Seattle Classic Guitar Society
Articles

Who knew that Michael Partington was a closet opera star? I got the story over coffee at the newly-restored Green Bean Cafe. Michael – in case you don’t know – is a wonderful storyteller, and he had me laughing out loud and my eyes tearing up. Especially when he told me about his up-coming Opera debut. (Michael was featured as the guitarist in “The Barber of Seville” with the Seattle Opera, which opened on January 15, 2011.) His stories still make me smile: Can you picture Michael trying to climb a ladder up from the orchestra pit during rehearsal, with his guitar strapped on his chest? (It didn’t work, so they had him pass it out of the pit and up to someone who treated it as if it were a tennis racket, giving our Mr. Partington a serious heart attack. They finally, at his request, designed a nice safe set of stairs for him.) But wait, there’s more! Imagine him getting his staging directions mixed up and kneeling on the wrong knee – and doing his very best to play his guitar anyway, with his arms and shoulders twisted every which-way. (He demonstrated. It was pretty funny.) Michael’s summary of his opera experience up to this point? “It’s a good thing they’re paying me for this!” We did try to discuss some serious things. His beginnings with the classical guitar, for example. Turns out (according to his mother) that probably the reason he chose guitar in the first place was to avoid the very frightening, hand-whacking piano teacher his older brother was saddled with. All right, I confess: he made me laugh with this story, too. I couldn’t help but picture him as a little six-year-old boy, frantically trying to convince Mom and Dad that he really, really, REALLY LOVES THE GUITAR. Still grinning, I moved on to some of the questions on my list: Who are your biggest influences? He answered without a moment’s hesitation: Julian Bream and Eduardo Fernandez. They play real music! They play thought-provoking music! They make the audience work! He thought for a moment, trying to put it into words. “Too many guitarists play light music. It’s like this: if you give your audience too much candy, they won’t eat their vegetables!” He feels that guitarists – and classical musicians in general – should strive to give the audience music that they have to pay attention to and put some effort into. Vegetables. Not candy. (But then he said that perhaps a tiny bit of candy would be okay.) In line with this belief, he told me he puts each potential addition to his repertoire through a test: is the piece something that Bream would play? Or Fernandez? If so, it makes the cut. He rarely strays from this philosophy. What are your thoughts about the Seattle classical guitar scene? “It’s very rich. We are so lucky to have the Rosewood.” He sees the Rosewood as the center of the community, fostering growth and interactions between guitarists who otherwise wouldn’t meet each other. He is actively trying to get his University of Washington guitar program more integrated with the greater guitar community; having them play at the Guitar Society Holiday Concert is such an effort. What do you like to do when you aren’t playing the guitar?? “Practice!” He laughed. “Practice some more! And I like to play softball. And read. And play video games.” Video games? What? Our Maestro Partington? He says first-person shooters are a great way to relieve the stress caused by our demanding instrument. So great a stress-reliever, in fact, that he does not allow himself to actually have a video console in his home because the games can be terribly addicting. Our time was running out. Was there anything else he could think of? “Hey!” he said, starting to clear the table of our coffee mugs, “I’m going to be on the cover of Classical Guitar Magazine next month!” He said there will also be an article. How exciting is that? I hope that Bill at the Rosewood is stocking up on that issue… Thank you, Michael, for this great interview. I truly enjoyed getting to know you a little better. Good luck at the Opera!