Winchester Guitar Festival 2008
News from the Lute Society
The next Lute Society Playing day, led once again by Stewart McCoy will take place in Hackney, London, on Saturday 26th April. Stewart will tailor the music to suit all abilities. Beginners are particularly welcome and special arrangements will be made for them.
If you want to come, email Gordon at gordon@gordongregory.co.uk
2. OUD EVENT TOMORROW, FRIDAY
UNIVERSITY OF LONDON - SCHOOL OF ADVANCED STUDYINSTITUTE OF MUSICAL RESEARCH
Friday April 25th 2008Room ST 274/5, Stewart House, 32 Russell Square, London WC1B (adjacent to Senate House)9.30am – 6.30pm
PROGRAMME
Abstracts of papers available at:http://music.sas.ac.uk/imr-events/imr-conferences-colloquia-performance-events/middle-east-and-central-asia-music-forum/abstracts.html#c1398
- Registration (from 9.30am) and Welcome (9.45am)
- Session 1 (10 - 11.45am)Tala Jarjour (University of Cambridge)Syriac Chant:
- Problematizing a New-Old Story. Work in Progress
Nahro Zagros (University of York)Songs for the Dead: Funeral Gatherings of the Êzdis in Armenia - 11.45am - tea/coffee
- Session 2 (12.15 – 1pm) Hany El Hamzawy (Goldsmiths London)The Oud in the Era of Ethnomusicology
- 1pm – Lunch break
- Session 3 (2.30 - 4.15pm)Carolyn Landau (City University)Remembering and Reminiscing: Music and Meaning amongst Moroccans in London Parmis Mozafari (University of Leeds)A Historical Overview of the Condition of Women Musicians in Iran
- 4.15 - 5.15pm tea/coffee and final discussion session
- 5.30 - 6.30pmEvening RecitalEgyptian Oud player Hany El Hamzawi will present a range of performance styles from across the Middle East and beyond.
The Middle East and Central Asia Music forum is open to researchers, students and anyone interested in the music and culture of the region. In the spirit of fostering dialogue and interdiscplinarity, we hope that the issues discussed at the forum will be of interest to a broad audience, including musicologists, ethnomusicologists and other researchers in the arts, humanities and social sciences.
In addition, we welcome those working on other aspects of Middle Eastern and Central Asian culture broadly speaking (dance, visual arts, media, film, literature, etc.) Advance booking is requested via Valerie James at music@sas.ac.uk; a contribution to costs of £10 is requested on the door. Attendance for students and the unwaged is free.
3 OUD AND VOICE CONCERT 7th MAY
The first one is as part of a coptic easter party this saturday near Turnpike lane at Muna's Restaurant. Start 8/9pmPlease check http://www.munasrestaurant.com/ for directions and details.
The second one is a lunchtime concert on Wednesday the 7th of May at St Olave's Church, London, a small medieval church, so should be lovely.The address is
St Olave Church
8 Hart Street
London EC3R 7NB
4. GUITAR DUO CONCERT 3rd MAY
Saturday 3rd May 2008 8pm The Point Eastleigh, Hampshire
TICKETS: £12.50 (usual concessions £10) Box Office 023 8065 2333
John Mills is regarded as one of Britain's finest concert guitarists. He graduated from the Royal College of Music and studied with three of the world's finest players: John Williams, Julian Bream and Andres Segovia. He is particularly associated with 20th century romantic works made famous by Segovia. John performed on many occasions to the great master Segovia who commented that "Mr Mill's playing has a purity of technique and musical sensitivity". It is difficult to imagine a better accolade.
Cobie Smit was born in Rotterdam and studied at the conservatory there, later going on to The Hague where she complete her studies at the Royal Conservatory of Music. Cobie and John formed a duo in the 1980's and together they have toured both nationally and internationally.
Southampton Classical Guitar Society is extremely proud that John Mills is their Honorary President. The concert, with John in duo with Cobie, promises to be a superb event.
Presented by Southampton Classical Guitar Society
http://www.scgs-guitar.org.uk/
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Taro Takeuchi early music guitar and lutenist
(Thanks to Trevor Pike for this)
Taro Takeuchi is a lutenist and guitarist with an interest in early music. He is performing at Hornimans museum on Sunday 4th May between 3and4.30pm there is no entry charge.
http://www.horniman.ac.uk/ for further information.
Find out more about Taro at the web site below
Wealden Guitar Society Performance
based on the Thomas Morley recipe cooked and and presented superbly by Tom, Diana and David
While the Wealden Society catered for our musical appetites, a special mention should go to Trevor Pike for organising and providing the actual refreshments for everyone. Thanks again Trevor!!
Meeting March 19th Update
Unfortunately we missed out on getting a recording of the Widmore ensemble. Hopefully we will have better luck with the Wealden Ensemble this Saturday.
Thanks to Stephen Pearson for the MP3 file
Amanda Cook- Guest Performer for the BGS
Amanda began her studies with Alexander Levtov before receiving a scholarship to study at the Royal College of Music Junior Department as a pupil of Charles Ramirez. In 1994 Amanda became a full time BMus degree student at the college as a foundation scholar, where she continued to study with Mr Ramirez and later with Gary Ryan and Jakob Lindberg, graduating in 1998.
Performer Spotlight: Mesut Ozgen
I will start the ball rolling with one of my favourite guitarists: Mesut Ozgen.
Mesut Ozgen and I both share something in common. We both developed an interest in learning Classical Guitar while pursuing our respective university studies in the early 1980's (in Mesut's case it was medicine in Turkey while in mine it was teaching in Australia) and that we are both self taught. However that's where the similarity ceases. A high octane mix of talent and genius made sure that his career as a professional guitarist roared away while mine remained firmly at the starter's block .
Since then he has performed and taught master classes throughout the US, Spain and Turkey and has been on the guitar faculty at the University of California,Santa Cruz since 1998. He is the first Guitarist to be awarded the prestigious ' Deans Prize' from the Yale School of Music. He has performed at the International Paco Pena Guitar Festival in 1989 and 1900 and has studied with composer Benjamin Verdery at Yale University, School of Music.
While I wisely completed my teaching studies, I cannot say for sure whether Mesut completed his medical studies but he has completed his Master of Music degree and Artist Diploma at Yale. He has also been very busy working on a doctoral program at Arizona State University as well as performing in master classes for notable guitarists such as John Williams, David Russell, Manuel Barrueco and Leo Brouwer. His repertoire also includes early music for the guitar, baroque guitar and lute. He has also been very busy promoting classical guitar music based on a wide variety of American, Spanish, Turkish, Greek and Argentinean folk cultures.
One of my favourite pieces is his performance of Carlo Domeniconi's Variation on an Anatolian Folk Song (based on a folk song composed by Asik Veysel. It is a particularly beautiful piece and in Mesut Ozgen's hands it becomes sublime.
Another piece he delivers at top speed is the Paraguayan inspired piece Misionera by Bustamente which has been captured in this You Tube Clip. (Its a bit out of focus but stick with it..it gets better).
Mesut Ozgen is also keen to promote new compositions for Classical Guitar which is why I have enclosed a video of the performance of Ben Verdery's Pick and Roll by the USMC Guitar Consort which he conducts.
Further information about Mesut Ozgen can be accessed at his web site (along with further examples of his recordings. I would recommend his Troubadour CD as a must purchase!
If you have a guitarist that you would like to nominate (or better still, provide some background reading and links) please don't hesitate to respond using the comments link.