David Starobin plays Mauro Giuliani, Vol. 2 / David Starobin, guitar

Mauro Giuliani, composer

Mauro Giuseppe Sergio Pantaleo Giuliani (1781 – 1829) was an Italian guitarist, cellist, singer, and composer, and is considered to be one of the leading guitar virtuosos of the early 19th century.

Although born in Bisceglie, Giuliani’s center of study was in Barletta where he moved with his brother Nicola in the first years of his life. His first instrumental training was on the cello—an instrument which he never completely abandoned—and he probably also studied the violin.

After moving to Vienna in 1806, Giuliani began to publish compositions in the classical style. His concert tours took him all over Europe; everywhere he went he was acclaimed for his virtuosity and musical taste. He achieved great success and became a musical celebrity, equal to the best of the many instrumentalists and composers who were active in the Austrian capital city at the beginning of the 19th century. Through his performances and compositions, Giuliani defined a new role for the guitar in the context of European music. He was acquainted with the highest figures of Austrian society and with notable composers such as Rossini and Beethoven, and cooperated with the best active concert musicians in Vienna.

Giuliani’s achievements as a composer were numerous. His 150 compositions for guitar with opus number constitute the nucleus of the nineteenth-century guitar repertory. He composed extremely challenging pieces for solo guitar as well as works for orchestra and Guitar-Violin and Guitar-Flute duos.

Outstanding pieces by Giuliani include his three guitar concertos (opp. 30-36 and 70); a series of six fantasias for guitar solo, op. 119-124, based on airs from Rossini operas and entitled the “Rossiniane”; several sonatas for violin and guitar and flute and guitar; a quintet, op. 65, for strings and guitar; some collections for voice and guitar, and a Grand Overture written in the Italian style. He also transcribed many symphonic works, both for solo guitar and guitar duo. One such transcription arranges the overture to The Barber of Seville by Rossini, for two guitars. There are further numerous didactic works, among which is a method for guitar that is used frequently by teachers to this day.

Today, Giuliani’s concertos and solo pieces are performed by professionals and still demonstrate the performer’s virtuosity, as well as Giuliani’s natural ability as a composer for the classical guitar.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mauro_Giuliani

David Starobin, guitar

David Starobin (born September 27, 1951, New York City) is an American classical guitarist, record producer, composer, writer and film maker.

Starobin started playing the guitar at the age of seven. He studied with Albert Valdes Blaine until age 15, whereupon he commenced lessons with the noted guitar pedagogue, Aaron Shearer. In 1973 he graduated from the Peabody Conservatory (Baltimore, Maryland), while directing Peabody’s guitar chamber music program. During this period he coached and performed with pianist and conductor Leon Fleisher, becoming a member of Fleisher’s chamber ensemble: The Theater Chamber Players.

Starobin has toured the U.S. as a guitar recitalist, chamber player and orchestral soloist performing at festivals including Marlboro, Aspen, Santa Fe Chamber, and Tanglewood, and with orchestras and ensembles including the New York Philharmonic, Houston Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, National Symphony Orchestra, and the Emerson and Guarneri String Quartets as well as the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. He worked at Brooklyn College, Bennington College, the North Carolina School of the Arts, the State University of New York at Purchase, and the Manhattan School of Music. He is currently (as of 2013), employed at the Manhattan School of Music. In 2010, he started a guitar program at Curtis Institute.

Starobin is the only guitarist to date (as of 2013) to receive Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Career Grant, in 1988. He was honored by Peabody Conservatory with its “Distinguished Alumni Award” (1999); and was given, with his wife, Becky Starobin, in 2007, ASCAP’s Deems Taylor Award for their work with Bridge Records.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Starobin

Amalia Hall, violin

Amalia Hall, widely recognized as one of the foremost young violinists to emerge from New Zealand, has received 1st Prize at the Postacchini International Violin Competition, 2nd Prize at the International Violin Competitions “Premio R. Lipizer”, is a laureate of both the International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians and the Kloster Schöntal International Violin Competition, and is the recipient of numerous special prizes at these competitions. She has won all of the major awards in New Zealand, including the Gisborne International Music Competition at the age of 16, the National Concerto Competition, the National Young Performer of the Year, the Pettman/Royal Over-Seas League Arts Scholarship and the University of Auckland Concerto Competition.

Since the age of 9 Amalia has had over fifty solo appearances with orchestras in New Zealand, including the Auckland Philharmonia, Auckland Symphony Orchestra, Christchurch Symphony Orchestra, Auckland Chamber Orchestra, Waikato Symphony Orchestra and Saint Matthews Chamber Orchestra, under the baton of esteemed conductors including Sir William Southgate, Brian Law, Marc Taddei, Peter Scholes, Gary Daverne and David Sharp.

At the age of 10 Amalia was the youngest ever member to be accepted into the NZSO National Youth Orchestra, and continued on to later become its Concertmaster. She has been an associate member of the Auckland Philharmonia since the age of 16 and was contracted as Principal 1st Violin in 2012.

Source: http://www.amaliahall.com/

Inon Barnatan, piano

Israeli pianist Inon Barnatan is known widely for his compelling and insightful musicianship and elegant virtuosity, and as “a true poet of the keyboard, refined, searching [and] unfailingly communicative” (London’s Evening Standard). He has performed extensively with the world’s important orchestras, including those of Cleveland, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, and San Francisco, and he has worked with distinguished conductors such as Robert Abbado, Lawrence Foster, James Gaffigan, and Pinchas Zukerman.

Source: http://www.inonbarnatan.com/