Sandra Steele, Educational Consultant

Stetson University to Host 15th International Summer Guitar Workshop

Stetson University
May 25, 2005

Stetson University will host its 15th annual International Guitar Workshop, May 27- June 1. The festival will draw an international artist faculty of 13, as well as 160 classical guitar students and luthiers from the United States, Canada, Europe and South America. During the event, classical guitarists of every level participate in daily master classes, seminars, a luthier's exhibit and a guitar orchestra. Recitals are also planned by the distinguished artist/faculty of Stephen Robinson, the Amadeus Guitar Duo, Elena Papandreou, Oscar Ghiglia, Andrew Zohn, Michael Chapdelaine, Ana Vidovic and Eliot Fisk.

The final concert will feature Broadway conductor Edward G. Robinson Jr. and the Workshop Guitar Orchestra in a performance of Earth, Wind & Fire - A Fantasy. General admission for each concert is $8 ($5 for senior citizens, students and Friends of Music). Each of the five concerts will take place in Elizabeth Hall Chapel, 421 N. Woodland Blvd. A Luthiers Exhibit, highlighting instruments from around the world, will be held in Stetson's Sampson Hall Duncan Gallery of Art, 132 E. Minnesota Ave., during the festival. The concerts are as follows:

Friday, May 27, at 7:30 p.m. -- Stetson Professor of Music Stephen Robinson will play solo works by Phillip Houghton, Fernando Sor, Isaac Albeníz and Agustín Barrios Mangoré. Acclaimed by The New York Times for his “effortless virtuosity,” Robinson founded the guitar workshop. Also on Friday evening's program, the Amadeus Guitar Duo of Dale Kavanagh (Canada) and Thomas Kirchhoff (Germany) will perform works by Ferdinando Carulli, Gerald Garcia, Heitor Villa Lobos and Georg-Friedrich Handel. The pair have been playing together since 1991 and given more than 750 concerts in Europe, North America, Central America, South America and Asia. Both teach at the Musikhochschule in Detmold and reside in Iserlohn, Germany.

Saturday, May 28, at 7:30 p.m. -- Elena Papandreou (Greece) and Oscar Ghiglia (Italy) will appear both as a duo and as soloists. Together they will perform J.S. Bach's Sonata I, BWV 525, and Johannes Brahms Theme & Variations, Op. 18, for two guitars. Papandreou will also perform solo works by Roland Dyens, Toru Takemitsu, and Frederic Chopin; and Ghiglia will play Manuel Ponce's Variations sur “Folia de Espana et Fugue.” Papandreou has appeared in most European countries, as well as in the U.S., Canada, Brazil, Venezuela, Puerto Rico and Japan, and won first prize in three international competitions. Ghiglia has performed extensively in North and South America, Europe, the Far East, Israel, New Zealand and the South Pacific. He has recorded for Angel and Nonesuch Records, and taught on five continents.

Sunday, May 29, at 3 p.m. -- Andrew Zohn and Michael Chapdelaine will perform. Zohn will feature his own arrangements of works by Domenico Scarlatti, Tomaso Albinoni and George Gershwin, as well as his own E Sonata composed in 2004. He has earned prizes in five national and international competitions. His latest recording, Music of Piazzolla, Debussy, Gershwin and Zohn, will soon be available through Centaur Records. Chapdelaine is the only guitarist ever to win first prize in the world's top competitions in both the classical and fingerstyle genres. From New York's Lincoln Center to the Cactus Cafe in Austin, from Milano to Bangkok, Michael performs musical styles ranging from blues to Bach to country to rhythm ‘n' blues on both steel string and classical guitars.

Sunday, May 29, at 7:30 p.m. -- Ana Vidovic (Croatia) and Eliot Fisk will take the stage. Vidovic will perform Manual Ponce's Sonatina Meridional, William Walton's Five Bagatelles and Federico Moreno Torroba's Sonatina. Vidovic has recorded five CDs, one of them for NAXOS, and performed in some 20 countries. Fisk will play three Sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti and the 12 Etudes of Heitor Villa-Lobos, rarely performed in their entirety. Voted “Best Classical Guitarist” in the 26th Annual Guitar Player Magazine readers' poll, Fisk's compact discs are available on EMI, DGG, Musical Heritage Society, Arabesque, NAXOS and MusicMasters. Currently on the faculty of the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, he also conducts classes at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria.

On Tuesday, June 1, at 7:30 p.m., the final concert will spotlight participants, as well as the Workshop Guitar Orchestra led by Broadway conductor, Edward G. Robinson, Jr. with the entire faculty, students and special guests Clay Krasner on bass and Stephen Montgomery on drums, performing Stephen Robinson's arrangement of Earth, Wind & Fire – A Fantasy. Other instructors in the workshop include Ron Borczon, professor of Guitar and Music Therapy at California State University, Northridge; Bruce Holzman, professor of Guitar at Florida State University; Tom Johnson, professor of Guitar at University of North Texas; and Steven Thachuk, chair and professor of Guitar at California State University, Northridge.

For further information, call 386-736-0723 or 386-738-5559.