by Mike Telin
If it’s the beginning of June, it’s time for classical guitarists from around the world to gather at the Cleveland Institute of Music for the annual Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival. And as we have come to expect, the 2019 edition, which ran from Thursday, June 6 through Sunday, June 9, artistic director Armin Kelly assembled an outstanding lineup of performers, clinicians, and lecturers. [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
If it’s the beginning of June, it’s time for classical guitarists from around the world to gather at the Cleveland Institute of Music for the annual Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival.
For the 2019 edition, which runs from Thursday, June 6 through Sunday, June 9, Founder and Artistic Director Armin Kelly has invited an outstanding lineup of performers, clinicians, and lecturers. The Festival will feature twelve participating artists and ensembles, five concerts, two premiere performances, nine master classes, two youth ensemble performances, three lectures, and one guitar demonstration concert. Click here to view a Festival schedule.
Thursday, June 6
Colin Davin (USA) will kick things off at 7:30 pm in Mixon Hall with a program that includes Steve Reich’s Electric Counterpoint, J.S. Bach’s Violin Sonata No. 3, BWV 1005 and Violin Partita No. 2, BWV 1004, and the Cleveland premiere of David Crowell’s Point Cloud. A performance by students of Tom Poore and Andrew Poxon in the Pogue Lobby will begin at 6:50 pm.
by Mike Telin
For the past seventeen years, the Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival has brought some of the world’s finest classical guitarists, lutenists, lecturers, composers, teachers, and guitar makers to the Cleveland Institute of Music for three days of concerts, masterclasses, lectures, and demonstrations.
“It’s got to be one of the very best festivals in the world for our instrument,” guitarist Jason Vieaux said during a telephone interview. Vieaux, who heads the guitar department at CIM, credits CICGF founder and artistic director Armin Kelly for the Festival’s success. “For Armin it’s all about quality. Year in and year out, the players that he brings in are incredible, and the Festival is a tremendous gift to the City of Cleveland.”
Beginning on Friday, June 8 and continuing through Sunday, June 10, the 2018 edition of CICGF will feature thirteen artists and ensembles, five concerts, nine master classes, and three lectures. Click here to view the full schedule. Tickets are available online.
On Friday, June 8 at 7:30 pm in Mixon Hall, the Grammy-winning Vieaux will team up with his duo partner, accordionist Julien Labro, for this year’s opening concert. [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
Beginning on Friday, June 9 and continuing through Sunday, June 11, Guitars International will present the seventeenth annual Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival at the Cleveland Institute of Music.
“I cannot believe it’s the 17th season,” CICGF founder and artistic director Armin Kelly said during a recent telephone conversation. “Over the years I’ve learned a lot about what to do and what not to do, but it was a steep learning curve.”
Kelly noted that the Festival has grown beyond what he had ever imagined possible. “I was interested in figuring out how to fill a void in the presentation of the classical guitar in Cleveland,” Kelly said. “There were guitar programs at CIM, Oberlin, the University of Akron, and other schools in the area, but there really wasn’t an established concert presenter for the instrument.” [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
Next week marks the fifteenth installment of the Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival. Beginning at 10:00 am on Thursday, May 28 and continuing through Sunday evening, May 31 at the Cleveland Institute of Music, CICGF will present recitals and master classes by Antonis Hatzinikolaou (Greece); Nigel North, lute (England); Jason Vieaux and harpist Yolanda Kondonassis (USA); Paul Galbraith (Scotland); Ricardo Gallen (Spain); Duo Melis (Susana Prieto, Spain, and Alexis Muzurakis, Greece); and Pavel Steidl (Czech Republic). See our concert listings page for days and times.
by James Flood, Daniel Hathaway & Mike Telin
The twelfth annual Classical Guitar Weekend was distinguished by four outstanding concerts by Pavel Steidl, Gaëlle Solal, SoloDuo and Jason Vieaux with soprano Jung Eun Oh; three excellent and informative lectures by luthier Bernhard Kresse, guitarist Jonathan Fitzgerald and record producer Alan Bise; and record audiences showed up for performances, talks and master classes over a three-day span from June 1-3 at the Cleveland Institute of Music. For the first time, Classical Guitar Weekend took on the air of a real festival chock full of delights for guitar enthusiasts as well as for music lovers in general, for which artistic director Armin Kelly deserves an up-front round of applause.
Recital by Pavel Steidl
Pavel Steidl chose his Friday evening program with a particular instrument in mind: a reproduction of a nineteenth century Stauffer instrument made by Bernhard Kresse. In an interview, Kresse contrasted it to the modern guitar as “the difference between a limousine and a sports car with the same engine”. Indeed, Steidl took us on a brisk and thrilling road trip through music by Johann Kaspar Mertz, Niccolò Paganini, J.S. Bach, Fernando Sor and Zani de Ferranti, showing us how well the smaller, peppier instrument responded in the areas of color, speed, articulation and ornamentation.
Pavel Steidl is an animated performer who uses his hands, his feet and his facial expressions as well as the guitar to put the essence of the music across. The Mertz pieces featured colorful harmonies, toccata-like gestures, lyrical stretches and cheerful, humorous moments that Steidl played brilliantly and footnoted with his body motions. [Read more…]