Saturday, February 6, 7:30 PM, Seattle, WA
Early harp virtuoso Maxine Eilander joins Baroque
Northwest for music
from Scotland, with a nod to Ireland and Britain along the way. This
program will feature music by familiar names, such as Handel, Purcell
and O'Carolan, alongside gems by the lesser known composers Kinloch
and Thumoth, as well as traditional Scottish music. Trinity Episcopal
Church, Parish Hall, 609 8th Ave. (at James), Seattle, WA. (map)
Tickets: $25-General, $20-Seniors/EMA, $10-Students. Information:
206-368-0735 or www.baroquenorthwest.com
The Society presents two major concert series
each year,
the SCGS
International Guitar Saturday Series at Benaroya Hall, downtown Seattle
and the ('free at the') Frye Museum Concerts.
Artists and dates are in the links (or click on the respective sidebars).
Note, On November 5th the Rosewood
Guitar
shop was the
victim of arson. The fire was
set between the main store and teaching studios. Fortunately, Seattle firefighters responded
quickly and saved the business from what could have been a total loss. As it is, both buildings
suffered major damage from fire, smoke and water. All guitars and inventory are safe and being
securely stored off site. It will be approximately 4 weeks before business can resume. Those
taking lessons at Rosewood should contact their teachers.
FOR UPCOMING CONCERTS at Benaroya Hall, until
Rosewood Guitar reopens,
tickets can be purchased at the door the evening of the concert, through
Benaroya Hall or through Ticketmaster.
Tickets (individual and series) for the Benaroya
series can be purchased at Rosewood Guitar, 206-297-8788.
The Frye Museum Concert Series takes place on Saturday afternoons at
2 p.m.
... the 4th Friday of every other month,
SCGS hosts an open mike party for members.
SCGS Open Mike and Social!
Phinney Ridge Neighborhood Center , 6532
Phinney Ave. North (Blue Building) Room #1
Due to a wonderful response from our members, SCGS will host the
open mic every 4th Friday of every other month. Here's your chance
to meet other guitar society members, talk about guitar, and play in a
relaxed informal setting. No need to sign up in advance.. just come
with your guitar, footstool, music stand & be ready to play!! Please be aware that
depending on interest we may need to limit performance times. All levels,
duos, etc., and duos with other instrumentation or voice are
welcome (recall the remarkable sound of Villa-Lobos' Aria
Cantilena, Bachianas
Brasilieras # 5 for soprano with guitar standing in for 8 cellos!)
Below are some of Seattle's guitarists Mark Wilson
Michael Nicolella
Michael Partington
Elizabeth Brown
Jason Williams
Kevin Callahan
The Seattle Guitar Trio,
Kevin Callahan, Michael
Lefevre,
and Michael Nicolella played at the Frye
Museum Concert, 2 p.m. 2 November 2008.
Audio excerpts from a new composition based on Stravinsky's
Rite of Spring by Nicolella are archived with
a radio interview on Seattle's NPR station KUOW. Also featured is the
the premiere performances of Nicolella's composition Guitar Trio
Kevin Callahan's wonderfully evocative piece "Alki" from his "Suite Seattle" as well as
music of Frank Wallace, Antonio Vivaldi and Egberto Gismonti.
Bryan Johanson, composer and performer at Portland State University,
has released a new recording of original works
entitled I Dreamed About
You Last Night. The CD is available from the Rosewood Guitar.
Here's what Bryan has to say about the music:
"My primary goal in this recording was to come to terms with my
various musical lives.
When I first began playing the guitar I was attracted to the more
improvised forms found in American blues, jazz and rock. I played the
electric
guitar and did bandstand work. Somewhere along the line I got bitten
by the classical
guitar bug and switched my interests to composition and mastering the
standard solo guitar
repertoire. More recently I began to be curious how I could combine my
improvisitory past with my
disciplined compositional present; my electric past with my
acoustic present.
" This recording is the blended result of improvised
and scripted music.
Common Ground is a set of continuous variations (ciaccona) over a
bass pattern that was quite common in Italian compositions from the
baroque period.
Revisiting this pattern was a way of looking for some common musical
ground that
might yield fresh results for both the composer and improvisor in me.
"I Dreamed About You Last Night was improvised into existence over
the period of a few hours. It is based on a very small trick that most folk guitarists
know well. That little trick was the pathway for me to this piece. As an
adolescent I was quite drawn to the music of Paul Simon,
particularly his early work with Art Garfunkel. Boppin' is my little
homage to both that
music and that time period in my life.
"Still Life in Wood and Wire is the only piece on this recording
where I use a steel string guitar. My friend and luthier colleague
Jeff Elliott, whose
marvelous instrument I play, loaned me one of his steel string guitars so I
could truly be playing on wire strings."
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Seattle's own Michael Nicolella has a YouTube channel:
www.youtube.com/user/guitaragogo.
Some of the videos posted are:
Solo classical guitar:
-Torre Bermeja - Isaac Albeniz;
-Sevilla - Isaac Albeniz;
-Invocation and Dance - Joaquin Rodrigo;
-Verano Porteno - Astor Piazzolla;
-Primavera Portena - Astor Piazzolla;
-Homenaje (pour le tombeau de Debussy) - Manuel de Falla;
Solo electric guitar:
-Little Wing - Jimi Hendrix
Electric guitar and orchestra:
- Ten Years Passed - Michael Nicolella (premiere performance with the Northwest
Symphony Orchestra)
Scenes from the annual SCGS Holiday
Concert
Good food, good cheer
Good music: The Rosette Quartet
Colt Valenti
Baroque Northwest: Kim Pineda, Elizabeth Brown, Ronee Fullerton
Michael Nicolella, Michael Lefevre
Robert Blatt (guitar), Kestrel Wright (French horn)
Robert Verschilling, Mark Wilson
The Guitar Orchestra, directed by Mark Wilson
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Master Classes often follow the day after our
International Series concerts. In 2009-10 these will largely be given
at Cornish College of the Arts, Seattle. Here, Michael
Partington
The Seattle Symphony also has a guitar series, perhaps not
quite so 'classical' as ours. On October 24th they presented John
Williams and jazz guitarist John Ethridge at Benatorya Hall,
and 'An Evening with Pepe Romero' is upcoming on February 6, 2007. For
more visit the
Symphony website.
We have collected past years' concert notices under
'Concert Archive',
click here or on the sidebar. Have
a look at what the Society
(and of course
the performers themselves) have brought you in the recent past. Truly fine. If you are
really curious about the nearly half-century history of the SCGS and its early concerts
by the 'greats' of the mid 20th Century, contact a member of the SCGS Board to see the bound
collection of early SCGS newsletters.
Guitar Soundings
the newsletter of the Seattle Classic Guitar Society is
available with membership. Think about joining, which will get you a
copy post-haste: by
mail, SCGS, Box 31256, Seattle WA 98103-1256, or by email to
scgs@seattleguitar.org
Have you visited Youtube...classical guitar? I was surprised to discover some fine
guitar performances, audio and video. Google 'youtube classical guitar'. It is a kind of
venue for dedicated amateurs plus the occasional seasoned professional. After some
intriguing tracks by Sting, ...right now I am listening to other
amateur performances of a familiar John Dowland Fancy,
not badly played, which has been viewed 5,611 times (
