Jason Vieaux
Grammy-winning guitar virtuoso Jason Vieaux will play in Oak Ridge on Saturday.
He will play Antonio Vivaldi’s “Guitar Concerto in D major,” Malcolm Arnold’s “Serenade for Guitar and Strings,” and the “Allegro Maestoso” from Mauro Giuliani’s “Concerto in A,” a press release said.
Vieaux will perform with the Oak Ridge Symphony Orchestra at the First United Methodist Church of Oak Ridge. The concert is scheduled to start at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 7.
The concert, conducted by Music Director Dan Allcott, will also feature J.S. Bach’s “Brandenburg Concerto No. 1” and Frederick Delius’ “Air and Dance.”
Vieaux’s latest album, “Play,” a selection of audience favorites celebrating Vieaux’s 20 years of professional touring, was released in January 2014 on Azica Records and won the 2015 Grammy Award for Best Classical Instrumental Solo, the release said.
Antonio Vivaldi’s “Concerto in D Major” was originally written for lute and orchestra, and then transcribed for guitar. Malcolm Arnold wrote his “Serenade for Guitar and Strings” in 1955 for guitarist Julian Bream. Mauro Giuliani’s “Concerto in A” is the first of three guitar concertos written by the composer, who premiered the piece himself in 1808.
NPR describes Grammy-winning guitarist Jason Vieaux as, “perhaps the most precise and soulful classical guitarist of his generation,” and Gramophone magazine puts him “among the elite of today’s classical guitarists.” His most recent solo album, “Play,” was nominated for a 2015 Grammy Award for Best Classical Instrumental Solo. In June 2014, NPR named “Zapateado” from the album as one of its “50 Favorite Songs of 2014 (So Far).”
Vieaux has earned a reputation for putting his expressiveness and virtuosity at the service of a remarkably wide range of music, and his schedule of performing, teaching, and recording commitments is distinguished throughout the U.S. and abroad, the press release said. His solo recitals have been a feature at every major guitar series in North America and at many of the important guitar festivals in Asia, Australia, Europe, and Mexico.
Recent and future highlights include returns to the Caramoor Festival, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, and New York’s 92nd Street Y, as well as performances at Argentina’s Teatro Colon and Oslo, Norway’s Classical Music Fest. Vieaux’s appearances for Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Music@Menlo, Strings Music Festival, Grand Teton, and many others have forged his reputation as a first-rate chamber musician and programmer.
He collaborates in recitals this season with Escher Quartet, acclaimed harpist Yolanda Kondonassis, and accordion/bandoneón virtuoso Julien Labro. Vieaux’s passion for new music has fostered premieres of works by Dan Visconti, David Ludwig, Jerod Tate, Eric Sessler, José Luis Merlin, and Gary Schocker.
The release said Vieaux has performed as concerto soloist with nearly 100 orchestras, including Cleveland, Houston, Toronto, San Diego, Ft. Worth, Santa Fe, Charlotte, Buffalo, Grand Rapids, Kitchener-Waterloo, Richmond, Edmonton, IRIS Chamber, Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Chautauqua Festival, and New Hampshire Music Festival. Some of the conductors he has worked with include David Robertson, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Jahja Ling, Stefan Sanderling, Michael Stern, David Lockington, Steven Smith, and Edwin Outwater.
Vieaux continues to bring important repertoire alive in the recording studio as well, the release said. His latest album “Together,” with harpist Yolanda Kondonassis, was released in January 2015.
Of his 2014 solo album “Play,” Soundboard Magazine writes, “If you ever want to give a friend a disc that will cement his or her love for the guitar, this is a perfect candidate,” while Premier Guitar claims, “You’d be hard-pressed to find versions performed with more confidence, better tone, and a more complete understanding of the material.”
The release said Vieaux’s previous 11 albums include a recording of Astor Piazzolla’s music with Julien Labro and A Far Cry Chamber Orchestra; “Bach: Works for Lute, Vol. 1,” which hit No. 13 on Billboard’s Classical Chart after its first week and received rave reviews by Gramophone, “The Absolute Sound,” and “Soundboard; Images of Metheny,” featuring music by American jazz legend Pat Metheny (who after hearing this landmark recording declared: “I am flattered to be included in Jason’s musical world”); and “Sevilla: The Music of Isaac Albeniz,” which made several Top Ten lists the year of its release.
Vieaux’s albums and live performances are regularly heard on radio and the Internet around the world, and his work is the subject of feature articles in print and online across the globe, including such magazines as Acoustic Guitar, MUSO, Gramophone, and on NPR’s “Deceptive Cadence.” Vieaux was the first classical musician to be featured on NPR’s popular “Tiny Desk” series.
In 2012, the Jason Vieaux School of Classical Guitar was launched with ArtistWorks Inc., an unprecedented technological interface that provides one-on-one online study with Vieaux for guitar students around the world. In 2011, he co-founded the guitar department at The Curtis Institute of Music, and he has taught at the Cleveland Institute of Music since 1997, heading the guitar department since 2001.
Vieaux is a member of the Advisory Board of the Guitar Foundation of America, and is affiliated with Philadelphia’s Astral Artists. His primary teachers were Jeremy Sparks and John Holmquist. In 1992, he was awarded the prestigious GFA International Guitar Competition First Prize, the event’s youngest winner ever. He is also honored with a Naumburg Foundation top prize, a Cleveland Institute of Music Alumni Achievement Award, and a Salon di Virtuosi Career Grant. In 1995, Vieaux was an Artistic Ambassador of the U.S. to Southeast Asia.
The First United Methodist Church of Oak Ridge is at 1350 Oak Ridge Turnpike.
Who: Guitarist Jason Vieaux
What: Soloist with the Oak Ridge Symphony Orchestra
Performing works by Vivaldi, Arnold, and Giuliani Dan Allcott, conductor
When: Saturday, March 7, at 7:30 p.m.
Where: First United Methodist Church of Oak Ridge
1350 Oak Ridge Turnpike, Oak Ridge
Tickets: $25 adult, $10 young adult, 18 and under free; available at (865) 483-5569 or www.OakRidgeSymphony.org
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