by Stephanie Manning
No matter their theme, most classical guitar concerts eventually circle around to a piece by one of the instrument’s most famous composers. Agustín Barrios. Heitor Villa-Lobos. Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco. But none of those names appeared on the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society’s program on March 7.
“As you can see, everybody’s still alive,” An Tran said of the composers he chose for his concert at the Maltz Performing Arts Center. The Chicago-based, Vietnam-born guitarist made his Cleveland debut with a collection of music written almost exclusively for him — much of it drawn from his upcoming album, Illumina.
In an interview with ClevelandClassical.com’s Mike Telin, Tran said that his manager calls it “risky” to do this kind of programming. If it is a risk, his performance showed exactly why that’s a risk worth taking. [Read more…]
