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Cleveland Classical Guitar Society: Stephanie Jones & pandemic premieres

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by Jarrett Hoffman

The shift online for concerts over the past year has included world premieres. And as amazing as it can be to gather in a room with other people and hear something that’s never been heard before, there’s a positive side to the new format. When the player has a history of not only winning solo competitions, but also creating impressive and stylish videos, perhaps a new piece can sail off into the world with a little extra propulsion.

That might well be the case with the next program from the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society. In a free, pre-recorded recital on Saturday, February 27 at 7:30 pm, Stephanie Jones will introduce the world to Kevin Callahan’s The Whiskey Tales. The Australian-born, German-based guitarist — who has won first prize at the Hannabach Guitar Competition, among other awards — also makes her Cleveland debut. [Read more…]

Cleveland Classical Guitar Society
to present Raphaël Feuillâtre online

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by Jarrett Hoffman

“I remember intensely the very end, which was so unexpected.”

It was March of this year, and guitarist Raphaël Feuillâtre had a week off in LA as he neared the end of what was supposed to be a 7-month, 50-city tour of the U.S. and Canada — a prize for winning the Guitar Foundation of America International Concert Artist Competition in 2018.

But the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in the U.S. was getting serious. In the end, the last fifteen dates of the tour were cancelled. Fortunately for us, Feuillâtre had already made his stop in Northeast Ohio — a visit to the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society’s International Series in October 2019 that marked his Cleveland debut.

All of that puts Feuillâtre’s return to the Guitar Society — a pre-recorded recital from his home in France which airs on YouTube on Saturday, November 21 at 7:30 pm — in a different perspective.

[Read more…]

Cleveland Classical Guitar Society: Bokyung Byun (Oct. 17)

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by Jarrett Hoffman

Bokyung Byun is the kind of performer who exudes a cool and collected sense of control and comfort with her instrument. During her Cleveland Classical Guitar Society debut on October 17 — a pre-recorded recital from her home in Los Angeles — she showed off a thorough expressivity and impressive technical agility, seemingly without breaking a sweat.

[Read more…]

Cleveland Classical Guitar Society:
a debut & a premiere, so to speak

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by Jarrett Hoffman

Remote, pre-recorded performances have become an important part of the concert world during the coronavirus pandemic, but we’re all still figuring out how to talk about them.

When the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society presents Bokyung Byun in just such a performance on Saturday, October 17 at 7:30 pm, can we call it her Cleveland debut, even though she’ll be at her home in Los Angeles? And when she brings Theo Chandler’s Six Melodies to listeners’ ears for the first time in the work’s history, can we call it the premiere, even though it won’t be live?

Maybe the particular words don’t matter so much. The fact is, there’s plenty that’s new in this concert.

[Read more…]

Berta Rojas honors Agustín Barrios in Guitar Society virtual recital (Aug. 15)

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by Jarrett Hoffman

It’s as if she knew him. Both in her words and in her playing, Paraguayan guitarist Berta Rojas conveys a special warmth and familiarity when it comes to her countryman Agustín Barrios, who was the subject of her virtual recital for the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society on August 15.

[Read more…]

Cleveland Classical Guitar Society: Berta Rojas performs online after cancelled Cleveland debut

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by Jarrett Hoffman

Paraguayan guitarist Berta Rojas was set to make her Cleveland debut on March 14 in a presentation by the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society. Then the coronavirus crisis intervened.

Now, Rojas and the Guitar Society have worked out an alternative. On Saturday, August 15 at 7:30 pm, she’ll give a free, pre-recorded online concert, broadcast on YouTube and entirely devoted to the music of Agustín Barrios Mangoré, a fellow Paraguayan who lived from 1885 to 1944.

That programming choice shouldn’t surprise anyone who was looking forward to her concert in March, which would have been all-Barrios during its second half. It also shouldn’t surprise anyone who’s followed Rojas’ career, from her 2008 album Intimate Barrios to her four-year tour, “In the Footsteps of Mangoré,” with clarinetist and saxophonist Paquito D’Rivera.

[Read more…]

Cleveland Classical Guitar Society to offer free Guitar@Home Academy

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by Daniel Hathaway

Responding to the pandemic which has affected the education of students, including the nearly 700 City of Cleveland individuals who have been studying guitar under its auspices, the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society is developing a Guitar@Home Academy to serve music students of all skill levels.

Guitar@Home Academy, headed by CCGS Director of Education Brian Gaudino, offers free lessons in English and Spanish to public school students in grades 5-12, teaching guitar both through online videos and other materials, and one-on-one lessons via video chats.

A registration form and further information can be found on the CCGS website. The program is supported by The Cleveland Foundation, other foundations, and individual donors.

Cleveland Classical Guitar Society: Berta Rojas makes Cleveland debut

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by Jarrett Hoffman

Guitarist Berta Rojas has made the music of Agustín Barrios Mangoré a focal point of her career, from her 2008 album Intimate Barrios to her four-year tour “In the Footsteps of Mangoré” with clarinetist and saxophonist Paquito D’Rivera.

Rojas will make her Cleveland debut on Saturday, March 14 at 7:30 pm at Plymouth Church in a concert presented by the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society. Her program highlights Barrios, a fellow Paraguayan who lived from 1885 to 1944.

The first half travels from Spain (Federico Moreno Torroba’s Sonatina) to Brazil (Heitor Villa-Lobos’ Prelude No. 4 and Étude No. 4) and England (Lennox Berkeley’s Sonatina, Op. 52, No. 1). And the second half is all Barrios, including two of his Op. 8 Waltzes, the Estudio de Concierto, Las Abejas, Un Sueño en la Floresta, La Catedral, and an arrangement of his Danza Paraguaya in which Rojas will be joined by students of the Guitar Society.

Rojas’ first encounter with the works of that composer came when she was a young guitarist. “I heard the music of Barrios and I fell in love with it,” she said during a recent telephone conversation. [Read more…]

Cleveland Classical Guitar Society to present Beijing Guitar Duo

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by Mike Telin

If you’re looking for something special to share with your significant other for Valentine’s Day, why not take in a classical guitar concert? On Saturday, February 15 at 7:30 pm at Plymouth Church, the Beijing Guitar Duo — Meng Su and Yameng Wang — will return to the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society stage with a program of music by J.S. Bach, Debussy, Tan Dun, Chen Yi, and Piazzolla. Buy your tickets in advance here. 

“We’re looking forward to being back in Cleveland,” Meng Su said by telephone from Knoxville, Tennessee, the sixth stop on their month-long, twelve-city tour. I began our conversation by asking her about their eclectic program. 

Mike Telin: You and Yameng are getting down to business from the beginning with Bach’s “Chaconne.”

Meng Su: Yes. This arrangement is after the Busoni arrangement for piano — he added a lot of harmonies and made it more Romantic, but kept the essence of Bach’s writing. The arrangement we’re playing is by the German guitarist Ulrich Stracke. It works very well. We’ve been playing it for many years. The “Chaconne” is such a big task but as you get older you begin to understand it more. Now that Yameng has become a mother — she has a two-month old daughter — and I have started teaching in Hong Kong at the Academy for the Performing Arts, I think we have a deeper understanding of it. I’m sure we will be playing it for the rest of our lives.

[Read more…]

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