by Jarrett Hoffman
Needing an encore for a concert the next day, guitarist Jason Vieaux woke up in Boston to a mild earthquake, turned on the TV to an Obama-Romney presidential debate, and thought to himself: Everybody Wants to Rule the World.
Ten minutes later, his guitar-accordina arrangement of Tears for Fears’ popular song was born. He and Julien Labro would rehearse it the next morning for fifteen minutes before performing it on WGBH and again that night in Roxbury. “We thought, it’ll really get it ready for the concert if we play it live on the radio,” Vieaux said with a laugh during a recent conversation. “It was kind of crazy, but things happen that way. It came out of professional necessity.”
The arrangement would go on to close out the duo’s 2014 Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival performance and cap off their 2016 album Infusion — which also includes works by Piazzolla, Metheny, and Brouwer.
For the 2017 edition of CICGF, the Grammy Award-winning Jason Vieaux is taking things in a different direction. On Friday, June 9 at 7:30 pm at the Cleveland Institute of Music’s Mixon Hall, he will open the Festival with a solo program of Sor, Bach, Ponce, Ginastera, and Morel.
“No composer is more iconic of Venice’s fabled Renaissance splendor than Giovanni Gabrieli,” writes Steven Plank, Andrew E. Meldrum Professor of Musicology at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, in his informative liner notes that accompany the National Brass Ensemble’s stunningly beautiful CD entitled Gabrieli. A sonic feast, the recording transports listeners back in time to the Venetian Basilica of St. Mark’s.
BlueWater Chamber Orchestra occupies a unique place in the current musical scene in Cleveland: an orchestra committed to imaginative programming, including unusual works by famous composers as well as new works by emerging composers. Saturday evening’s program, featuring Grammy-winning guitarist Jason Vieaux and conducted by artistic director Carlton R. Woods, was no exception in its exploration of music of Hispanic heritage. 
The 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.
Since its founding in 2010, BlueWater Chamber Orchestra has quickly immersed itself into the cultural fabric of the community. The orchestra’s neighborhood-based programs bring classical music directly to listeners’ doors. One such program is BWCO’s residency at St. Ignatius High School — a partnership which unites students with professional musicians.
The number of recitals during the fifteenth edition of the Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival at the Cleveland Institute of Music increased to six. ClevelandClassical correspondents attended the recitals by Jason Vieaux and Yolanda Kondonassis, Ricardo Gallén, Paul Galbraith, and Antonis Hatzinikolaou, all of which attracted large, enthusiastic audiences to Mixon Hall between May 28 and May 31.