Queen's Guitar Festival '05:
GUITAR, EH! The classical guitar in Canada.
This day-long series of events at Queen's University on Tuesday, February 8, 2005, dedicated to classical guitar activities at Queen's and in Canada, began with a pre-event concert of Canadian music for two guitars on Tuesday, February 1, and coincided with the "Guitar in Canada" display at the W.D. Jordan Music Library (see below). The day featured concerts, masterclasses, a panel discussion on the guitar in Canada.
The event was made possible with the support of the George Taylor Richardson Memorial Fund at Queen's, the Upper Canada Guitar Society and the Queen's School of Music, as well as Renaissance Music, Kingston Soundworks and the Kingston Guitar Shop.
January to April
"Guitar in Canada": A display in the W.D. Jordan Music Library
Lucinda Walls, Public Services Librarian for Music and Art, and Jeff Hanlon cocurated this display of guitar sheet music, recordings, and historic instruments. The display honoured several Queen’s and Canadian guitarists and composers.
Please visit the Guitar in Canada exhibit website at: http://library.queensu.ca/webmus/exhibits/2005feb_guitar.htm .
1 february 05
Canadian Music for Guitar: a concert by Dave Barton (BMus’82) and Jeff Hanlon (BAH ‘93) at the Douglas Library Reading Room
Queen’s alumni Dave Barton and Jeff Hanlon collaborated on this hour long recital of guitar music by Queen’s and Canadian composers. Over fifty attendees, including students, faculty, staff, and members of the Kingston community enjoyed the guitar music of Queen’s composers Marjan Mozetich, Dave Barton and William Beauvais, and Patrick Roux of the University of Ottawa.
A post-concert reception was held among the “Guitar in Canada” display in the Jordan Music Library. A free will offering of $105 was collected toward the purchase of Canadian guitar music for the Queen’s Library.
8 february 05
Guitar construction workshop with Oskar Graf, luthier in Grant Hall
Luthier Oskar Graf conducted a two-hour morning workshop on the history and construction of classical and acoustic guitars for over sixty attendees in Grant Hall. Mr. Graf had several of his own instruments and guitar pieces on display, and brought his considerable expertise to bear on the basic concepts of guitar construction, including lattice and fan bracing, wood types and size and shape considerations.
William Beauvais in concert
William Beauvais, guitar instructor at Queen’s from 1984 to 1998, performed a noon-hour concert of his own compositions and arrangements in Grant Hall to over eighty attendees. Attendees included several students, faculty and staff and high school groups from Kingston, Napanee, Belleville and Trenton.
Masterclasses with Queen’s Guitar Students
Seven Queen’s guitar students and guest James Lowrie, a promising young guitarist from Belleville, performed in two concurrent masterclasses at Grant and Harrison-LeCaine Halls for the general public and guest artists William Beauvais and the Canadian Guitar Quartet. The two-hour masterclasses were attended by close to seventy faculty, staff, students and guests.
A wide range of music was performed and discussed:
- 'Prelude No.2' by H. Villa-Lobos, performed by Matt English
- 'English Suite' by John Duarte, performed by James Lowrie
- 'La Catedral' by Agustin Barrios Mangore, performed by Jon Sandler
- 'Prelude No.3' by Villa-Lobos, performed by Rebecca Phillips
- 'Paisaje Cubano con Tristeza' by Leo Brouwer, performed by David Oickle
- 'New York Afternoon' by Dusan Bogdanovich, performed by Jesse Fegelman
- 'Prelude' by Maxim Pujol, performed by Tim McGuirk
- 'Sakura Variations' by Y. Yocoh, performed by Ali Khajeddin
The guest artists offered a wealth of expertise to the performers and audiences on stylistic interpretation, performing, practicing, technique, tone, nail shaping and other considerations.
Burmese Guitar Styles
Gavin Douglas, Phd and Queen’s alumnus (BMus’90), returned to Queen’s to present this hour-long demonstration of the unique styles of guitarists and harpists from Burma (Myanmar) in Room 124 of Harrison-LeCaine Hall at 3:30pm. The presentation included live performances of the Burmese harp by Gavin Douglas, slides and rare video-tape of Burmese musicians. The presentation grew out of Gavin’s doctoral research in Burma. The presentation was attended by over forty faculty, students, alumni and members of the general public.
‘Guitar in Canada’ - a panel discussion
Guest artists for Guitar, Eh! convened for this panel discussion on the classical guitar and its position in the contemporary ‘arts scene’ in Canada. The panel included Patrick Roux, Denis Donegani and Phil Candelaria of the Canadian Guitar Quartet, lluthier Oskar Graf, William Beauvais of the Royal Conservatory of Music (Toronto), Gavin Douglas, Phd, and Dave Barton, and was moderated by Jeff Hanlon. Over 30 alumni, students and visitors were in attendence in Room 124 of Harrison-LeCaine Hall.
The Canadian Guitar Quartet in concert
The Canadian Guitar Quartet performed a stunning two-hour concert of their own arrangements and compositions to over 180 appreciative concert-goers in Grant Hall at 7:30pm. The CGQ’s polished delivery was infused with virtuosity, percussiveness and infectious energy and brought the audience to a rousing ovation at concert’s end. The original compositions by Patrick Roux of the University of Ottawa are heavily influenced by the Argentinian tango composer Astor Piazzolla.
$175 in donations were collected toward the purchase of guitar sheet music and recordings for the Jordan Music Library.
Participants
The Canadian Guitar Quartet
In 1999, four of Canada's finest guitarists formed this exciting ensemble, which is already recognized as Canada's top guitar quartet and one of the best in the world. The CGQ has toured extensively in Canada and has been invited to perform at festivals in the USA, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Lebanon, Chile, and Canada.
The CGQ has often been featured on both the English and French national CBC networks. They also have been featured on Radio Beethoven national broadcasts in Chile. Canadian festival appearances include the Ottawa Chamber Music Festival, Montreal Guitar Festival, Festival Vancouver and the Hornby Island Music Festival while past international concert tours include Brazil and Chile.
Recent concert highlights include CGQ debuts at the prestigious Palais Montcalm concert series in Quebec city, at the CBC Glenn Gould Studio in Toronto, and at Yale University's "Guitar Extravaganza" festival. 2004-2005 includes headlining at the Stetson University Guitar Festival in Florida, at the Guitar Foundation of America's October festival in Montreal, a return concert tour in Chile, a USA concert tour in February 2005, and numerous engagements throughout Canada, both in recital and with orchestra.
CGQ members
In addition to their concert schedule, the CGQ members all maintain busy teaching careers and are in demand as adjudicators and masterclass coaches.
- Philip Candelaria (www.candelaria.ca), an internationally reknowned solo guitarist, lives in Sudbury, Ontario, where he coordinates the music programs at Cambrian College and heads the guitar department at Laurentian University. Candelaria's solo CDs have been described as «dazzling» (Canada Music Magazine), «distinguished» (High Fidelity Magazine), and «masterful» (GFA Soundboard). His solo career has taken him throughout North, Central and South America as well as to the Middle-East and Europe. Having first studied with Patrick Roux,
- Denis Donegani went on to continue his education at the University of Montreal, where he worked as an assistant teacher. He currently teaches at l’École de Musique de l’Outaouais, as well as at the University of Ottawa. Donegani’s arrangements have been featured on many CGQ programs, including Brahms’ Hungarian Dances, which appeared on Portrait I.
- Patrick Roux first became the guitar professor at the Conservatoire de Gatineau in 1985. His list of competition accomplishments includes a 1st place at the Canadian Guitar Competition in 1989 and a 2nd place at the Guitar Duo Competition of Montélimar, France in 1992. His compositions for guitar quartet have become the centerpiece in the CGQ’s concert repertoire, as they have with many other guitar quartets the world over.
- Louis Trépanier was also a student of Roux’. Trépanier continues to produce new transcriptions for the quartet that are culled from orchestral, chamber music, and folk repertoire from around the world. As of 2003-2004, the CGQ is in residence at the University of Ottawa, where all four members currently teach.
Oskar Graf, luthier
Since 1970 Oskar Graf has been designing and building stringed instruments for an exclusive and appreciative group of musicians. Oskar's extensive knowledge and dedication to his art are reflected in the creation of his guitars.
Raised and educated in Berlin, he apprenticed as a cabinetmaker and studied design. In 1968 he moved to Canada and after a short stay in Toronto settled near Clarendon, Ontario. To date Oskar has single-handedly built over 360 guitars and is internationally known for his exceptional instruments.
His classical and acoustic guitars are valued by musicians for performance and studio work. While Oskar sees himself mainly as a regional builder, he has developed an international clientele and his guitars are played in such far away places as New York, Berlin and Jakarta.
Oskar's instruments are in the collections of the Museum of Civilization in Ottawa and the music faculties of Carleton University in Ottawa, Queens University in Kingston and the Hochschule fuer Musik, Berlin.
In addition to building and research, Oskar has conducted workshops in guitar making and its history for universities and guitar societies. He has been the subject of numerous newspaper and magazine articles and has been featured on CBC TV, CJOH TV Ottawa, and TV Ontario.
Gavin Douglas, Ethnomusicologist
Gavin Douglas holds a BMUS degree (performance classical guitar) and a BA degree (philosophy) from Queen’s University (Canada), a MMUS (ethnomusicology) from the University of Texas at Austin and a PhD (ethnomusicology) from the University of Washington, Seattle. He joined the school of music of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in 2002 and teaches courses on music of the non-Western world, American vernacular musics and guides seminars on music and society. His research interests include nationalism, politics and cross-cultural aesthetics. Douglas’ ongoing fieldwork in Burma (Myanmar) focuses on the state patronage of traditional music and the role it plays in the political processes of the ruling dictatorship. He has presented his findings to the Society for Ethnomusicology, the Canadian University Music Society, the Society for Popular Music, and the Burma Studies Group and has published in the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, World of Music, the Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World and the Burma Reader.
Willaim Beauvais, guitarist and composer
William Beauvais has performed in the United States, Europe, and across Canada. He is frequently heard on CBC either from one of his numerous CD's or on recordings for radio. He won first prizes at the Canadian Music Competition and at the World Centre For Guitar in Martinique. He combines a mastery of his instrument with a devotion to composition. He has written music for the Royal conservatory Children's choir, the Canadian Music Centre, Jeffrey McFadden and the Echo women's choir. His music has been heard in Denmark, Chile, Uruguay and Argentina and is published by Productions d'OZ, Mel Bay, Tuscany Publications and Frederick Harris. He has been a member of the guitar faculty of the Royal Conservatory since 1980 and is a member of the Canadian Music Centre. He is currently developing curriculum for group based guitar classes at the Royal Conservatory, and is very active as a clinician in schools.
William Beauvais was Guitar Instructor at Queen's University from 1984 to 1997.