Guitar in January
So far this year, attendance at Columbus Guitar Society concerts has been lousy: lousy enough that I'm a little concerned regarding future seasons. So far we've had the annual nod to an artist with local ties (alright, he's currently from Belgium, but has local ties and has a small body of work with a local company); that rarely draws much. The GFA winner often draws fairly well, but it's a tightly scheduled tour and he was only available on the day of the OSU-MI football game (which was proclaimed "the game of the century this year); even though the game was at MI and comfortably over before the concert, only around a couple dozen attended to hear Jerome's fine program.
That said, if any of you are close, please check out the following.
Greetings All:
There is a fair amount of pluck brewing in January.
Perhaps most importantly (from my perspective), the next event on the Columbus Guitar Society concert series falls at 8:00 pm on Saturday, 20 January 2007. The perpetually cordial Clare Callahan will bring her excellent student ensemble up from the University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music to perform at Capital University's Huntington Recital Hall. Admission is the mere trifle of $5! See the Columbus Guitar Society (CGS) site for detail. Prof. Callahan?s ensemble always represents some of the finest up-and-coming talent in the region. Participants in her program go on to become active professionals across the country. Clare always assembles a tastily diverse program; we are fortunate to have her and her protégés here again this year.
The next informal meeting of the CGS falls earlier that very day, 1:00 pm on 20 January. Nothing planned but the usual: come on out to play some "classical" music on your guitar (...lute, mandolin, domra, tamburitza, requinto, vihuela, cittern, saz, charango, laute, viola da terra, or whatever) or just casually socialize and listen. As always, we'll be at the Borders Books, Music & Cafe, 4545 Kenny Rd., Columbus, OH, 43220 (at the intersection of Kenny and Henderson Rds). Also as always, the setting is casual and supportive in the extreme.
Columbus' own renaissance band, The Early Interval will perform their popular 12th-Night holiday concerts Friday-Saturday, 5-6 January at 8:00 pm and Sunday, 7 January at 2:30 pm; there will be a pre-concert lecture one half hour before the beginning of each performance. They aren't necessarily pluck-specific, but medieval lute and/or medieval gittern usually make appearances at these concerts in the hands of Director Ron Cook or violist extraordinaire Dr. Jim Bates. These concerts are a part of The Early Music concert series. I have tickets for Saturday's lecture and performance. Let me know if you'd care to join me. [Saturday is done and was good fun. Nope, no lute or gittern this time. An all-Italian program, and I really love Italian music of the 1600s.]
8:00 pm, Friday, 12 January, Ohio State University's Hughes Hall Auditorium: violinist Arkadiy Gips will be joined by guitarists Dr. Oleg Timofeyev and Vadim Kolpakov. Oleg is a Dorian, Haenssler, and Centaur Records classical recording artist, friend of the CGS, and a past artist on our concert series. Vadim is a prominent and renowned specialist of gypsy music from the Moscow Gypsy Theatre "Romen." ...And both play Russian 7-string guitars (open-G tuning) with delicious style. The concert is jointly sponsored by the OSU School of Music and Slavic Center...and I've been told admission is free! (You might want to call the school to confirm.) Whether free or carrying a nominal admission, I plan to be there and I think you should feel free to join me.
7:30 pm, Saturday, 13 January, JCC Roth/Resler Theatre, 1125 College Ave. 43209 will find Arkadiy Gips heading another program, this time entitled "Gypsy Klezmorim." This one will feature pianist Mikhail Popov, singer Lucy Smirnov, and 12-string plectrum guitarist Neil Jacobs; 7-string guitarist Vadim Kolpakov and singer Ruslan Schvidchenko are featured as special guests from the Moscow Gypsy Theatre "Romen." Admission is $22; call 614-231-2731 ext. 215 for tickets and details.
Finally, Ohio's Winter Guitar Show runs 11:30 am-6:30 pm, 14 January. The winter show is traditionally much bigger than the summer show, sometimes approaching 300 dealers, and old friends of mine often make the trip in from NYC, Iowa City, various places in between, etc; it's always good to see the lot. Unfortunately, modern classical guitars of quality are scarce. Every once in a while, a decent piece, like something from the Kenny Hill shop, will appear. Also, ca. 1900 guitars and mandolins often abound. It's not uncommon to come across fine, gut-strung, mid-to-late-19th-c. Martin guitars. I once saw a fine ca. 1890 Telesforo Julve there. Rare, but I've also seen such early-19th-c. builders as Panormo and Lacote represented. My modus operandi for these is to leave home around 11 am, seek a seated casual lunch with friends on the way in, and enjoy a casual stroll of the exhibits until I'm tired of strolling. If any of you are keen to join me for any/all, let me know and we can make arrangements. I might even be able to pick you up if you'd like a ride (assuming you don't live in some crazy remote place like Dayton, Painesville, Logan, or Cincinnati...for God's sake!). As always, I'm looking forward to it.
Pluck on,
Eugene
Eugene C. Braig IV
Artistic Director
The Columbus Guitar Society
http://www.columbusguitarsociety.org/
Phone: 614-561-9204
That said, if any of you are close, please check out the following.
Greetings All:
There is a fair amount of pluck brewing in January.
Perhaps most importantly (from my perspective), the next event on the Columbus Guitar Society concert series falls at 8:00 pm on Saturday, 20 January 2007. The perpetually cordial Clare Callahan will bring her excellent student ensemble up from the University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music to perform at Capital University's Huntington Recital Hall. Admission is the mere trifle of $5! See the Columbus Guitar Society (CGS) site for detail. Prof. Callahan?s ensemble always represents some of the finest up-and-coming talent in the region. Participants in her program go on to become active professionals across the country. Clare always assembles a tastily diverse program; we are fortunate to have her and her protégés here again this year.
The next informal meeting of the CGS falls earlier that very day, 1:00 pm on 20 January. Nothing planned but the usual: come on out to play some "classical" music on your guitar (...lute, mandolin, domra, tamburitza, requinto, vihuela, cittern, saz, charango, laute, viola da terra, or whatever) or just casually socialize and listen. As always, we'll be at the Borders Books, Music & Cafe, 4545 Kenny Rd., Columbus, OH, 43220 (at the intersection of Kenny and Henderson Rds). Also as always, the setting is casual and supportive in the extreme.
Columbus' own renaissance band, The Early Interval will perform their popular 12th-Night holiday concerts Friday-Saturday, 5-6 January at 8:00 pm and Sunday, 7 January at 2:30 pm; there will be a pre-concert lecture one half hour before the beginning of each performance. They aren't necessarily pluck-specific, but medieval lute and/or medieval gittern usually make appearances at these concerts in the hands of Director Ron Cook or violist extraordinaire Dr. Jim Bates. These concerts are a part of The Early Music concert series. I have tickets for Saturday's lecture and performance. Let me know if you'd care to join me. [Saturday is done and was good fun. Nope, no lute or gittern this time. An all-Italian program, and I really love Italian music of the 1600s.]
8:00 pm, Friday, 12 January, Ohio State University's Hughes Hall Auditorium: violinist Arkadiy Gips will be joined by guitarists Dr. Oleg Timofeyev and Vadim Kolpakov. Oleg is a Dorian, Haenssler, and Centaur Records classical recording artist, friend of the CGS, and a past artist on our concert series. Vadim is a prominent and renowned specialist of gypsy music from the Moscow Gypsy Theatre "Romen." ...And both play Russian 7-string guitars (open-G tuning) with delicious style. The concert is jointly sponsored by the OSU School of Music and Slavic Center...and I've been told admission is free! (You might want to call the school to confirm.) Whether free or carrying a nominal admission, I plan to be there and I think you should feel free to join me.
7:30 pm, Saturday, 13 January, JCC Roth/Resler Theatre, 1125 College Ave. 43209 will find Arkadiy Gips heading another program, this time entitled "Gypsy Klezmorim." This one will feature pianist Mikhail Popov, singer Lucy Smirnov, and 12-string plectrum guitarist Neil Jacobs; 7-string guitarist Vadim Kolpakov and singer Ruslan Schvidchenko are featured as special guests from the Moscow Gypsy Theatre "Romen." Admission is $22; call 614-231-2731 ext. 215 for tickets and details.
Finally, Ohio's Winter Guitar Show runs 11:30 am-6:30 pm, 14 January. The winter show is traditionally much bigger than the summer show, sometimes approaching 300 dealers, and old friends of mine often make the trip in from NYC, Iowa City, various places in between, etc; it's always good to see the lot. Unfortunately, modern classical guitars of quality are scarce. Every once in a while, a decent piece, like something from the Kenny Hill shop, will appear. Also, ca. 1900 guitars and mandolins often abound. It's not uncommon to come across fine, gut-strung, mid-to-late-19th-c. Martin guitars. I once saw a fine ca. 1890 Telesforo Julve there. Rare, but I've also seen such early-19th-c. builders as Panormo and Lacote represented. My modus operandi for these is to leave home around 11 am, seek a seated casual lunch with friends on the way in, and enjoy a casual stroll of the exhibits until I'm tired of strolling. If any of you are keen to join me for any/all, let me know and we can make arrangements. I might even be able to pick you up if you'd like a ride (assuming you don't live in some crazy remote place like Dayton, Painesville, Logan, or Cincinnati...for God's sake!). As always, I'm looking forward to it.
Pluck on,
Eugene
Eugene C. Braig IV
Artistic Director
The Columbus Guitar Society
http://www.columbusguitarsociety.org/
Phone: 614-561-9204