Concert Artists Guild honors Sharon Isbin this month with their prestigious Virtuoso Award. Past Winners include Ned Rorem, Paquito D'Rivera, and Eugenia Zuckerman. On June 25, a one-hour documentary on Sharon Isbin produced by Susan Dangel will receive its world premiere at the GFA convention in Louisville. For future updates re screenings and television broadcasts of the documentary, sign up for newsletter notices at http://sharonisbin.com and on Facebook and Twitter.

Public Television’s broadcast of Sharon Isbin’s live solo concert at the Portland Festival is now viewable in HD! Click here to watch the one-hour program:

http://bit.ly/UJ1ZsZ

The Washington Post gave Isbin a rave review of her recent solo recital in DC:

http://wapo.st/XSS3g4

Following her performances this season with the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, the Neue Zürcher Zeitung wrote: ‘Sharon Isbin is nearly a legend in the guitar scene. She created such a refined sound & elegant expression…As a guest of the Zurich Chamber Orchestra (ZKO) in the Tonhalle, she played with exquisite colors & poetry, the guitaristic effects & dynamic layers were gorgeous.’

She was recently profiled in The Transcendental Meditation Magazine:

http://issue7.tmmagazine.org/monet-of-classical-guitar.html

and has been featured on the cover of over 45 magazines, including Gramophone and Fanfare:

http://www.sharonisbin.com/presscovers.html

Sharon is also dedicated to mentoring the next generation. Hear her remarkable Juilliard students featured in a broadcast this month on WQXR’s Young Artists Showcase from their live concert at Juilliard:

http://www.wqxr.org/#!/programs/youngartists/2013/jun/05/

Included is 18yr-old sophomore Bokyung Byun who recently appeared on NPR’s nationally syndicated program "From the Top” – hear her performance at 11:50 in the NPR audio file:

http://www.fromthetop.org/content/show-270-athens-georgia

Kudirka will be moving to UNCSA after teaching full-time at the Interlochen Arts Academy for two years. During those two years, he brought about a significant increase in applications and enrollment to the guitar program, hosted a variety of guest artists such as William Kanengiser, Duo Amaral (Jorge Amaral & Mia Pomerantz-Amaral), Jeremy Collins, and Stevan Jovic. He also spearheaded Interlochen's new Internet 2 video conferencing system by collaborating with Jason Vieaux on two masterclass exchanges. His students have gone on to the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Cleveland Institute of Music, Oberlin, Manhattan School of Music, and California State University. His website is http://www.michaelkudirka.com/index.html

The thirteenth annual Classical Guitar Weekend - one of North America’s oldest, most respected classical guitar festivals - will take place at the Cleveland Institute of Music in Cleveland, Ohio on Thursday, May 23 through Saturday, May 25, 2013. All recitals will take place in Mixon Hall, CIM's award winning new concert hall.

Please join this spring’s roster of internationally acclaimed artists in a concentrated series of recitals, debut performances, world premieres, master classes, lectures, and exhibits celebrating the classical guitar and art music, solo and ensemble, old and new. For further information, artist’s biographies and video samples, and to purchase recital tickets on line visit http://www.guitarsint.com/concert_series.cfm or call 216.752.7502.

Classical guitarists:

Jason Vieaux (USA, CIM Guitar Department Head)

Colin Davin (USA)

Jiyeon Kim (Republic of Korea)

Jonathan Leathwood (England)

Raphaella Smits (Belgium)

Assisting Artists:

Jinjoo Cho, violin (Republic of Korea)

Jeffrey Irvine, viola (USA)

Melissa Kraut, cello (USA)

Composers:

Stephen Goss (England)

Riho Esko Maimets (Canada)

Erin Rogers (Canada)

Classical Guitarist and Distance Learning Guest Instructor:

Jesper Sivebak (Denmark)

Classical Guitarist and Lecturer:

Brad DeRoche (USA)

Master Guitar Maker:

German Vazquez Rubio (USA)

We note with pride that both the diversity of our artists and audience members over the years (representing more than fifteen states and as many foreign countries) and the breadth of repertoire our artists have performed attest that the musical arts we celebrate here are heartfelt, universal, and dynamic.

Classical Guitar Weekend is presented in University Circle - Cleveland, Ohio's world renowned cultural and educational center - by Guitars International in cooperation with the Cleveland Institute of Music with generous additional support from the Cleveland business community and beyond.

Armin Kelly, Artistic Director

Classical Guitar Weekend 2013

classicalguitars@guitarsint.com

216.752.7502

GUITARRADA VII: PEPE ROMERO AND GEMS FROM THE HARRIS GUITAR COLLECTION AT THE SAN FRANCISCO CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC

The Harris Guitar Foundation (HGF) and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music are delighted to announce Guitarrada VII and an exciting new collaboration between HGF and the Conservatory. On April 29 at 7:30 p.m., guitarist Pepe Romero and luthier Richard Bruné join Conservatory guitar faculty and students for an evening of lively conversation and music performed on rare vintage guitars from the Harris Guitar Collection (HGC). Co-hosted by David Tanenbaum, chair of the Conservatory guitar department, and L. John Harris, president of The Harris Guitar Foundation, Guitarrada VII takes place in the Conservatory’s Caroline H. Hume Concert Hall at 50 Oak Street in San Francisco. Now it its seventh year, the annual event is free and open to the public.

The occasion will also celebrate a new collaboration between HGF and the Conservatory that integrates instruments from the Harris Guitar Collection into the guitar department’s curriculum.

"Thanks to the enthusiastic support of the Conservatory and the loyalty of our audiences, Guitarrada has become a popular event at the Conservatory,” says Harris, president of The Harris Guitar Foundation. "Now I’m thrilled to announce that the newly formed Harris Guitar Foundation will make the Harris Guitar Collection available on a regular basis to the guitar students and faculty of the Conservatory for educational purposes, including scholarship, performance and recordings.”

"The Conservatory guitar department,” says Tanenbaum, "is very happy to welcome back Richard Bruné, Pepe Romero and the wonderful Harris Guitar Collection for another evening devoted to the exploration of the guitar's history through the lens of these instruments. In addition, the occasion represents a heartfelt thank you to President Colin Murdoch for fostering the collaboration between the organizations as well as an homage to Pepe, who received an honorary doctorate from the school in 2011.”

This year’s Guitarrada features over a dozen guitars from the Harris Collection that will eventually be on permanent public display at the Conservatory. Special guests Romero and Bruné will deliver their usual fare—exquisite playing by Romero and fascinating lore and scholarship from Bruné. The event will also feature a special performance by Conservatory faculty guitarists Sérgio Assad, Marc Teicholz, Lawrence Farrara and David Tanenbaum.

"We will play together as a quartet for the first time,” says Tanenbaum.” "We chose a piece by Moreno Torroba written for the Romero Quartet to honor Pepe and his family and the beginning of the life of the Harris Guitar Collection on our campus."

In the tradition of previous Guitarradas, Conservatory students will perform on instruments they have selected from the Harris Collection.

Romero appears at Guitarrada in conjunction with a solo concert on April 28 at Herbst Theatre produced by the OMNI Foundation for the Performing Arts in partnership with San Francisco Performances. The HGF and Conservatory are grateful to the OMNI Foundation and Director Richard Patterson for its ongoing support of the Guitarrada series. Tickets for Romero’s solo concert are available at omniconcerts.com or by calling (415) 242-4500 or (650) 726-1203.

Plans for joint projects between HGF and OMNI will be the subject of future announcements.