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Cleveland Classical Guitar Society: a conversation with Pablo Garibay 

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by Mike Telin

The Cleveland Classical Guitar Society will continue its International Series this weekend with a performance by Pablo Garibay on Saturday, November 9 at 7:30 pm in Plymouth Church in Shaker Heights. His program will include works by Leo Brouwer, Simone Iannarelli, Manuel Ponce, Eguardo Angulo, and Antonio José. Tickets are available online.

Garibay has been awarded first prize at numerous competitions including the International Manuel Ponce Guitar Competition (Mexico City), the René Bartoli Competition (Aix en Provence, France) the JoAnn Falletta International Guitar Concerto Competition (Buffalo, USA) and the International Guitar Competition Aachen (Germany).

I reached Pablo Garibay at his home in Morelia, Mexico, and began by asking him if he has ever been to Cleveland.

Pablo Garibay: No, this will be my first time and I am thrilled about it.

Mike Telin: Your program includes names of composers that I’m familiar with, and others that I’m learning about for the first time. Could you please say a few words about each of the works. [Read more…]

Cleveland Classical Guitar Society: Raphaël Feuillâtre at Plymouth (Oct. 5)

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by Daniel Hathaway

Concluding a week-long residency, 23-year-old French guitarist Raphaël Feuillâtre played the opening concert of the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society’s International Series on Saturday evening, October 5. His program of works by Paraguayan, Spanish, French, Cuban, Brazilian, and Russian composers — some written for the instrument, some transcribed — covered a broad range of styles and introduced one of the bright young lights of the guitar world to a good-sized audience in Plymouth Church. [Read more…]

Two days, two guitarists: Feuillâtre and Davin to visit Guitar Society, Western Reserve 

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by Jarrett Hoffman

This weekend gives concertgoers the chance to hear one guitarist from France who will be making his Cleveland debut, and another from Bay Village who in the past several years, as he told me over the phone, has been re-solidifying his identity as a Clevelander.

Paris-based Raphaël Feuillâtre is in the midst of a victory lap following his Grand Prize at the 2018 Guitar Foundation of America International Concert Artists Competition. One stop on his 7-month, 50-city tour will be Plymouth Church in Shaker Heights on Saturday, October 5 at 7:30 pm, when he’ll bring works by Mangoré, Llobet, Rameau, Brouwer, Assad, Villa-Lobos, Scriabin, and Rachmaninoff to the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society’s International Series.

Co-head of the guitar faculty at the Cleveland Institute of Music and a frequent recitalist, Colin Davin is a name that needs little introduction around here. His recital on Sunday, October 6 at 5:00 pm at Christ Church Episcopal in Hudson as part of Music from The Western Reserve will include works by Ponce, Tower, Brouwer, and J.S. Bach.

[Read more…]

Cleveland Classical Guitar Society: Judicaël Perroy at Plymouth (Apr. 27)

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by David Kulma

The final concert of the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society’s International Series at Plymouth Church on Saturday, April 27 kept the audience on its toes in the best way possible. The fantastic guitar virtuoso Judicaël Perroy chose an unexpected route through his repertoire, nevermind the printed program. [Read more…]

Cleveland Classical Guitar Society: a conversation with Judicaël Perroy

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by Mike Telin

The decision to pursue the path of a professional musician came late for Judicaël Perroy. “I didn’t decide until I was in my twenties,” the French-born guitarist wrote in an email. Perroy, who serves on the faculty at the San Francisco Conservatory, said that although he learned to play the guitar early in life, he was always interested in other subjects while he was in school. “I was kind of a child prodigy and everybody thought that I would become a guitarist. So I decided late because I wanted it to be my decision.”

On Saturday, April 27 at 7:30 pm in Plymouth Church, Perroy will make his Cleveland debut with a concert featuring works by Bach, Sor, Mertz, Villa-Lobos, and Albéniz. The concert is presented as part of the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society’s International Series. Tickets are available online.

[Read more…]

Cleveland Classical Guitar Society: a conversation with Paul O’Dette

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by Mike Telin

The life of a court musician during the Renaissance was not that bad. “They were highly paid, highly prized, and were provided with great instruments and a lot of flexibility to travel to other courts and meet other musicians,” lutenist Paul O’Dette noted during a recent conversation. “There were a lot of opportunities particularly for the lute players. Because it’s a very quiet instrument, they were given security clearances to parts of the court that others were not permitted to be in — meaning the private chambers of the monarch.”

On Saturday, February 23 at 7:30 pm at Plymouth Church, O’Dette will present a concert titled “The Secret of the Muses,” featuring works by Vieux Gautier, Giovanni Girolamo Kapsberger, Nicolas Vallet, Robert Johnson, and Daniel Bachelar, performed on a 10-course lute built by Ray Nurse after Hans Frei. Due to the softer nature of the instrument, the concert will be held in the intimate Herr Chapel. The evening is part of the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society’s International Series. Tickets are available online.

What is special about a 10-course lute? (No, the evening does not include a 10-course meal.) O’Dette explained that a course is a pair of strings tuned to the same pitch or to an octave, and that during the 16th century lutes were primarily 6-course instruments akin to a 12-string guitar. [Read more…]

Cleveland Classical Guitar Society: Los Angeles Guitar Quartet (Nov. 3)

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by Robert Rollin

Last Saturday night, November 3, the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society presented the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet in an outstanding concert at First Unitarian Church. An especially imaginative highlight was guitarist/composer Robert Beaser’s short, single-movement Chaconne, receiving its world premiere in a version written for the LAGQ.

[Read more…]

Cleveland Classical Guitar Society welcomes the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet

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by Mike Telin

When the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet last appeared in Cleveland in March of 2015, that occasion coincided with the release of their CD New Renaissance. When John Dearman, Matthew Greif, William Kanengiser, and Scott Tennant return to the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society’s International Series on Saturday, November 3 at 7:30 pm at First Unitarian Church of Cleveland, there won’t be a new album, but you can hear the new work that Pat Metheny wrote for them. Tickets are available online.

“We met Pat at a guitar festival in Montana about four years ago,” Kanengiser said during a recent telephone conversation. “Unbeknownst to us, he was a closet LAGQ fan, which was a shock and an honor because we idolize him. He said, ‘Hey, I might write a piece for you guys,’ and we said that would be awesome.”  

As it is with busy people, Kanengiser said the Quartet did not hear from Metheny for a while — until an email arrived from him saying that he was indeed going to write that piece. Although the LAGQ members expected to receive a 10- to 12-minute work, a month later the composer/guitarist contacted them saying he had sketched out a 6-movement, 25-minute piece.  

[Read more…]

Cleveland Classical Guitar Society Ana Vidović Recital (Oct. 20)

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by Nicholas Stevens

Concerts can inspire a range of moods: passionate engagement at best, shades of frustration or offense at worst. One such mood, rare and therefore precious, arises when it dawns on the listener that something amazing is happening onstage, and the sheer quality of the performance prompts rapt absorption. Audience members at guitarist Ana Vidović’s concert for the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society last week would eventually solicit an encore with a high-volume ovation. During the main program, however, near-silence descended over the pews of Plymouth Church, dozens straining to hear each masterful nuance. [Read more…]

Cleveland Classical Guitar Society: ten minutes with Ana Vidović

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by Jarrett Hoffman

With some performances, you can just tell that the player has a special relationship to the piece. But do you really know? During a recent phone call with Croatian guitarist Ana Vidović, I tested that theory: having heard her play Francisco Tárrega’s Recuerdos de la Alhambra in a recording on YouTube, I asked her if there’s a reason it sounds so natural in her hands.

“Actually, it’s one of my favorite pieces,” she said. (Me: quiet fist pump.) “I’ve played it since I was very young — I love the melody. And no matter how many times I play it, it’s always interesting to me.”

On Saturday, October 20 at 7:30 pm, Vidović will return to Plymouth Church in Shaker Heights as part of the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society’s International Series, armed with a program that begins with Bach and ends with Piazzola. In between: pieces by Giuliani, Tárrega, Mongore, and Scarlatti. Tickets can be purchased here.

[Read more…]

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