It wasn’t a dark and stormy night, but it was a dark and quiet theater. It was a large theater, as theaters go: 2,000 seats.
In the middle of the cavernous space sat a man in a lonely black chair, his fingers plucking the nylon strings of his classical guitar. With each complicated movement of his fingers, with every note that vibrated from his instrument, the fate of a 10-year-old boy became clearer.
Andrés Segovia’s music would inspire musician David Tanenbaum to leave the theater and with unwavering determination tell his parents he wanted to pursue classical guitar.
“The drama was overwhelming and it just hit me,” Tanenbaum said, many years later. “I just knew this is what I want to do.”
Tanenbaum’s parents were classically trained musicians and groomed him from an early age to be a classical pianist or cellist. But a few months before that inspirational Segovia concert, Tanenbaum realized he was tired of his cello and piano lessons. He told his parents he wanted to play rock guitar.
“My father said, ‘If you’re going to play guitar, you might as well play classical,’” Tanenbaum said.
So he did, and he’s continued to do so for more than 35 years. Among his achievements: In 1988, he was the first American guitarist to perform in China. His three dozen recordings include a 2002 Grammy nomination. He’s currently a member of the World Guitar Ensemble, which regularly tours the globe.
Tanenbaum has also played with the Mozart Festival in San Luis Obispo, but this year marks his first time playing at the La Guitarra Festival, set for the Marian and Severson theaters on the Allan Hancock College campus. The event is held every two years, and this marks only the second time it’s scheduled for Santa Maria.
La Guitarra California 2009 is made up of 17 world-renowned artists playing 14 events, most of which are major concerts. The event also boasts three master classes, a free lecture, dozens of luthiers displaying their handmade instruments, and the Forderer Collection of Rare and Historic Guitars on display.
Director Russ De Angelo said the vision for the festival has always been to raise the awareness and appreciation of classical guitar. Part of that drive comes from De Angelo’s own desire to highlight music in this area. When he left USC and Los Angeles for the Central Coast, he thought he was leaving a good thing.
“I thought, ‘Oh no, I’m leaving guitar heaven!’” he said, though he found that such sentiment soon changed. “Nobody knows how alive music is on the Central Coast.”
With the success and growth of La Guitarra, that revelation has proved even truer, attracting performers like Tanenbaum.
Tanenbaum said he plans to perform a piece from Sophia Gubaidulina, considered one of the top female composers of all time and who’s written very little for guitar. The piece calls for effects, such as using a slide on the classical guitar and playing with a pick rather than fingernails. Tanenbaum likes to explore both American and Russian classical styles that go beyond the typical Spanish sound.
Ultimately, he wants the performance to be more than just a concert for the audience.
“I want what I do to be thought-provoking and to leave them full of emotion,” Tanenbaum said.
Early days
The event started at Cuesta College in 1999, but really dates back to 1980 when it was a one-day music celebration called Portraits in Music. When the event began showcasing the GFA winner, it changed it to a three-day guitar festival. By 2003—when De Angelo got involved—it had evolved into what it is today. Following that 2003 festival, director Reed Gilchrist passed away and De Angelo stepped in to take the reins.
De Angelo credits Gilchrist with showing him all the nuances to running the event, which sold close to 1,100 tickets in 2005: the first year the festival was a money maker. With that success came some growing pains and an eventual shift in location.
Dr. José Ortiz had been in his head position at Hancock for only six months. His background in music stirred a desire to bring more music into Marian Theater in Santa Maria.
“They accepted us,” De Angelo said, “with open arms.”
In 2007, the first year La Guitarra was held on the Hancock campus, organizers sold 2,910 tickets, bringing in record attendance. Twenty-three artists performed at 15 events.
The festival had grown, but De Angelo wanted to hang on to its roots: “What we had at Cuesta was a down-home festival feeling,” he explained. “When we moved to Hancock College, the one thing I wanted to be sure of was that we brought that with us.”
Key players
David Leisner enjoys a multi-faceted career as a performing artist, distinguished composer, and master teacher. His career began with top prizes in both the 1975 Toronto and 1981 Geneva International Guitar competitions. He’s been celebrated for expanding the guitar repertoire and introducing important new works, as well as being an advocate for neglected works of the past. He taught at the New England Conservatory for 22 years and is currently co-chairman of the guitar department at the Manhattan School of Music in New York City.
He said he was drawn to classical guitar because of its range of intimacy coupled with its ability to dazzle and excite. He said he’ll be introducing La Guitarra audiences to unfamiliar works, like a sonata by the little-known contemporary of Beethoven, Wenzeslaus Matiegka, as well as one of his own compositions, “Labyrinths.” He’ll also treat the audience with the complete 12 Etudes by Villa-Lobos.
“This is spectacularly virtuosic and moving music, almost never played live as a set because it is so incredibly difficult,” Leisner said.
The festival will also highlight the unique sound of the Alturas Duo. Billed as one of the only groups of its kind, the Alturas Duo plays South American and classical music on a mix of guitar, viola, and charango, a small stringed instrument invented by South American natives in the 18th century.
The Alturas Duo is made up of Carlos Boltes from Santiago, Chile, who plays the charango and viola, and Scott Hill, a native of Ontario, Canada, who plays guitar and other stringed instruments. They’re first-prize winners of the 2006 New England International Chamber Music Competition and have held residences at the Lyrica String Festival and the Hartt School of Music. Boltes and Hill are founders and artistic directors of the Simsbury Chamber Music Festival and teach at University of Hartford, Conn.
Hill said he was a teenager playing a lot of blues and heavy metal when he became interested in classical guitar stylings.
“One day while waiting with a friend for his music class to begin, I heard the music teacher [who was a guitarist] performing a fugue from one of Bach’s violin works, and I thought it was just amazing,” Hill said. “From that point on, I was hooked.”
He wants audiences to experience something different from what they’ve ever experienced before.
“We hope they leave our performance feeling entertained and perhaps a little more informed about South American folk music, as well as contemporary composers who are writing for the guitar, charango, and viola,” he said.
Then there’s Berta Rojas, who’s in a class of her own. She’s been recognized and acclaimed as the world’s foremost performer and authority of the music of the Paraguayan maestro Agustin Barrios. The Washington Post called her “guitarist extraordinaire,” and England’s Classical Guitar Magazine dubbed her “ambassador of the classical guitar.” The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts named her a “Fellow of the Americas.” She’s Paraguay’s ambassador of tourism and a current professor of guitar at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.
Her inspiration is just as potent now as when she first began to play guitar.
“My inspiration comes from my love of music, the fascination it brings me when I produce that music, and the poetic beauty of the guitar,” she said. “How could anyone tire of something so beautiful?”
Rojas said she believes that when music is performed honestly and from the heart, it has the capacity to touch the hearts of the audience members.
“I play from my heart, hoping that that miracle happens,” she said.
Rojas stressed the importance of classical guitar today. Though the instrument has its roots in history, it’s anything but an instrument of the past, she said.
“The classical guitar is very much alive, and it has a repertoire that is continuously expanding in new directions, with new guitarists who bring their own style to the music,” Rojas explained.
Other musicians set to perform at the festival include the Grammy-winning Los Angeles Guitar Quartet; Maestro Manuel Barrueco of the Peabody Conservatory of Music; international touring and recording artist Carlos Barbosa-Lima; Carlos Pérez, who’s been awarded top prizes in major international competitions; Michael Partington, director of the guitar program at the University of Washington (and considered by some as one of the most engaging of the new generation of concert players); Jérémy Jouve, a top prize-winning guitarist who studied under Maestro Alberto Ponce and Roland Dyens; and Judicael Perroy, who has won numerous international prizes and awards and was an acknowledged prodigy by age 11.
De Angelo said the festival is concert-style with a focus on education, which makes it accessible and enjoyable by those with an extensive knowledge of music as well as by those who merely enjoy music.
“Everybody that sees it is just amazed by it,” De Angelo said. “To see the dedication it takes to play this level of music, and that it’s here on the Central Coast, it’s just amazing.”
Arts Editor Shelly Cone is dedicated. Contact her at scone@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Sep 24 – Oct 1, 2009.