08.28.21

Jason Vieaux

Jason Vieaux
Grammy-winner Jason Vieaux, “among the elite of today’s classical guitarists” (Gramophone), is described by NPR as “perhaps the most precise and soulful classical guitarist of his generation”. 

Date: Saturday, August 28, 2021

Time: 7:30pm

Location: Regent Street Black Box Theater at the Eccles

144 South Regent Street, Salt Lake City, UT 84111

Masterclass: Masks will be required for masterclass. Info here

Grammy-winner Jason Vieaux, “among the elite of today’s classical guitarists” (Gramophone), is described by NPR as “perhaps the most precise and soulful classical guitarist of his generation”.

Jason recently made his debuts for Domaine-Forget Festival, Carmel Bach Festival, Wolf Trap, and made returns to San Francisco Performances, Caramoor, Ravinia, and Philadelphia Chamber Music Society. Other recent venues include the National Gallery of Art, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, the 92Y, Seoul Arts Center, and Shanghai Concert Hall. Jason Vieaux has performed as a soloist with over 100 orchestras, including Cleveland, Toronto, Houston, Nashville, and Orchestra of St. Luke’s.

In March 2021, Jason Vieaux performs the premiere recording of a new solo work, “Four Paths of Light” composed for Jason by jazz legend Pat Metheny for his new album Road To The Sun. Jason performed the live recording of Jonathan Leshnoff’s Guitar Concerto with Nashville Symphony in 2019 (Naxos). Jason’s passion for new music has also fostered recent premieres from Jeff Beal (House of Cards Symphony, BIS, 2017), Avner Dorman, Vivian Fung, Mark Mancina, Dan Visconti, and many more. Slated for Summer 2021 release is a new solo Bach recording on Azica. Of his Grammy-winning 2014 solo album Play, The Huffington Post declared that Play is “part of the revitalized interest in the classical guitar.”

Vieaux’s multiple appearances over the years with Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Music@Menlo, Strings Music Festival, Eastern Music Festival, etc., have forged his reputation as a top chamber musician. Regular collaborators include the Escher String Quartet, Grammy-winning mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke, violinist Anne Akiko Meyers, harpist Yolanda Kondonassis, and accordion/bandoneon virtuoso Julien Labro.

As a teacher, Vieaux co-founded the guitar department at the Curtis Institute of Music in 2011 and has taught at the Cleveland Institute of Music for 25 years. Jason’s online Guitar School has subscribers from over 30 countries.

09.17.21

Liz Hogg

Liz Hogg’s program will include music by Bach (Lute Suite #3), Krenek (Suite for Guitar), Regondi (Two Etudes), and Giuliani (Handel Variations).

Date: Friday, September 17, 2021

Time: 7:00pm MDT

Registration Deadline: Friday, September 17, 2021 6:00pm MDT

Livestream link: Livestream link will be provided upon registering for the performance. Registration form below.

Suggested donation: $20 individual / $40 household

REGISTRATION HAS NOW CLOSED!

American guitarist & composer Liz Hogg has been described as “uniquely her own, writing independent music that doesn’t reflect the trends” (I Heart Noise), possessing “energy, expressive dynamics and phrasing” (American Record Guide), “fantastic work” (Classical Guitar Magazine) and “playing with a more distinctive and original approach that includes quickly-strummed chords, chiming arpeggios, and rapid-fire picking” (Geoff Cabin). Her playing has been further characterized as “strong, precise, and powerful” (Bushwick Music Daily), “radiating in its own light” (New Noise Magazine), carrying “élan and fine precision” (Fanfare), and “displaying a confrontational spectrum of emotions” (Music & Riots).

As a classical guitarist and performer of her own mostly-electric guitar music, Hogg has toured twelve countries playing numerous festivals and concert halls. She has won awards including the Mannes School of Music Dean’s Award as well the Maurice Kagan Memorial Scholarship Award for Excellence in an Orchestral Instrument (first guitarist recipient), and was a Fulbright-García Robles Scholarship semi-finalist. Hogg was also the first American to win a fellowship for performance and study at the Lanciano International Guitar Festival in Italy and has received grants from Chamber Music America, the Peter M. Gross fund and Queens College..

Since 2014, Hogg’s performance schedule has taken her across Europe, Asia and North America including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and Brookfield Place in her hometown of New York City, as well as Portugal’s Casa da Música and Mexico’s Tlaqná Concert Hall. She has performed live at several radio stations including WFMU, WNYC and WTJU and has been a featured artist at festivals Internacional Camerata 21, CMJ and New Sounds Live. In 2018, Hogg released her first S/T solo album on Mouca Records, in which she recorded and performed all the instruments, as well as completed the artwork and engineering. In 2019, she toured Japan and the Northeast/Canada to support the album, and in 2020 her debut classical guitar album was released on Albany Records.

Hogg has acquired a dynamic range of performing experience since 2009, from playing in Broadway shows to premiering solo classical and electric guitar works to early music ensembles. She has recorded and performed on a variety of stringed instruments beyond guitar including mandolin, lute, banjo, sitar, Hawaiian guitar, 5-string bass, theorbo and tiple, including guitar and banjo in Good News, classical guitar and bass in the musical The Stranger From Seville, theorbo and guitar in Mannes’ production of L’Orfeo, and banjo, classical, steel string and Hawaiian guitar at Kupferberg Center for the Arts’ production of The Threepenny Opera. Hogg has been guitarist for International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), and for several years, has served as guitar curator and performer for the annual Mise-En Music Festival, recently premiering pieces by David Lang, Robert Martin, Jakub Polaczyk, Linda Buckley, Amelia Kaplan and Ivan Vukosavljević.

As a composer and performer/singer of her own music and in various groups, Hogg has recorded nine full-length albums, five eps, and four singles, self-released and released by Mouca, Acuarela, Marsyas and Don Giovanni Records. Hogg’s recordings and performances have garnered reviews from The New York Times (for 2014’s performance in Mass), NME (2nd album Wild Movement) and Big Takeover (first album Under the Whale), as well as a video premiere on MTV for her single “Drifters”.

After studying with William Anderson and graduating from the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College with a Bachelor of Music in guitar performance with honors, Hogg went on to receive a Master of Music in guitar performance at Mannes School of Music as a student of Michael Newman. She currently holds a private teaching studio and is faculty at Brooklyn Conservatory of Music and Third Street Music School Settlement.

11.06.21

Kithara Duo

Kithara Duo

(Olga Amelkina-Vera and Fernand Vera) was formed in 2002, when they were graduate students at the University of North Texas.

Date: Saturday, November 6, 2021

Time: 7:30pm

Location: Regent Street Black Box Theater at the Eccles

144 South Regent Street, Salt Lake City, UT 84111

Masterclass: Masks will be required for masterclass. Info here.

Acclaimed for its “touching musicality, elegant presentation, and seamless coordination” by Fort-Worth Star-Telegram, Kithara Duo (Olga Amelkina-Vera and Fernand Vera) was formed in 2002, when they were graduate students at the University of North Texas. The duo has since performed in Europe, South America, and throughout the US. Their playing has been described as “state-of-the-art” by American Record Guide, which also stated “if you haven’t discovered them, you should.” Sarasota Herald-Tribune praised the ensemble for its “admirably seamless level of musicality and technique.”

Kithara Duo’s critically acclaimed debut CD, Beings, was released by Soundset Recordings in 2011. The duo is home to an international award-winning composer (Olga), and their first album is a world premiere recording of her music for guitar duo. Olga's works have been called “the discovery of the evening” (Sarasota Herald-Tribune), “brilliant” (The Royal Gazette), “incandescent” and “hypnotic” (Fort Worth Star-Telegram). In addition to Olga’s original compositions, Fernand and Olga regularly contribute to guitar duo repertoire through arrangements and transcriptions. Their second CD, Lingua Franca (2015), features their arrangements of music from the Renaissance to the 20th century. Kithara Duo are currently represented by the LA-based Frameworks label, and are in the final stages of production of a new album that will exclusively feature Olga’s recent guitar compositions performed by a star roster of artists. 

Kithara Duo has been invited to perform and teach at numerous festivals and universities throughout the country, such as the Guitar Foundation of America Convention and Competition, St. Louis Classical Guitar Society Great Artist Series, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Guitar Sarasota, Texas A&M International Guitar Symposium, Florida State University Guitar Festival, and many other venues. In addition, the ensemble enjoys outreach presentations, and has been hailed as “great communicators to both children and adults” (St. Louis Classical Guitar). 

To learn more about the duo, please visit kitharaduo.com and www.facebook.com/kitharaduo.

Olga Amelkina-Vera’s works have been called “the discovery of the evening” (Sarasota Herald-Tribune ), “brilliant” (The Royal Gazette), “incandescent” and “hypnotic” (Fort Worth Star Telegram ). A guitarist and composer, she grew up in Belarus and moved to the United States in 1997. Olga holds a Bachelor of Arts degree Summa Cum Laude from the University of St. Thomas in Houston, a Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in guitar performance with a minor in music history from the University of North Texas, and a Masters degree in composition from Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

 Her SMU thesis composition, Submerged Worlds for flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano and percussion, won the 2017-2018 American Prize in the student instrumental chamber music division. Her comic micro-opera All That Glitters won third prize in the theater/film/opera/dance division of the same competition. Olga was chosen as the Irving Symphony Orchestra student composer-in-residence for the 2016-2017 season. Her solo guitar work The Heaven’s Hundred won third prize in the 2018-2019 American Prize competition in the instrumental chamber music division.

 Olga won first prize in the 2013 Japan Guitar Ensemble Composition Competition for her quartet Cattywampus Rompus (Texas Tarantella) and was interviewed in Gendai Guitar during her trip to Tokyo. She was the first prize winner of the Austin Classical Guitar Society Composition Competition in 2009 and 2012 for her guitar quartets Ninochka and Nebulae.  Her compositions are published by Productions d’Oz, including two works selected for the Frank Koonce Series. Olga’s guitar works are regularly performed and recorded by Matt Palmer, Rene Izquierdo, Adam Holzman, Thibaut Garcia, Xavier Jara, Weimar Guitar Quartet, Kacherski-Morita Duo, Clarinet Meets Guitar, Quattro Palos Guitar Quartet, Kithara Duo, and many other professional and student ensembles and soloists.

 Olga is in demand as an educator, conductor and artist-in-residence, frequently getting invitations to perform solo and with Kithara Duo and conduct her music with guitar orchestras throughout the country.  Upcoming engagements include conducting the National Association for Music Education All-National Honors Guitar Ensemble and the Florida Music Educators All-State Guitar Ensemble, adjudicating the Marlowe International Guitar Competition in Washington, D.C., performing and teaching with Kithara Duo during the Utah Classical Guitar Society residency, and performing with Kithara Duo and New Texas Symphony Orchestra for the NTSO 2021-2022 season finale in a commissioned orchestral arrangement of Olga’s work Étoiles Par Grand Vent.

Olga is represented by the LA-based Frameworks label, and is currently working on a new album that will feature her recent guitar compositions performed by a star roster of artists. 

Born in Houston, TX to a French mother and an Ecuadorian father, Fernand Vera is an active performer, event organizer, educator, author, composer/arranger, and electronic musician. He holds a Bachelor’s of Arts in Music from the University of St. Thomas in Houston and Masters of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from the University of North Texas.

Since 2012, Fernand has directed the thriving Guitar Studies program at Collin College in Plano, TX. He is the Artistic Director of the annual Collin College Guitar Festival, held each spring semester. He is also the creator and director of the annual Collin College Guitar Competition, the only event of its kind specifically for Texas community college students, held bi-annually in the fall semester.

 As an educator and author, Fernand has written several guitar method books: The Beginning Guitar Method, Vol. 1, now in its sixth edition (co-written with Olga Amelkina-Vera), The Beginning Guitar Method, Vol. 2 for continuing guitar students, and Guitar Fitness: Technical Studies for the Advancing Guitarist. These publications are used as guitar studies curriculum at Collin College for class guitar and applied lessons.

 He continuously contributes to the guitar ensemble repertoire through his numerous compositions, arrangements, and transcriptions. Always eager to learn new skills, Fernand was the recording engineer and sound editor for Kithara Duo’s critically acclaimed debut CD, Beings (Soundset Recordings, 2011) and the group’s second release, Lingua Franca (2015). In 2020, Fernand reinvented himself as an electronic musician and released a debut album of original electronic music, titled Dappled Shade, under the stage name Monsieur Glize.  In 2021, Monsieur Glize released several new singles: Socializing, Oo-M, and Cocovinia. His music is available on iTunes, Spotify, and all other online platforms. 

Reviews of the Duo

This is state-of-the-art duo playing. If you haven’t discovered them, you should.

American Record Guide

Their work is outstanding.  They have a beautiful sound, a wide range of tone, a subtle and broad control of dynamics, perfect ensemble, and a subtle and expressive phrasing.  This is some of the finest guitar duo work I’ve heard since the Assads, and I look forward to hearing more from this pair.

American Record Guide

 A delightfully diverse program of music…shared with an admirably seamless level of musicality and technique. 

Sarasota Herald-Tribune

 The duo impressed with touching musicality, elegant presentation, and seamless coordination.

Fort Worth Star-Telegram

These two put their heart and soul into all they do! Great players, and most importantly, great communicators to both children and adults. You’ll be happy you chose them for your series, master class and outreach events!
William Ash, St. Louis Classical Guitar

 Kithara Duo performed on the highest artistic level, entertaining and inspiring all.

Robert Phillips, D.M.A.

Guitar Instructor, Harrison School for the Arts

Reviews of Olga’s compositions

On The Heaven’s Hundred:

 Brilliantly weaving together the sounds of Cossack rural and religious tradition with those of anger, civil disturbance, people’s desperation and the destruction of innocence, this Chaconne-sized piece releases encroaching patterns of chaos which proceed to overwhelm its own underlying structures.

This is a grim metaphor for the plight of the Ukraine.

I also think that what we heard here is the birth of a new major work, important in its way as Picasso’s Guernica.

The Royal Gazette

 Olga Amelkina-Vera, brillante guitariste et compositrice belarusse installée aux Etats-Unis depuis 20 ans, nous offre une ample composition, dont le thème initial, tonal, relève d’une écriture traditionnelle. Les variations qu’il suscite, virtuoses à souhait, font appel aux techniques les plus démonstratives, en plus des ressources naturelles de l’instrument.

Classiquenews.com

 On Pulsar:

Olga Amelkina-Vera composed an amazing piece for the students at Harrison which challenged and excited them equally. Her expert coaching of the ensembles, the insightful thoughts that she shared with our student composers, and her conducting at the concert made for a phenomenal residency.

Robert Phillips, D.M.A., Guitar Instructor, Harrison School for the Arts

 On Submerged Worlds:

In four movements and lasting nearly half an hour, Submerged Worlds is a very serious, sophisticated work creating a sound-world of its own. Its length alone shows how well the composer is able to develop and grow her material…Time and time again, the composer shows that beautiful moments need not be fancy or superfluous. One such sublime, highly expressive place occurs in movement 1 (from rehearsal letter B to C). Whenever extended techniques are used, such as in movements 2 and 3, it is always to serve the musical function. Very impressive.

Helena Michelson, composer, judge for The American Prize

 On Ode to Thalassa:

I cannot thank you enough for the amazing piece your delivered both by writing as well as bringing it to life in the premiere performance. Ode to Thalassa is a magical work of great power and it shows that by writing it, you poured your utmost creativity into conveying the message of the subject. This piece uses lyricism and drama in an original and vivid way that mesmerizes the players and the listeners and captures their full attention and focuses it on the message of the piece. Various symbolisms of the piece are masterfully portrayed in each section of the piece and they reach directly for the listener’s heart. Ode to Thalassa is a piece that leaves a lasting impression on the audience. Olga, you brought the best out of my students in those two days and for you, they rose far beyond their musical comfort zone as the music transformed them to another level altogether. The whole experience was amazing, almost unbelievable.

Dr. Miroslav Lončar, Park View High School

 On Emily’s Garden:

The composer sets these much-loved poems with a sense of lightness and fun. This audible twinkle in the compositional “ear,” and the many changes of meter remind me of the spirit of Barber’s Hermit Songs…These art songs…are exquisite and charming settings of lovely verses by “the poet at Amherst.”

Anne Harley, Scripps College, judge for The American Prize

  Several works by Olga Amelkina-Vera fill out the disc, and they are a pleasure to hear…Her writing is often pleasantly exotic, perhaps inspired by her Belarussian heritage. Other duos would do well to take note.

Soundboard

  The real discovery of the evening were three original compositions by Olga Amelkina-Vera, who gently stretched the expectations sharing her delightful musical imagination.    

Sarasota Herald-Tribune

 Of two recent compositions by Amelkina-Vera, subtle effects defined the three character pieces in “Beings:” the low, menacing huff of the mysterious Minotaur; the harp-like strums of incandescent Sylphs; the hypnotic patterns unraveling across Salamander.

Fort Worth Star-Telegram

02.19.22

Marco Socías

Marco Socías
Born in Málaga (Spain) into a family of pianists, Marco Socías received his musical education in this city, and afterwards in many masterclasses and at the Musikhochschule Cologne (Germany). Among the most significant personalities for his development are Carmen Gallardo, Antonio Company, José Tomás, José Miguel Moreno, Hubert Käppel and David Russell.

Date: Saturday, February 19, 2022

Time: 6:30pm

Location: Day Murray Music

4914 State St, Murray, UT 84107

Masterclass: Masks Required. Info here.

He became at the age of 21 the youngest guitar professor in Spain, and has been awarded in some of the most prestigious international competitions, as the “Infanta Cristina” (Fundación Guerrero, Madrid) where he got the first prize, “Le Printemps de la Guitare” (Belgium) and Concorso Internazionale di Gargnano (Italy).

Marco Socías is regularly invited to renowned International Guitar Festivals and, besides his intense activity as a soloist around practically whole Europe, Near East, Japan, Korea, South America and USA, he performs very frequently in chamber groups and as soloist with orchestra. He has performed in important concert halls as Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), Konzerthaus (Vienna), Auditorio Nacional (Madrid), Konzerthaus (Berlin),

Philharmonie (Berlin) and Alte Oper (Frankfurt), and has played as a soloist with orchestras as the Radio Sinfonie-Orchester Berlin, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Orquesta Ciudad de Granada, Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia, Orquesta de Cadaqués and Orquesta Nacional de Cuba. Among the conductors he has performed with, are to be mentioned Sir Neville Marriner, Josep Pons, Víctor Pablo Pérez, Odón Alonso and Leo Brouwer.

Until now he has recorded eight Compact Discs: Giuliani’s guitar concerto Op.30, “Concerto Meditarraneo” for two guitars and orchestra by Carlo Domeniconi -together with the composer-, a CD with Catalan music (Pujol, Llobet, Mompou), a selection of pieces by Joaquín Rodrigo, the “Álbum de Colien” (contemporary Spanish and Portuguese music), and Spanish songs (Falla, Lorca and Gerhard) with soprano Juanita Lascarro. The most recent ones are solo guitar works by Joaquín Rodrigo for the label EMI, and the “Concierto de Aranjuez” and “Fantasía para un Gentilhombre” for Harmonia Mundi, with the Orquesta Ciudad de Granada conducted by Josep Pons.

Italian composer Carlo Domeniconi has written for him the works “Incontro”, “Sonata, quasi una sinfonia”, and his Guitar Concerto n.13.

Nowadays Marco Socías lives in Málaga, and is professor at the Centro Superior de Música “Musikene” in the Basque  Country (San Sebastián, Spain).

04.01.22

Johan Smith

Johan Smith
Winner of the prestigious Guitar Foundation of America (GFA) competition in 2019 and defined as the "Classical Guitar Revelation 2017" by notable French magazine "Guitar Classical Magazine," Johan Smith has become one of the most prominent names in the world of classical guitar.

Date: Friday, April 1, 2022

Time: 7:30pm

Location: Regent Street Black Box Theater at the Eccles

144 South Regent Street, Salt Lake City, UT 84111

Masterclass: Masks required. Info here.

Swiss classical guitarist, Johan Smith, is a highly acclaimed, illustrious musician, bringing virtuosic interpretations to his instrument. Winner of the prestigious Guitar Foundation of America (GFA) competition in 2019 and defined as the "Classical Guitar Revelation 2017" by the notable French magazine "Guitar Classical Magazine", Johan Smith has become one of the most prominent names in the world of classical guitar. He has been invited to perform in renowned festivals, is a highly in-demand concert soloist, and has performed with orchestras such as the Budapest Symphony Orchestra, the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra and the Versoix Chamber Orchestra. He is currently preparing the recording of his second album with Naxos, as well as tours that will bring him to perform in China, the United States, Canada, and at the famous Carnegie Hall in New York.

Playing at the highest level, Johan Smith has won some of the most competitive and distinguished guitar competitions in the world. As a result of his 2019 win of classical guitar’s most venerable competition, Guitar Foundation of America (GFA), Johan has recorded his first solo album with the Naxos Label (2020); He was a featured soloist in the virtual June 2020 GFA conference, and will begin a nine- month tour from September 2021 throughout June 2022, presenting solo concerts, conducting masterclasses and outreach activities in over 50 cities across the United States and Canada. Johan is recording his second album with the Naxos Label as part of winning 1st place in the Changsha International Guitar Competition in 2019, and, will also be embarking on a 6-city tour throughout China (Hangzhou, Chengdu, Kunming, Yueyang, Xi’an, Changsha).

In addition to winning 1st prize the Guitar Foundation of America (US) and the Changsha International Guitar Competition (China) in 2019, Johan Smith has also won prizes in the following competitions: Special Prize from the Victoria & Joaquin Rodrigo Foundation, 1st prize at the VI International Guitar Competition of Thessaloniki, 1st prize at the International Competition of Fontenay-Sous-Bois, 1st prize at V International Festival Guitare au Beffroi, 1st prize at the 89 Leopold Bellan International Competition, 1st prize at the XIII National Competition of Ceyzeriat (also winning the public prize), 3rd prize at the III° Pleven International Guitar Competition, 3rd prize at I Aalborg International Guitar Competition.

Johan’s particular interest in contemporary music has led him to collaborate with several composers, including Josquin Schwizgebel and Arnaud Fillion, who dedicated his "Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra" to Johan. His affiliation with Arnaud Fillion bestowed an opportunity to record the Fillion’s three-movement concerto with the Budapest Symphony Orchestra in October 2019, released in February 2020.

Notable career highlights include Johan’s collaboration with the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra at the BCV Concert Hall in Switzerland in May 2019, performing the one of the most prestigious classical guitar concertos, Joaquín Rodrigo’s “Concerto de Aranjuez”. Johan also was a featured soloist at the 9th (2017) and 11th (2019) annual International Guitar Festival of Versoix, Switzerland, playing with the Chamber Orchestra of Versoix at the festival October 2017, and was invited back to perform a solo recital in November 2019.

Born in 1990 in Geneva, Johan obtained a Bachelor in 2015 and a "Master of Arts in Instrumental Pedagogy" in 2017 at the University of Music of Lausanne, in the class of Dagoberto Linhares. In addition to teaching guitar at the Conservatory of Morges, he also obtained the most important academic title in the field of musical performance in Switzerland: the "Master of Arts specializing in Music Performance Soloist"(2019), awarded by the highest grade.

He is the founder, composer, performer and graphic designer in the extreme metal band "Stortregn", with whom he has already recorded four albums and played in three continents since 2005.
Johan is an endorsee of Savarez guitar strings, one of the world’s leading string manufacturers (founded in 1770).