Master Class: DAVID RUSSELL

Tuesday, May 2, 2017 from 3-6 PM
Griswold Hall, Peabody Conservatory

Auditors welcome! If you would like to attend, please click HERE to sign up. Performers will be students of the Peabody Conservatory. This class is organized in collaboration with the Peabody Conservatory guitar department.

FREE BCGS Orchestra Concert

Thursday, May 4, 2017 at 7:00 pm

Our Lady of the Angels Chapel

Charlestown Senior Living Community

715 Maiden Choice Lane, Catonsville, MD 21228

You do not need a ticket for this FREE concert, you can just show up!

• Please remember to RENEW YOUR MEMBERSHIP (Click here) if you are buying tickets at member prices for the 30th Anniversary Concert Season, 2017-2018.
• We also ask that you show your support by buying tickets to the 30th Anniversary Commissioning Concert on Sunday, April 25, 2018 at 2:00 PM. Tickets are only $10 for our contributors and it goes toward our "Made in Baltimore" commissioning project which supports young Baltimore artist performing new commissions by Baltimore composers. Click HERE for tickets to this concert.

30th ANNIVERSARY CONCERT SEASON:

Saturday, Oct. 28, 2017 - Manuel Barrueco (Click HERE for a video) (Anniversary Concert)
Saturday, Feb. 3, 2018 - Judicael Perroy (Baltimore Debut)   (Click HERE for a video)
Saturday, March 10, 2018 - Irina Kulikova (Baltimore Debut)  (Click HERE for a video)
Saturday, April 29, 2017 - Los Angeles Guitar Quartet (Click HERE for a video)

Please note that the October and April concerts will take place at Harold J. Kaplan Concert Hall of Towson University, the other two will take place at the new Linehan Concert Hall of UMBC, where there is plenty of parking. (BMA is under construction).

Tickets will not be mailed until September. 

The BCGS hosts open evenings at the Hope Presbyterian Church in Baltimore on selected Saturday evenings from 7 - 10 PM.

September 24, 2016
November 5, 2016
January 14, 2017   - CANCELLED DUE TO WEATHER
March 11, 2017
May 6, 2017

Open Stage evenings are set in a very informal atmosphere with a very appreciative audience. All levels of classical guitar playing are welcome – players, listeners, ensembles, guitar with other instruments, whatever! You are welcome to bring your guitar to play, or you can just listen to others. While guests are welcome, we encourage anyone who performs to be a BCGS member.

The Open Stage evenings give players and listeners a chance to meet other members and the BCGS Board members. The Board is more than happy to answer any questions on the BCGS activities, such as upcoming concerts, outreach programs, and how to volunteer for the BCGS.

This is a perfect opportunity for beginners to play elementary pieces in front of a hand-clapping audience, as well as for more experienced players to just have fun sharing their music. YOU ARE NEVER READY TO PLAY, SO JUST COME AND DO IT! There is a 10 minute limit per player. After the playing is over, there will be plenty of time to mingle and enjoy refreshments. Players have the opportunity to earn Performance Certificates – a great way to expand your guitar portfolio.

Admission: Free
Door Prizes (for performers): Tickets to Concerts, Guitar CDs, Strings
Refreshments: Courtesy of BCGS

Hope we'll see you there!

Vivia Chang and Jim Cole 

These cmmissions were made possible by The William G. Baker, Jr. Memorial Fund, creator of the Baker Artist Awards (www.BakerArtistAwards.org); The Citizens of Baltimore County, and the BCGS contributors. Thank You.

On October 27, representatives from 10 guitar presenting organizations got together in Baltimore for a conference, sponsored by D'Addario Foundation.

Special visit from Therese Wassily Saba, editor Classical Guitar Magazine. 

It’s about the touch

With the rare beauty of her tone and and her enchanting presence on stage, Irina Kulikova catches the hearts of audiences across the globe. She belongs to that class of musicians that tell something pure and special with their instrument in a seemingly effortless flow.

Soundboard Magazine wrote: “Some of the most sheerly beautiful playing I have ever heard.” And violinist Luz Leskowitz, director of the Salzburger Schlosskonzerte in Austria: “Wherever she performs, she plays herself into the hearts of the audience.” Kulikova’s secret, in life as in music: It's about the touch.

The daughter of a Russian cellist, Irina Kulikova started developing her musical senses at an exceptionally young age. At five, she got her first guitar. At eight, she made her first public performance, and by the time she was twelve, Irina Kulikova was a child star playing all across Russia and at festivals in Europe. At fourteen her name appeared in Maurice Summerfield’s book The Classical Guitar, its evolution, players and personalities since 1800.

Today, Irina Kulikova tours around the world with performances at leading festivals in Europe, North America, and Asia, and in concert halls such as the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow, the Academic Capella in St. Petersburg, Schloss Mirabell in Salzburg, the Palau de la Musica in Valencia, the Musashino Hall in Tokyo and the Oriental Arts Center in Shanghai.

She received over 30 awards for her artistry, including 1st prizes at the highly prestigious competitions of Michele Pittaluga in Italy, Guitarra Alhambra in Spain, Forum Gitarre Wien in Austria, and Iserlohn in Germany.

Irina Kulikova graduated with distinction at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg, Austria,, the Conservatoire of Maastricht in The Netherlands, and the Gnessins Academy in Moscow, Russia. She has recorded four solo CD’s, three of which are distributed worldwide by the Naxos label.

Irina Kulikova resides in The Hague, Los Angeles, and Salzburg, and combines her concert career with a personal dedication to teaching.

Tickets will be mailed in September.

Legendary guitarist Manuel Barrueco is internationally recognized as one of the most important guitarists of our time. His unique artistry has been continually described as that of a superb instrumentalist and a superior and elegant musician, possessing a seductive sound and uncommon lyrical gifts. 

 
His career has been dedicated to bringing the guitar to the main musical centers of the world such as the Musikverein in Vienna, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Royal Albert Hall in London, Philharmonie in Berlin, Teatro Real in Madrid, and Palau de la Musica in Barcelona. He has completed a dozen tours of Japan and made repeated appearances in Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, China, and Hong Kong, and in Latin America he has performed in Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Panama and Puerto Rico.

Barrueco's commitment to contemporary music and to the expansion of the guitar repertoire has led him to collaborations with many distinguished composers such as Steven Stucky, Michael Daugherty, Roberto Sierra, Arvo Pärt, Jonathan Leshnoff, Gabriela Lena Frank, Dmitri Yanov-Yanovsky, and Toru Takemitsu. As the artistic advisor for the Baltimore Classical Guitar Society, he created a successful commissioning program. Four new commissions will be premiered on February 25, 2018 at 2:00 PM.
 
Manuel Barrueco has appeared on a wide array of television programs including "CBS Sunday Morning", A&E's "Breakfast with the Arts", and "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" on PBS. He was featured in a Lexus car commercial, and his work in music inspired Michael Lawrence’s biographical documentary: “Manuel Barrueco: A Gift and a Life”.
 
Barrueco’s recording catalogue includes over a dozen recordings for the EMI label. His recording of Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez with conductor and tenor Plácido Domingo and the Philharmonia Orchestra was cited as the best recording of that piece in Classic CD Magazine.
 
In 2007 Manuel Barrueco received a Grammy nomination for the “Best Instrumental Soloist Performance” for his Solo Piazzolla, which was the first recording to be released on his exclusive Manuel Barrueco Collection on Tonar Music. Tango Sensations and Sounds of the Americas followed in collaboration with the Cuarteto Latinoamericano, the latter received a Latin Grammy Award for “Inca Dances” by Gabriela Lena Frank for “Best Classical Contemporary Composition.” In 2010 he released, Tárrega!, which received a Latin Grammy nomination for “Best Classical Album,” Medea, which includes Barrueco’s arrangement of the ballet by flamenco guitarist/composer Manolo Sanlúcar recorded with the Tenerife Symphony Orchestra and Víctor Pablo Pérez conducting and received a Latin Grammy nomination for “Best Classical Album” as well. China West, a recording of guitar trios in collaboration with his protégés, the Beijing Guitar Duo came out in 2014 and his latest release is Fernando Sor: The Beethoven of the Guitar, released in Dec. 2016.

Manuel Barrueco began playing the guitar at the age of eight in his native Cuba and he immigrated with his family to the United States in 1967 as political refugees. He completed his advanced studies at the Peabody Conservatory, where he now shares his love for music with a small number of exceptionally gifted young guitarists from all over the world.

In 2011, Manuel Barrueco received the United States Artist Fontanals Fellowship for Artistic Excellence. He was the recipient of the 2006 and 2017 MSAC Individual Artist Awards.

You can follow Manuel Barrueco on Facebook and on Twitter @ManuelBarrueco.

All compositions will be inspired by Baltimore and the whole project has received the working title “Made in Baltimore,” as it is entirely Baltimore based: Baltimore composers (established) nominated young and rising Baltimore composers for the commission. After selecting the four Baltimore composers, we will pair them with young and rising Baltimore guitarists. We also pair them with Baltimore mentors who will work with them to get the works ready for world-premiere. Therefore, “Made in Baltimore.”

Please join us for this 60-minute concert in which the composers will be interviewed on stage about their commission and the commissioning experience, right before the world-premiere of each of their works.

We hope you support this worthy project by purchasing tickets to this event. Concerts are meant to be shared, please consider bringing friends to this performance!

The BCGS has created a page on Facebook and we invite all to join us there.  You can post your comments, watch videos, see who else is planning on attending the concerts and doing the discussion group.

Baltimore Classical Guitar Society's commission of "INCA DANCES" by Gabriela Lena Frank
WINS a Latin GRAMMY Award for Best Classical Contemporary Composition!

The new commission was premiered during the closing concert of the 20th anniversary season  with Manuel Barrueco and Cuarteto Latinoamericano.

This is a great honor for our society!

 BCGS Master Class with MENG SU - sponsored in part by UMBC (University of Maryland, Baltimore County)

The BCGS will present a master class with Meng Su, first prize winner of the Parkening International Guitar Competition, on Sunday, January 29, 2017 from 2 until 5 p.m.  The master class will take place in the Music Box in the new Performing Arts and Humanities building of UMBC, 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD, 21250.

Performers and auditors welcome! There is a limited number of tickets available. Tickets will be given out on a first come, first served basis, with preferred seating for BCGS members. Registration is required. Please register by filling out the form.

This class will be in part "practice collective." We encourage you to bring your guitar and practice along with other participants. Meng Su will show you practice strategies for scales, right and left hand movements, finger alterings, string crossings, and other things that will save you time when you practice at home.

Click HERE to sign up. Do NOT use the concert ticket ordering system on the top right.

Tickets will be mailed in September.

The Grammy Award-winning LAGQ is one of the most multifaceted groups in any genre. The LAGQ is comprised of four uniquely accomplished musicians bringing a new energy to the concert stage with programs ranging from Bluegrass to Bach. They consistently play to sold-out houses world-wide. Their inventive, critically acclaimed transcriptions of concert masterworks provide a fresh look at the music of the past, while their interpretations of works from the contemporary and world-music realms continually break new ground. Programs including Latin, African, Far East, Irish, Folk and American Classics transport listeners around the world in a single concert experience. Their ‘Don Quixote’ collaboration with Firesign Theater veteran, actor Philip Proctor, continues to expand and delight audiences and the work 'SHIKI: Seasons of Japan' written for the LAGQ plus guitar orchestra by composer Shingo Fujii is connecting communities across the nation.

Winner of a 2005 Grammy Award, their Guitar Heroes CD released on Telarc is a brilliant follow-up to their Grammy nominated LAGQ-Latin. Spin (Telarc, 2006) continues their explorations of jazz and contemporary music. LAGQ: BRAZIL (Telarc, 2007), including collaborations with vocalist Luciana Souza, was released to rave reviews, and their newest recording of the Rodrigo Concierto Andaluz and Sergio Assad’s Interchange, written specifically for them, was released on Telarc in Spring 2010, and quickly climbed to top spot on the Billboard charts. The live DVD of The Ingenious Gentleman: Don Quixote was released on the Mel Bay label in spring 2012.

John Dearman
Originally from Minneapolis, John Dearman is a versatile guitarist whose repertoire ranges from samba to bluegrass, and from flamenco to classical. He enriches the sound of the LAGQ by performing on a unique seven-string guitar with extended upper and lower registers. John is currently director of the Guitar Chamber Music program at California State University, Northridge, in Los Angeles.

Matthew Greif
Matthew Greif is the newest member of the Quartet. In addition to being a classical guitarist, he has an extensive background playing in other styles, such as jazz, rock, flamenco, and bluegrass. Matthew's recordings include Permanent Transition, which features duo improvisations with Andrew York and Dusan Bogdanovic. Matthew was named Outstanding Graduate of the U.S.C. guitar department, where he studied with William Kanengiser, James Smith, and Scott Tennant. He also studied jazz with Joe Diorio and Frank Potenza. Matthew currently teaches classical and jazz guitar at Cal State University, Dominguez Hills, in the Los Angeles area.

William Kanengiser
Acclaimed soloist, recording artist and professor at the USC Thornton School of Music, William Kanengiser is one of the few guitarists to have won the Concert Artists Guild New York Competition. His solo recordings on the GSP label display his unique approach to programming, ranging from the music of the Old World to the Caribbean to his latest disc Classical Cool, an exploration of jazz currents for classical guitar. He has earned critical acclaim for his imaginative arrangements for solo guitar and guitar quartet, and for producing two instructional videos for Hot Licks. Kanengiser may be best known as the classical guitarist in the 1986 film Crossroads.

Scott Tennant
Celebrated as a world-class performer, author and teacher, Detroit-born Scott Tennant has been concertizing since the age of twelve. Much in demand as a solo artist, Scott has recorded for Delos International and is currently completing a recording project of the complete solo guitar works of Joaquin Rodrigo for GHA, Belgium. He is the author of the best-selling book and video Pumping Nylon, a technical handbook for the classical guitarist, and the five-part series Scott Tennant's Basic Classical Guitar Method. He has taught at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and is now on the faculty at the USC Thornton School of Music.

We have opened enrollment for the Fall 2017 semester.

PLEASE ADD QUANTITY OF 1 IN THE PULLDOWN MENU ON THE RIGHT AND ADD TO CHART. THEN CLICK ON CHART TOP RIGHT AND CONTINUE TO CHECK OUT IF YOU HAVE ALREADY RENEWED YOUR MEMBERSHIP FOR THE COMING SEASON. ALL MEMBERSHIP RUNS OUT IN AUGUST AND NEEDS TO BE RENEWED BEFORE REGISTERING.

Hello Guitar Aficionados,
With the year coming to an end and a very successful collaboration with the Baltimore Mandolin Orchestra, the orchestra will take the summer off and then is full steam ahead for the 2017 fall session. This session promises to be by far the most exciting semester yet, with many scheduled performances around the greater Baltimore area.

Location
Once again, our home base will be at the Charlestown Community conveniently located right off the 695 beltway. All of our rehearsals will take place there in various classrooms, as well as our final performance which will take place in the awe inspiring Lady of our Angels Chapel. Each rehearsal goes from 7:00pm - 9:00pm.

Rehearsal and Performance Schedule: TBD

Repertoire:TBD

How to Register
To register for the semester please go to: https://www.bcgs.org/pages/events/26/bcgs-orchestra_register-now

Questions:
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Looking forward to seeing you all, and I hope that everyone has a safe and happy holiday season.

Cheers,

Scott Borg 

This is a chance to become an active member of the guitar community, and share performance experiences with other guitar lovers. This semester will include works spanning six centuries, including Bach, opera, music from the Iberian peninsula, and some newly composed works done in the past 10 years.

We are looking forward to you joining us! The orchestra registration fee is $100 for the semester and you have to be a BCGS member to participate. If you are unsure if your membership is valid, please email us at admin@BCGS.org. The orchestra is open to people of all levels and styles.

Place a $100 Spring Semester in the shopping cart and proceed to check out as if you were paying for concert tickets. If you need to renew your memebership, please do that and then click on the shopping cart to check out. You will receive a confirmation for your registration.

This is where the orchestra performs their concerts:

Here are some questions that we have been asked over the years:

What is this experience?

If you have never played in a large ensemble, this will be quite new to you. You will have a part, and play in a section with others playing the same thing. There are generally four parts in the group for each. We work on coordinating the parts, balancing dynamics, and setting out the interpretive gestures. The director conduct the rehearsals – both through talking everyone through the issues, as well as by actually conducting. For that reason, it is important to work on your part during the week, so when we rehearse, you can give some attention to the guy in front waving his arms.

How well do I have to play to be a part of the Orchestra?

We invite players of all levels to participate, with parts distributed as close to your level of development as possible. If a part is too hard, we can edit to make it more playable. Keep in mind that there are several of you on a part, so if you can’t play everything, someone else in your section can. That way it will all be covered. We want to be as inclusive as possible.

How do I audition?

The audition process is simple: Tell the director what pieces you are comfortable playing. It helps to know, for example, if you are confident all over the fingerboard, or if venturing above the 5th fret gives you a sense of vertigo; we want your part to be playable for you. From that information, we can get a good idea of where to place you in the ensemble. A good rule of thumb to follow if you haven’t done this before is to expect that your part will be (usually) simpler than your solo repertoire. This allows for you to learn your part, play your part, and still have enough focus left over to hear all that is going on around you.

How often are rehearsals?

We meet once a week, Thursday evenings from 7-9 PM. We meet at the Charlestown Senior Living Community in Catonsville, 715 Maiden Choice Lane, Catonsville, MD 21228, right inside the Baltimore Beltway 695 at exit 12B. We begin after Labor Day.

How do get my music?

We will email pdfs to you at the beginning of the semester; new additions will be passed around in rehearsal.

Other requirements?

A guitar that can be tuned well, footstool, a music stand, and pencil to take notes.

As we meet once a week, it is important to be at as many rehearsals as possible. I realize that you have busy lives, and there may be times when you can’t make it – work or family engagements, illness, etc.

Last items:

A sense of humor, and a willingness to enjoy and learn from your mistakes. While we take making music very seriously, that doesn’t mean we can’t have fun. The key to that is not fussing over your errors – learn from them, practice, and grow. We all make mistakes; the important thing is to not get too caught up in them. As stated above: if the part seems too hard, let me know. Success can only come if you are confident in what you are playing.

Anything else? Contact us HERE.

Tickets will be mailed in September.

To celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the Baltimore Classical Guitar Society, we have decided to hold a silent auction for our original Guitar Celebrity caricatures.  Already, the caricature of Manuel Barrueco, Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, and the Duo Assad have been purchased.  We still have the original caricatures of Eduardo Fernández (our opening concert artist),  Andrés Segovia, Pepe and Angel Romero, David Russell, Oscar Ghiglia, and others.