Canberra Classical Guitar

This review was posted by Alfred Thigpen from the Washington Post on 31 January 2010.  Click here to link to the article.  Click here to visit Rupert’s website.

Guitarist Rupert Boyd at Westmoreland Congregational United Church of Christ

Remember the name Rupert Boyd. While there may never be another classical guitarist like Segovia, this young Australian left his Marlow Guitar Series audience with the impression that someday there may not be the likes of him again, either.

Playing for a clearly knowledgeable audience Saturday at Westmoreland Congregational United Church of Christ, Boyd took on a program prodigious in both scale and intensity. Many of the works were intimately known by his audience with the exception of his openers, two highly imaginative compositions by fellow Australian Phillip Houghton, which Boyd interpreted deftly in the style of tone poems, only more indigenous.

Boyd’s hour-plus program included works by Ponce, Llobet, Albéniz, J.S. Bach and Granados, which he played with remarkable versatility and an almost preternatural use of color and tone, notably on Llobet’s “El Noi de la Mare.”

Throughout his program, Boyd’s precision yielded the effect of more than one instrument, especially on fugal sections and specifically in Bach’s Suite in A Minor, the sarabande movement of which was a textbook example of how to keep playing in spite of an unexpected lapse or two. Boyd rebounded with dispatch in the gigue movement, which he laced with energy and dance.

Overriding incipient fatigue, Boyd concluded with his arrangement of Enrique Granados’s “Valses Poéticos” punctuated with a stunning fade-to-black decrescendo and truly evocative playing in the closing movement, “Melódico.”

Minh Le Hoang’s solo CD “The Fall of Birds,” released in 2008, was recently reviewed by Classical Guitar Magazine. Here is an excerpt:

“Unbelievably, and this is happening quite regularly with these privately released recordings, there are no details as to how or where to obtain this disc from. A boring internet search did eventually bring forth the name ‘Coomamusic’ where the CD can be obtained. Is it worth all this searching? Well, the answer has to be a resounding ‘Yes’ for this disc has it all: superb virtuosity in the way Minh Le Hoang handles this technically difficult music and his artistic interpretation throughout is top notch. Hoang is one of the members of the leading Australian guitar quartet ‘Guitar Trek’ and a read-through of his credentials in the sleeve notes shows him to be a force to reckon with.

This is a splendid new release, well recorded and is to be highly recommended.”

Steve Marsh – Classical Guitar Magazine

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Enjoy a day of hands-on music activities with Music For Everyone, the ACT’s community music organisation, and winner of the National Music in Communities Award 2009 as the best all-round community music program in Australia.  Drumming for all ages and abilities, an instant guitar ensemble, and award-winning youth rock bands feature in this day-long program of enjoyable music-making.  This event is part of the Canberra International Festival of Music www.cimf.org.au Details and times of all activities available at www.mfe.org.au

Do you play classical acoustic guitar? Then you can be part of the biggest guitar ensemble Canberra has ever seen.  Register and download the music from www.mfe.org.au , come along with your guitar and music-stand to the free ensemble rehearsal, pause for a short performance from Music For Everyone’s Tarantella Guitars, and then take part in the giant ensemble performance.  Suitable for players of all ages who can read music, adult and youth, elementary to advanced levels. Continue Reading »