The following review of the Eden Stell Guitar Duo concert for the Omni Guitar Series is by Scott Cmiel, chair of the guitar and musicianship departments in the preparatory division of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and reviewer for the San Francisco Classical Voice.

Provocative Playing Rewarded
“The Eden Stell Guitar Duo were ideal interpreters of this complex music. Their humorous introduction set the audience at ease, their mastery of Brouwer’s atonal style showcased its inherent beauty, and their expressive physicality highlighted the inherent drama with a mime of grandiose pomposity, boredom, menacing aggression, and hurt feelings. The audience was, by turns, raptly silent, laughing out loud, and vigorously cheering.” Scott Cmiel

Read the review in full here.

The Eden Stell Guitar Duo will be performing at the prestigious Omni Guitar Series in San Francisco on Saturday 27 February 2010. The Omni Foundation for the Performing Arts has been presenting guitar concerts for 29 years in the San Francisco Bay area.

Although the series presents acoustic guitarists of all genres, such as flamenco, jazz and fingerstyle, the primary focus is on the classical guitar. The series is the longest running and most extensive guitar series in the United States and is considered to be one of the foremost guitar series in the world.

As well as the Eden Stell Guitar Duo this years series includes artists such as Pavel Steidl, Tommy Emmanuel, Kazuhito Yamashita, Roland Dyens, Pepe Romero and Manuel Barrueco amongst others.

Chris and I will be performing at the Wigmore Hall on Sunday 8 November 2009 at 7.30pm.

Believe it or not we are celebrating 20 years performing as a duo! Yes I know we look so youthful! Our concert is presented in association with Classical Guitar Magazine and D’Addario.

Click here to book or call 020 7935 2141. Tickets are £10, £12, £16, £18, and our programme will feature works by Bach, Brouwer, Torroba, new arrangements of Mompou, Rodrigo, Bowers, and the first London performance of ‘Wave Radiance’ by Philip Houghton.

Hope you can make it. Mark

To launch the VIDA Guitar Quartet’s debut CD, ‘Love, the Magician’ BGS118, we have lined up a tour over October of some of the UK’s top concert venues. These include The Sage Gateshead on 17 October, Winchester Discovery Centre on 23 October, St George’s Bristol on Saturday 24 October, and London’s exciting new venue Kings Place on Wednesday 28 October, where VIDA will be featured as part of the London Guitar Festival in the Fall.

Our programme will include music from the CD. Take a moment to listen to some sound samples from the media player on vidagq.com. Here are all the dates with relevant booking information.

17 October - The Sage Gateshead, Tyne & Wear (book tickets!)

23 October - Winchester Discovery Centre, Winchester, Hants (book tickets!)

24 October - St George’s Bristol, (book tickets!)

28 October - Kings Place – London (Book tickets!)

Please take a look at our concert schedule or subscribe to the VIDA GQ concert RSS feed.

Well we’ve waited over a year for this moment, but the VIDA Guitar Quartet are proud to announce the release of their debut recording Love, the Magician (BGS118) this October 2009. As Eden Stell make up 50% of VIDA GQ (other half – Helen Sanderson and Mark Ashford) I think it’s only right we should cover this event on edenstell.com!

To mark the launch we will be playing up and down the UK at various venues where you will be able to hear us in the flesh (ahh!) and if you like what you hear you can take a little bit of us home with you in the handy shape of a CD!

Dates on the Love, the Magician tour include:

7 October – St Cuthbert’s Church, Durham (1pm)

8 October – The Performing Arts Centre, Stewart’s Melville College, Edinburgh – also masterclass on this day during the afternoon.

9 October – The Saville Exchange, North Shields (1pm)

17 October - The Sage Gateshead, Tyne & Wear (book tickets!)

22 October - East Malling Research Station Music Club, East Malling, Kent

23 October - Winchester Discovery Centre, Winchester, Hants (book tickets!)

24 October - St George’s Bristol, (book tickets!)

29 October - Kings Place – London (Book tickets!)

31 October – Kings Place, London – Masterclass (info from IGF)

All dates are evening recitals except where time is indicated.

Love, the Magician has a distinctly Andalusian flavour with a works by Falla: El Amor Brujo (Love, the Magician), and El sombrero de tres picos (The Three-Cornered Hat); Bizet: Carmen Suite; and Joaquín Turina: La Oración del Torero (The Prayer of the Bullfighter).

You can have a sneak preview of our Love, the Magician at vidagq.com. Let us know what you think and hope we can catch up with you at one of our concerts soon.

Mark E (aka V1!)

Next week sees the young-person’s classical guitar event of the year with the World Youth Guitar Festival in Cheltenham. Preparations have been in full swing for the last few months and as Artistic Directors we have been assisting WYGF Director, Helen Sanderson with the last minute preparations before it all starts on Tuesday 11th.

WYGF 2009 is hosted at Dean Close School in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, which boasts state-of-the-art facilities, and also the fabulous Bacon Theatre where the WYGF International Concert Series will take place. We help to kick the performing off on the first night (Tuesday 11 August) with the VIDA Guitar Quartet, but before VIDA there will be Naxos artist Graham Devine. The following evening sees fellow Americans Martha Masters and Brad Richter performing at the Bacon Theatre. Both acclaimed artists don’t come over this side of the pond that often so please book your tickets as this will be an opportunity not to be missed – box office. Full details here …

Friday the 14th sees the WYGF grand final student concert at the Bacon Theatre starting at 13.30. There will be seven (yes you heard correctly!) guitar orchestras, plus the National Youth Guitar Ensemble performing the pieces they have been rehearsing over the previous few days, coached and directed by those artists mentioned above, plus Peter Nuttall, Frank Gerstmeier, Gary Ryan, Mark Ashford, and Helen Sanderson.

Support for WYGF has been incredible this year, and it is a testament to the efforts WYGF is making in encouraging young classical guitarists that many involved in the guitar world have been keen to be partners of this unique event. WYGF supporters include D’Addario, Trinity Guildhall, Junior Guildhall, Kent Guitar Classics, Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama, Intellitouch Tuners, Mel Bay, London Guitar Studio, and Savarez.

For full details about WYGF please visit www.wygf.org

Classical Guitar Magazine are celebrating our 20 years performing together with a cover and interview in their August edition. The interview was given by excellent CMG newcomer Guy Travis who bowled us some thought provoking questions (do you like the Ashes flavour?).

Guy asked us about our early student years (I’m feeling really old now!), how we choose and programme our concerts, and also about our new venture into the quartet medium with the VIDA Guitar Quartet. Here is a small, and sort of serious sounding moment from the interview …

“Guitarists will have to become more imaginative with their programming if we are to move beyond guitar circles and make an impact on the wider musical scene.”

Calm down, calm down! If you want to hear how much we’ve changed into grumpy old men in our 20th year, then please read a copy and let us know what you think.

On a totally different subject, an apology to all those who have received some random posts. We recently up-dated our website and there have been a few issues which needed ironing out. Was the Jackdaws blog just as good the second time round? Let me know and leave a comment. Best wishes, M.

Chris and I were honoured this year to be invited to perform at the GFA Convention held in Ithaca NY. The Guitar Foundation of America have firmly put themselves on the musical-map, organising one of the largest classical guitar events in the World. Having never been to a GFA convention before we had little idea of what to expect, but we had already been impressed with the artistic line-up so we knew it would be a thrilling event!

GFA 2009 didn’t disappoint! From the first evening’s concert we were treated to a feast of artistry from all those who performed. Unfortunately I didn’t manage to get to every concert, talk, award, or lecture, as Chris and I were kept busy with our own concert preparations, teaching, competition jury duty, and our lectures, so I’m not going to attempt to write up on individuals – just to say that the many I did hear were fantastic, and those I missed were also being enthusiastically talked about!

The performers included Eduardo Isaac, Roberto Aussel, Eden Stell Duo, Andrew York, Pablo Cohen, Tantalus Quartet, Newman Oltman Duo, Ismo Eskelinen, Elena Papandreou, Marco Pereira, Lynn McGrath, Adam Del Monte, Gabriel Bianco, and the bandoneón legend Daniel Binelli, and finally the International Competition final.

The lecture line-up looked just as impressive with the likes of Angelo Gilardino, Thomas Heck, Jason Vieaux, Andrew Dickenson, and composer Roberto Sierra, to name just a few, talking on topics as diverse as tone production to teaching Classical in a Rock World!

Martha Masters spoke briefly with me about how the GFA is building on the success of the convention by offering individual lessons for the first time this year, much like a regular guitar festival, but also continuing the huge line-up of concerts, talks/lectures, vendor fair, luthiers showcase, and the famous solo guitar competitions.

The GFA paid homage in a GFA Hall of Fame awards ceremony to key figures in the guitar world who included Oscar Ghiglia, Angelo Gilardino, Jim & John D’Addario, Jeffery Cogan, and a tribute to the New York guitar maker Thomas Humphrey.

The Youth Show Case concert was a GFA event close to our hearts, especially with WYGF looming on our own horizon in August. We met up with the Levine Guitar Orchestra and their MD, Risa Carlson, and we hope to encourage these young player to the World Youth Guitar Festival some time soon.

The GFA Youth Competition was of the highest standard, and Chris and I had to go back to our rooms to re-evaluate our own guitar techniques after witnessing some incredible performances and artistry from those youngsters.

Amongst all this we still found time to meet up with old friends, and make some newer ones. If this post has whetted your appetite then next year’s GFA Convention and Competition is from 22-27 June, Austin, Texas.

Chris and I will be giving a Classical Guitar Course this summer at the Chanterelle Music Centre, France. Set in beautiful countryside, Chanterelle is in the Poitou Charente in Southwest France. It is in two small farms (fermettes) that have been joined together to create space for music making.

THE COURSE
This small and exclusive course runs from the 23 – 29 August 2009 and gives participants opportunity for intensive study with the Duo.

Participants can attend as soloists, or ensemble players and the daily timetable will include:
* solo and small ensemble coaching sessions
* technical workshops
* warm-ups and finger aerobics
* daily guitar orchestra rehearsals

You can also take a look at the brochure for full details by downloading it here.

COURSE FEES
The cost for the course is £400 to include tuition, breakfast, lunch and a three course evening meal, with tea and coffee served throughout the day. Food is locally sourced and supplemented by vegetables, fruit and eggs from Chanterelle’s own gardens.

ACCOMMODATION
Accommodation can be provided on site in one of the comfortable bedrooms or in local gites or bed and breakfast. Daily transport can be provided for those staying nearby.
Accommodation costs start at £10 per night, but prices differ due to the varied nature of the rooms at Chanterelle.

TRAVEL
Flights are available to Limoge from Southampton, Stansted, Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, Bristol, Bournemouth, Nottingham, and Luton,or to La Rochelle from Southampton or Bristol on Ryanair, Flybe, or Easyjet.

Pick-up from the airports can be arranged for a small fee.
Driving or rail instructions can be sent to you upon enquiry.

BOOKING INFORMATION
For further enquiries please contact either myself or Nikki & John Ingram at:

French Music Holidays
Chanterelle
La Baronniere
Charroux
France

johnetnikki@yahoo.fr
tel: +33 549874548
www.frenchmusicholidays.com

D’Addario at the GFA from Mark Eden on Vimeo.

Chris and I met up with Hugh Gilmartin (D’Addario Artist Relations Manager) at the Guitar Foundation of America (GFA) International Convention vendors’ fair in Ithaca NY. The GFA Convention is a huge mecca for those who are involved in the guitar world, and we took this opportunity to talk to Hugh about what D’Addario have been up to as well as their plans for the future, and also find out about some new and exciting D’Addario products. We have been using D’Addario strings for many years now and have always been impressed with the Pro-Arte Composites and EXP Coated, as well as the standard Pro-Arte strings. Chris Stell showed Hugh his new guitar which uses a specially-made seventh string which D’Addario supply him with, giving Chris the extra bass dimension he needs for the VIDA Guitar Quartet. While at the Convention the GFA awarded both John D’Addario, Jr. and Jim D’Addario the 2009 Industry Leadership Award, GFA Hall of Fame. Congratulations to them both.