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