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Celil Refik Kaya brings a personal touch to Cleveland Classical Guitar Society performance (Oct. 23)

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by Stephanie Manning

Like many of us, guitarist Celil Refik Kaya had a lot of time on his hands over the past eighteen months, and he used the opportunity to lean into another of his musical passions — composing. In his second-ever visit to the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society, Kaya brought the product of this extra time with him — the newly-composed Sketches, based on four works of visual art created by his father.

The Guitar Society’s executive director, Erik Mann, introduced Kaya by proclaiming that the audience would leave feeling addicted to his music, and his prediction wasn’t wrong. The process to get there unfolded over the course of the evening on Saturday, October 23 at Plymouth Church in Shaker Heights.

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Cleveland Classical Guitar Society: the Showcase Concert and into the fall

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by Jarrett Hoffman

As per tradition, the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society will kick off its 2021-22 series with the free Showcase Concert highlighting musicians from around the region. This year’s event, which you can attend in person at the Maltz Performing Arts Center on Saturday, September 18 at 7:30 pm, or via livestream, might aptly be described as a Cincinnati sandwich on Cleveland bread.

There will be three sets, with Cleveland-based musicians on either end. Guitar Society educator Andy Poxon will open the concert with Mauro Giuliani’s Grande Ouverture before moving to his own arrangement of Handel’s D-Major Violin Sonata, where he’ll be joined by violinist Jeanelle Brierley.

Occupying the middle portion of the program is guitarist and composer Jeremy Collins, representing his hometown and homebase of Cincinnati, though he also studied at the Cleveland Institute of Music as an undergraduate (Cleveland-bred in addition to the Cleveland bread). He’ll perform two of his own pieces, The Starry Night and Reverie, followed by José Luis Merlin’s Suite del Recuerdo.

At the finish, bringing an impressive variety of flavors to the table is the guitar-and-flute Gruca White Ensemble. They’ll open with three miniatures by Stephen Goss (part of his From Honey to Ashes) influenced by music from around the world. They’ll continue with Masamitsu Takahashi’s Homage to the Harvest Moon, in which they’ll imitate the Japanese traditional instruments shinobue and koto. And they’ll finish with two movements from Marshall Griffith’s Jazz Impressions of Cleveland.

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Cleveland Classical Guitar Society: Creative Fusion from start to finish

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by Jarrett Hoffman

One grant, given to two organizations, presenting three artists-in-residence, joined by over one hundred guest artists, in nine videos designed to increase awareness around an array of social and cultural issues.

The sum of those numbers is a virtual series presented by the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society and El Comité Mexicano de Cleveland (Mexican Committee of Cleveland) through funding from the Cleveland Foundation’s Creative Fusion program. The series is ongoing: six videos have been released since early June — watch them here — with three still to come beginning on Friday, July 30.

First, some background about Creative Fusion in general, and in particular the 2020 edition, delayed twelve months due to the pandemic. The program invites artists from around the world to participate in residencies in Cleveland, and since 2016, each year has been designed around a different theme.

The 2020 edition, titled Contar, was to be centered in Clark-Fulton, which contains the La Villa Hispaña neighborhood, known as an emerging cultural, social, and economic hub for the Hispanic community. The dual meanings of contar — Spanish for both “to count” and “to tell” — were tied into the 2020 Census.

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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.

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The Cleveland Classical Guitar Society: a new season of concerts and educational programs

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by Mike Telin

CCGS-Showcase-2017To launch its International Series, the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society puts on an annual showcase concert. This year’s edition on Saturday, September 16 at 7:30 pm at Plymouth Church in Shaker Heights will feature Jeremy Collins, Stephen Aron, and the Gruca White Ensemble — Robert Gruca, guitar, and Linda White, flute. The event is free, but donations are welcome.

During the concert, CCGS will present three awards: Volunteer of the Year to Simeon Brown, Student of the Year to Damian Goggans, and the Cleveland Guitar Award to Loris Chobanian, honoring an individual who has made a tremendous impact on the classical guitar in the Cleveland community.

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Cleveland Classical Guitar Society: a conversation with executive director Erik Mann

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by Mike Telin

CCGS-ShowcaseThe Cleveland Classical Guitar Society will open its International Series with a “Showcase” concert at Plymouth Church in Shaker Heights. On Saturday, September 19 at 7:30 pm, two duos will join Grammy-winner Jason Vieaux in a wide-ranging program of pieces for voice and guitar, two guitars, and solo guitar. The performers include Stephen Aron, guitar, and JoNell Aron, soprano, as well as Duo Amaral (Jorge Amaral and Mia Pomerantz-Amaral, guitars). Where else can you find Shine on, harvest moon and a Bach lute suite on the same program? There’s no admission charge, but donations are welcome.

In addition to the great music, CCGS will honor Jason Vieaux during the concert as the first recipient of the Cleveland Classical Guitar Award. “We created the award because we felt that we should recognize the classical guitarists who are spreading the word about our art form throughout the community, and Jason is the perfect fit to receive the first award,” CCGS executive director Erik Mann said during a telephone conversation. [Read more…]

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