Join us for an exciting evening of guitar solo and ensemble performances by some of the Northwest’s top guitarists including: Michael Partington, Michael Nicolella, Michael LeFevre, Stephen Stubbs, M3 Trio. The program will present a unique blend of performances on classical guitar and lute with repertoire ranging from the Baroque to the 20th century.

Trio M3 combines the talents of three of the Northwest’s preeminent classical guitarists: Michael LeFevre, Michael Partington and Michael Nicolella. This newly formed trio is rapidly becoming recognized for their incredible virtuosity, tight knit ensemble skills and intriguingly ambitious programming.

Michael Partington is one of the most engaging of the new generation of concert players. Praised by Classical Guitar Magazine for his “lyricism, intensity and clear technical command,” this award-winning British guitarist has performed internationally as a soloist and with ensemble to unanimous critical praise. Audiences are put at ease by his charming stage manner and captivated by his musical interpretations. His innate rhythmic understanding and sense for tonal color combine to form some of the most memorable phrasing to be heard on the guitar. Michael is director of the Guitar at University of Washington.

International award-winning guitarist Michael LeFevre began playing at an early age, picking up his father’s hollow-bodied electric to learn the songs of his childhood idols, the Beatles. After a few years of learning folk, rock, and blues tunes, his interest turned to classical guitar and he began his formal training at the age of 15 at the Willoughby School of Fine Arts in Northeast Ohio with George Gecik. Since then, Michael has earned several awards for his solo playing: in 1993 he took first prize at both the Northwest Guitar Festival and Portland Guitar Festival Competitions, in 1995 he took first prize at the International Guitar Congress Competition in Corfu, Greece, and in 2001 he won the LMC Awards-Tour Competition in Seattle which is open to all classical instrumentalists. Michael has been a committed teacher of the classical guitar for over fifteen years, since 2004 he has been on the faculty of the National Guitar Summer Workshop, and in 2007 was appointed to the faculty at Cornish College of the Arts.

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. 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

A Seattle favorite and one of the most accomplished artists in the guitar world, Eduardo Fernández returns for what is sure to be a dynamic and exciting performance. Eduardo Fernández is recognized as one of today’s leading guitarists. Born in 1952 in Uruguay, he began his studies of guitar at age 7. His principal teachers were Abel Carlevaro, Guido Santórsola and Héctor Tosar. After being awarded prizes in several international competitions, the most notable being the 1972 Porto Alegre (Brazil) and 1975 Radio France (Paris) competitions, he won the first prize of the 1975 Andrés Segovia Competition in Mallorca (Spain). His New York debut in 1977 won critical accolades, being described as “A top guitarist...Rarely has this reviewer heard a more impressive debut recital on any instrument” (Donal Henahan, The New York Times). Fernández has returned to the U.S.A. every season since then, playing with prestigious orchestras as well as giving recitals, always to great acclaim from critics and audiences.

His London debut, in Wigmore Hall (1983), had also a great impact, and resulted in his signing an exclusive recording contract with Decca, a label for which he made 18 recordings (solos, and with the English Chamber Orchestra and the London Philharmonic), that cover a wide section of the repertoire, from Bach to the contemporary. They include many first recordings (for instance, Berio’s “Sequenza XI”), and several of them have been selected as “best of the month” and “best of the year” by publications such as Stereo Review and The New York Times, as well as Asahi Shinbun from Japan. He has also made a recording for Erato with violinist Alexander Markow, covering most of Paganini’s work for violin and guitar, and two duo CDs with Japanese guitarist Shin-Ichi Fukuda (with whom he has also performed in the Far East and in Germany) for DENON, in Japan. Currently he is exclusive recording artist of the Oehms Classics label, for which he has recorded the complete lute suites by Bach and “Romantic Guitar” a 19th-century guitar recording on a period instrument.

Seattle guitarist Michael Partington says, "What is important is that Fernandez is a fantastic player. I would put him in the same pantheon of great guitarists as (Julian) Bream and Eliot Fisk. When I was learning the guitar in the 1970s, there were only (Andrés) Segovia, (John) Williams, Bream and Fernandez. You have to admire his sophisticated interpretations and thorough understanding of music. Like Bream and Fisk, Fernandez transcends the instrument. You don't forget they are playing the guitar, but always they play great music."

“Fernández transcends his instrument so thoroughly that you remember him not simply as a great classical guitarist (which he surely is) but as a great musician who happens to play the guitar.” – Detroit Free Press

PAUL GALBRAITH PERFORMING ON THE 'BRAHMS GUITAR', 7.30 pm SATURDAY, MARCH 21, 2009

The Seattle Classic Guitar Society is honored to present Grammy Award Nominated Recording Artist Paul Galbraith. Born in Scotland, Galbraith has lived in Malawi, Greece, London, and, for the last ten years, Brazil. At the age of 17, Galbraith won the Silver Medal at the Segovia International Guitar Competition. Andrés Segovia, who was present, called his playing “magnificent.” This award helped launch an international career including engagements with some of the finest orchestras in Britain and Europe (Royal Philharmonic, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, BBC Philharmonic, Scottish Symphony Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, BBC Scottish Orchestra, Scottish Baroque Orchestra, Ulster Orchestra, Hallé Orchestra and Scottish Chamber Orchestra among them). He toured the U.S. as soloist with the Moscow Chamber Orchestra, and performed in Prague’s Dvorák Hall with the National Chamber Orchestra of Chile. His international touring has also brought him to Canada, Spain, Italy, Greece, Norway, Hungary, Brazil, China, India and Iceland.

Internationally renowned as a brilliant innovator of the classical guitar, Paul Galbraith has been working since the 1980s towards expanding the technical limits of his instrument, besides augmenting the quantity and quality of its repertoire. These efforts have already resulted in a series of critically acclaimed recordings of works by Bach, Haydn and Brahms, along with his own arrangements of folk tunes from various countries, all of which demonstrate the originality of his musical personality. By exchanging the traditional guitar for the eight-string Brahms Guitar, which he helped to develop, Galbraith found the ideal instrument with which to interpret the challenging Classical transcriptions from his highly personal repertoire.

“I fell in love with a combination of artist, instrument and music ...Everything sounded like a masterpiece that evening.”– Classical Guitar Magazine

We are excited to conclude our series with an evening of the “Music of Brazil” performed by former Seattle resident David Burgess. Praised by musicians and critics worldwide, David Burgess is recognized as one of today’s outstanding guitarists. His international appearances as soloist and chamber musician have taken him to concert halls throughout North and South America, Europe and the Far East. Highlights of recent seasons include several concert tours of Europe, repeated recitals in New York, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Baltimore, Boston, Seattle, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Denver, Phoenix, and Nashville, along with numerous appearances as an orchestral soloist, including featured performances with the Philharmonia Virtuosi of New York, and the American Chamber Orchestra at the Kennedy Center. First prize winner in the Andrés Segovia Fellowship Competition in New York City, he has also won top honors in the Ponce International Competition in Mexico City, the Guitar ‘81 Competition in Toronto and the 31st International Music Competition in Munich.

Through his extensive travels in both Spain and Latin America, Mr. Burgess has explored traditional guitar styles, along with many popular and folkloric types of music. He has acquired one of the largest collections of Latin American guitar music in the U.S., from which he often draws interesting and unusual works for his programs.

A former guitar instructor at the University of Washington, and the Cornish Institute of the Arts, Mr. Burgess currently resides in New York City where he has performed at Town Hall, Carnegie Recital Hall and Lincoln Center. He has recorded for Musical Heritage Society, Tritone, Athena and Camerata Records and has also recorded Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez with the Philharmonia Virtuosi on the CBS Masterworks label.

"An artist of music with magnificent technique." - Andres Segovia