audio interview and music from Les Frères Méduses at the Radio Station KUTX

Benoît Albert andRandall Aver describe the quality of their collaborations as having the connotation of free flowing water, surrealism, and the slightly humorous title of their duo suited the music that they create together.

The French adjective médusé also translates to “mesmerized” or “dumbfounded”, the perfect words to describe the feelings elicited by this sensational guitar duo’s music. Albert and Avers both exhibit a formal education in classical guitar performance, composition and improvisation, and their combined skill will certainly leave you breathless. Aside from performing classical guitar music together, the duo has also written original film scores for silent films such as 1927’s The Unknown.

Link

In Tune – Sean Rafferty and Xuefei Yang 1st November 4.30pm

Posted on October 31, 2013 by Gerald

Before her Wigmore recital on Sunday 3rd November, and imminently before her first shed event, Xuefei Yang will be on BBC radio’s In Tune, which seems to have had a lot of guitarists in recently.
Does this signal a guitaristic renaissance, or is it like the UK economic “recovery”?