2008-2009 Sundin Hall Concert Series
Phil Heywood
Saturday, Septermber 20th, 2008
Phil Heywood is the only winner of two national fingerstyle guitar competitions. He is a fingerstyle guitarist with a bluesy swing and the ability to turn an instrumental piece into an arresting lyrical narrative. His lucid playing encompasses the down-home rhythmic groove of a Mississippi John Hurt or Leadbelly, and the sheer fluidity and flair of Leo Kottke.
The internationally renowned Kottke, in fact, once handpicked Heywood to tour and perform duets with him. A soul-grabbing instrumentalist, Heywood draws listeners in with his voice as well, singing in a warm, plainspoken style that blends smoothly with his rock-solid guitar work.
Heywood has been based in Minneapolis-St. Paul since the mid-1980s, performing locally and regionally while also establishing himself in the greater guitar and acoustic music world. He was the 1986 National Fingerpicking Champion at the world-renowned Winfield, KS, music festival, and also won the 1987 American Fingerstyle Guitar Festival Competition held in Milwaukee, WI, an event judged by some of the top players in this field. In addition to performances with Leo Kottke, Heywood played with Chet Atkins on National Public Radio’s A Prairie Home Companion, has performed with fellow acoustic guitar luminaries Peter Lang, Pat Donohue, and Tim Sparks, and has opened shows for such artists as Norman Blake, Greg Brown, John Renbourn, Chris Smither, and Robin and Linda Williams.
He has recorded four CDs: Some Summer Day (1990), Local Joe (1996), Circle Tour (2000), and Banks of the River (2003) as well as appearing on various compilation discs. His September 2008 concert will also serve as a release party for his latest, as-yet-untitled, CD. What one inspired critic wrote of Local Joe applies equally to each of Heywood’s CDs: “Acoustic guitar fans should consider this recording a must have . . . Heywood gives us all something to enjoy for a long time.” (Music Reviews Quarterly).
Fan-Chen Huang
Saturday, October 18th, 2008
Classical guitarist Fan-Chen Huang was born in Taiwan in 1983 and began playing the guitar at the age of four. She gave her first public performance at age six and her first solo recital at age eight. She won the teenage division of the International Guitar Competition “Abel Carlevaro” when she was nine. At age 11, she was awarded the gold medal in the adult division of the Concurso “Homenaje a R. Sainz de la Maza” as well as the “Taiwan Area Music Competition,” the highest honor in the entire Taiwanese music field.
When she was 16, Huang won the bronze medal, while competing with many adults, at the 42nd Tokyo International Guitar Competition. The next year, she was a finalist in that competition. In 2001 and 2003, she was a semifinalist in the Guitar Foundation of America International Solo Competition. In 2003, she was also a semifinalist in the Stotsenberg International Guitar Competition. She was a finalist in the Guitar Foundation of America competition in both 2002 and 2004. In 2006, she was one of the top fifteen competitors selected to compete in the first Parkening International Guitar Competition.
Huang has given hundreds of public performances since the first time she took the stage in 1989. At present, she is studying with Dr. Scott Tennant of the internationally famous LA Guitar Quartet at the University of Southern California.
Pablo Sainz Villegas
Saturday, November 15th, 2008
Born in Spain in 1977, Pablo Sainz Villegas began his musical studies at the Professional Conservatory of Music in La Rioja, under Miguel Ubis, and was awarded the Extraordinary Prize for Final Level. He continued his studies with Paulino Garcia Blanco and at the Royal Superior Conservatory of Music in Madrid with Jose Luis Rodrigo, graduating with the Extraordinary Graduation Prize. From 1997 to 2001, he studied with Thomas Muller-Pering at the Weimar Liszt Musikhochschule, and in 2004 took a Postgraduate Diploma under David Starobin at the Manhattan School of Music in New York. A winner of fourteen international competitions, he was a recipient of the Andres Segovia and Andres Segovia Ad Honorem Awards at the 38th and 39th International University Courses of Spanish Music in Santiago de Compostela. Most recently, he was awarded First Prize in the prestigious 2003 International Guitar Competition Francisco Tarrega, where he also received the prize for the best interpretation of Tarrega’s compositions. He is the holder of several important scholarships including the Asociacian de Intarpretes y Ejecutantes (A.I.E.), the Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung, and La Caixa Foundation. A noted solo and chamber performer, Pablo Sainz Villegas has given recitals in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia, the Dominican Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the U.S., and has appeared on some of the world’s most famous concert stages. As a member of the Proyecto Guerrero Orchestra dedicated to avantgarde music, he has worked with some of the greatest composers of our time, including Helmut Lachenmann, George Crumb, and Cristabal Halftter. He has participated in the International Music Festivals of Granada, Segovia, Peralada, and Strasbourg and has collaborated with Radio 2 Clasica RNE, Spanish National Radio and Television, Radio France, Euroradio, ABC, and the BBC.
Minneapolis Guitar Quartet
Saturday, December 6th, 2008
With the passion, style, and sophistication of the best chamber music and string quartet traditions, the Minneapolis Guitar Quartet (MGQ) has been a leading guitar ensemble since its founding in 1986. The MGQ has performed across the U.S. and Mexico, concertos by Rodrigo and Vivaldi, repertoire from Bach to Piazzolla to Stravinsky, commissioned works by contemporary composers, and an original arrangement of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. In 2007, the MGQ collaborated with dancer Colette Illarde on a production of Six Pieces on Spanish Folksongs by Spanish composer Enrique Granados. With music arranged by the MGQ, the choreography by Illarde included Spanish regional and folk dancing, classical ballet, and flamenco.
The MGQ has been heard on the nationally syndicated radio program Saint Paul Sunday, and on NPR’s Performance Today. The group’s first three CDs garnered international critical acclaim. As educators, MGQ members teach and give workshops throughout the U.S.
A founding member of the MGQ, O. Nicholas Raths is equally at home in the classical and pop realms. As a studio musician, he can be heard on many major label recordings. Raths attended the University of Southern California and received his DMA from the University of Minnesota. He was a student of classical and jazz masters Pepe Romero, Howard Roberts, and Jeffrey Van. Raths is assistant professor at St. John’s University in Collegeville, where he teaches guitar, music history, and theory.
An MGQ member since 2001, Jeff Lambert began his classical guitar studies with MGQ founding member Joseph Hagedorn at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. He continued in Chicago with Denis Azabagic, and attended Northwestern University as a student of Anne Waller, earning masters and DMA degrees. As a chamber musician, he has performed with members of the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and others. As a soloist, he won top prizes in guitar competitions in Minneapolis and Chicago. He released a solo CD in 2003. In 2006, he was awarded an MSAB Artist Initiative grant to collaborate with composer David Crittenden. Lambert’s own compositions are regularly performed by the MGQ.
Since winning the 1990 Guitar Foundation of America solo competition, Joseph Hagedorn has maintained an active performing career as a soloist and chamber musician. Praised for passionate performances, flawless technique, and varied programs on guitar and Renaissance lute, he has appeared in more than 25 U.S. cities and in Canada. He has been heard on Saint Paul Sunday with the MGQ and also with St. Paul Chamber Orchestra assistant concertmaster Leslie Shank. An arranger for the MGQ, in 1995 he was awarded a Minnesota State Arts Board Fellowship. He received his bachelor of music degree from Cornell College, and master of music degree from the University of Minnesota. He was a student of Jeffrey Van and others. He has been on the music faculty of the University of Wisconsin-River Falls since 1988.
An MGQ member since 2002, Jeffrey Thygeson is an active soloist and chamber musician, with appearances in New York, Los Angeles, and throughout the Midwest. Thygeson has performed in masterclasses with Eliot Fisk, Christopher Parkening, Sharon Isbin, and others. He received his bachelor’s degree from the University of St. Thomas and master of music degree from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, where he studied with William Kanengiser and received the Pi Kappa Lambda Guitar Scholarship Award. Additional teachers have included Pepe Romero, James Smith, Christopher Kachian, and Brian Head. Thygeson teaches at the University of St. Thomas.
Flamenco Guitarathon
Saturday, January 31st, 2009
Last season’s first-ever “Flamenco-athon” was an enormous success. We hope to have old friends and new back on stage for this one, and in the audience! Plan now to enjoy the fire of flamenco during the heart of the Minnesota winter.
Marcin Dylla
Friday, February 20th, 2009
Born in 1976 in Chorzów, Poland, Marcin Dylla started to learn to play the guitar at the age of eight, in the State School of Music in Ruda Zlska. Between 1995 and 2000, he studied at the State Academy of Music in Katowice with Wanda Palacz. He then continued his musical education at the Musical Academy in Basel, Switzerland, with Oscar Ghiglia; at the Musical Academy in Freiburg, Germany, with Sonja Prunnbauer; and finally at the Musical Conservatory in Maastricht, The Netherlands, with Carlo Marchione.
By many music critics and music lovers, Marcin Dylla is considered one of the most outstanding young classical guitar players. He owes this position to an unparalleled number of awards won at musical competitions. From 1996 to 2004, he won first prize 17 times at the most prestigious international guitar contests in Europe and in the U.S. Many times, he was honored by awards from the audience and from the orchestras with which he performed. In 2002, at the 7th International Guitar Convent in Alessandria, Italy, Dylla was granted a “gold guitar,” the musical critics’ award for the best up-and-coming young guitar player. In May 2003, he took First Prize at the XXXVIII Markneukirchen International Music Competition in Germany.
Dylla’s stature in the artistic life of Europe is confirmed by his participation in many musical festivals, conducting masterclasses, working with outstanding musicians and orchestras, as well as giving many recitals in such prestigious concert halls as the Konzerthaus and Musikverein in Vienna, the Auditorio Nacional in Madrid, the Philharmonic in St. Petersburg, and Kleinhans Music Hall in Buffalo, NY.
The 2007 winner of the Guitar Foundation of America International Solo competition, Marcin Dylla will appear in our Sundin Hall series as part of his prize-winning North American tour in support of a CD to be released on the renowned Naxos label.
Cem Duruöz
Saturday, March 21st, 2009
“His excellent stage presence complements his virtuosic technique and musical, elegant artistry,” said Grammy winner guitarist Sharon Isbin—one of the many accolades that Turkish-born guitarist Cem (or “Gem” as pronounced in his native tongue) Duruöz has received from performers and critics alike.
Duruöz has performed on four continents, in Argentina, Brazil, Peru, Bolivia, Japan, France, Greece, Bosnia, Spain, Serbia, Poland, Mexico, and throughout Turkey and the U.S. His recent concerts include Concierto de Aranjuez performances with the Turkish Presidential Symphony Orchestra, a French Baroque Concert at the prestigious Istanbul Festival, recitals at the Baaaraijske Noi Festival in Bosnia- Herzegovina, the Gliwice Guitar Festival in Poland, and the Amigos de la Guitarra festival in Spain, as well as the world premiere performance of the Jazz Concerto by Robert Strizich. His 2007–08 season included a return performance at the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in a program entitled “Guitar in Turkey,” recitals at the Connecticut and Boston Classical Guitar Societies, a concert and masterclass at the Semana International de Guitarra in Spain, and the world premiere of the Anatolia Guitar Concerto, featuring Turkish melodies and rhythms, written for him by American composer David Hahn.
A multifaceted musician, Duruöz has collaborated with bandoneón master Raul Jaurena, gambist John Dornenburg, conductor Michel Tabachnik, and soprano Camille Zamora. A frequent soloist, he has appeared with more than ten orchestras regularly performing Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez and other works.
Duruöz has released three CDs to international critical acclaim, including Pièces de Viole, featuring his arrangements of Marais’ French baroque gamba music, and Contemporary Music for Guitar, both released by Centaur Records. His most recent solo CD, Desde el Alma—Tango Classics was released in 2006 on the ADA-Müzik label. The CD features a variety of tango styles such as milonga and vals as well as some of the most famous tangos, transcribed by Duruöz using interpretations of the legendary Argentine tango orchestras of the twentieth century.
Duruöz won the first prize in the Turkish National Guitar Competition at the age of seventeen. After moving to the U.S., he completed his graduate guitar studies at The Juilliard School with Sharon Isbin. An enthusiastic educator, Duruöz conducts masterclasses throughout the world and teaches at Wesleyan University in Connecticut.
Aditya Verma
Saturday, April 18th, 2009
Sarod master Aditya Verma is fast emerging as a force on the world music stage. A charismatic young performer based in Canada and India, Verma has won the admiration of audiences across North America, Europe, and India. His electrifying performances reveal his virtuosity, passionate energy, and intensely emotional approach to the music.
The sarod is one of the most striking musical instruments in the world. Its tonal quality, emotional range, and dynamics are remarkable. The body is carved from a single piece of well-seasoned teakwood. The belly is covered with goat skin and the neck with a highly polished steel plate. Since the sarod has no frets, the musician’s nail tips slide along the plate. There are four main strings, six rhythm and drone strings, and fifteen sympathetic strings, all made of various metals. These are played by striking with a plectrum made from coconut shell.
Though the sarod as been found in carvings of the first century in Champa temple and in paintings in the Ajanta caves, the present form of the sarod was developed about 200 to 250 years ago in India, as adaptations of Veena, Sursringar, and the Rabab of Afghanistan and Kashmir.
Aditya Verma’s creative collaborations with artists from various traditions around the globe in both classical and popular music have been received with acclaim and enthusiasm. His many successes include a performance with the Washington Symphony Orchestra on Capitol Hill for an audience of over 500,000 people.
Growing up in Montreal in a family deeply involved in the traditions of India, he started playing the tabla at an early age under the guidance of his father, Dr. Narendra Verma, and Ustad Zakir Hussain. In 1987, he moved to India to study Hindustani classical music in the Maihar Senia Gharana as a disciple of the legendary sitar player Pandit Ravi Shankar and renowned sarod master Ustad Aashish Khan. Verma has also trained under the eminent Ustad Ali Akbar Khan.
In addition to playing concerts on stage, television, and radio, he has several CDs to his credit and has composed music for recordings and films. Verma is actively involved in the propagation of Indian music through lecturing and teaching. He has received many awards.
Classical Guitarathon
Saturday, May 23rd, 2009
A classical guitarathon concert was the first event presented by our Society. This annual extravaganza always ends our season on a high note.