A Guitar Extravaganza!

All-Day Special Event

Saturday, November 22, 2008, 9:00 AM
UCONN Greater Hartford Campus
West Hartford, CT

Admission: $47, $42 (members)
Tickets available at the door.

Directions

Some of today’s outstanding guitarists come together in a day full of workshops and performances. Guitar Day! 2008 will feature Grammy-nominated guitarist/composer Frederic Hand, Puerto Rican guitarist Renaldo Guadalupe, the Newman & Oltman Duo, top student performers from Mannes College NYC, Yale, the Hartt School, the CGS Ensemble and others.

Artist Information

Frederick Hand
Frederic Hand's versatile performing style and concert programs feature his own works which have brought him renown as both a Grammy-nominated and Emmy-winning television composer and recording artist. Of his compositions for guitar, Alexandre Lagoya has written, "His knowledge of the instrument enables him to achieve effects which are absolutely remarkable. Mr. Hand possesses a magnificent talent which touches me profoundly."

Noted for his unique performances of early music, Frederic Hand is the creator and director of Jazzantiqua, a group The New York Times has described as "scintillating and brilliant."

Mr. Hand arranged and performed the theme from the Academy Award-winning film, Kramer vs. Kramer, which led to the best-selling recording Baroque and on the Street (CBS). Most recently, his composition Prayer, recorded by John Williams, was nominated for a Grammy award. Hand’s recordings include Jazzantiqua and Heart's Song on Music Masters, and Trilogy, an album of solo guitar music released by the Musical Heritage Society.

He has performed as a guest artist with the Mostly Mozart Festival, Marlboro Music Festival, New York Philharmonic, Waverly Consort, and the Orchestra of St. Luke's, among others. Hand, who has been the appointed guitarist and lutenist with the Metropolitan Opera since 1986, was chosen to perform in the Metropolitan Opera's inaugural chamber music series at Carnegie Hall in 1999. He has performed onstage with Placido Domingo, and Luciano Pavarotti, conducted by James Levine.

Frederic Hand's playing and improvisations have been heard on the scores of numerous films, including those starring Leonardo Di Caprio and Robert DeNiro in This Boy's Life, Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep in Kramer vs Kramer and Sean Connery in The Next Man. His televised performances include appearances with Meg Ryan, Marisa Tomei and Anne Heche. He has also performed on the Broadway stage with Maximillian Schell in John Osborne's A Patriot for Me.

Hand’s original scoring for television includes Sesame Street, As the World Turns, and The Guiding Light, for which he was awarded an Emmy. Over one dozen volumes of his original compositions and arrangements are published worldwide through G. Schirmer, Theodore Presser, Cherry Lane and Mel Bay.

Frederic Hand's tours throughout North America and Europe have been met with the highest critical acclaim. He has taught masterclasses and given residencies at the New England Conservatory of Music, Yale University, Dartmouth College, Cleveland Institute of Music, Emory University, University of California at Santa Barbara, Colorado State, Miami University and University North Carolina.

A graduate of the Mannes College of Music, Hand studied in England with Julian Bream on a Fulbright scholarship. Hand is currently chairman of the Classical Guitar department at the State University of New York at Purchase and he also serves on the faculties of the Mannes College of Music and Bennington College.

“Mr. Hand produced a strikingly clean and penetrating tone. Making a strong impression with his musicianship on each instrument, he played unerringly, with all the verve and spirit that one could ask.” New York Times “Always fully in control and in sublime musical form...a brilliant performance.” Het Laatste Nieuws, Brussels “Hand is an extraordinary player. His speed seems to have no limit. He plays with intelligence and finesse, and every aspect of the line and individual sound is lovingly shaped.” Milwaukee Journal “Classical guitar recitals don’t get much better than this. Frederic Hand is a tremendously skilled and expressive guitarist. But what makes him unique is that he is also one of today’s most fascinating composers, able to weave together a variety of influences, from jazz to Dowland to the avant-garde.” Guitar Review “Hand’s technique is second to none. His technical prowess is dazzling and he possesses a strong lyrical sense achieved through a variety of tonal colors.” - Kansas City Star

The Newman & Oltman Duo
Hailed by The New York Times as "Fresh, Hot and Headed for Fame," The Newman & Oltman Guitar Duo continues to fulfill that promise with twenty years of international touring, ten critically-acclaimed recordings, and development of a new repertory for the ensemble.

Recognized as one of America’s foremost instrumental ensembles, the duo's concert tours have taken them to forty-nine states, to Asia, Africa, Europe, South America, Canada, the Caribbean, and the South Pacific, featuring performances at such venues as Carnegie Hall, Ambassador Auditorium, the Caramoor Festival, Tahiti's Musée Gauguin, aboard the Queen Elizabeth 2, with the Pittsburgh Symphony Pops, Princeton and Yale Universities, and at the world's cultural capitals, including Rome, Seoul, Oslo, Lima, London, and Cape Town.

The artistry of Michael Newman and Laura Oltman has been featured in the national media, including People Magazine, National Public Radio, The Larry King Show, BBC Radio 3, and The New York Times.

Newman & Oltman’s CDs for MusicMasters, Musical Heritage, and Sheffield Lab Audiophile have garnered such praise as: "a revelation to hear"–The Washington Post; "Critics Choice"–Billboard; "a triumph on all accounts"–Soundboard; "the pair's Vulcan-mind-meld delivery is downright astonishing"–Guitar Player; "doubtless the greatest guitar record yet made"–The New York Daily News.

Ensemble-in-Residence at New York's Mannes College of Music, Artists-in-Residence at Lafayette College, and recipients of numerous grants and awards including those from the National Endowment for the Arts and Chamber Music America, Newman and Oltman are acclaimed as innovators in the chamber music field. Their collaborations with such diverse artists as Pulitzer Prize-winning author Frank McCourt (Angela's Ashes), Riverdance violin sensation Eileen Ivers, Pittsburgh Symphony Pops with Marvin Hamlisch, percussionist Glen Velez, mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade and folk singer Sally Rogers, violinists Arnold Steinhardt and Jennifer Orchard, fiddler Jay Ungar, Celtic artist Seamus Egan, flutist Clare Hoffman, harmonica virtuoso Robert Bonfiglio, Arabic 'udist Simon Shaheen, lutenist Ronn McFarlane, and the Lark, Alexander, ETHEL, Meridian and Turtle Island String Quartets reveal the extraordinary stylistic and cultural breadth of their repertoire.

Newman & Oltman have commissioned and premiered works by numerous composers, including Lowell Liebermann, Augusta Read Thomas, Roberto Sierra, Dusan Bogdanovic, Arnold Black, Atanas Ourkouzounov, Sharon Kanach, Ting Ho, Rami Vamos, Randall Avers, Peter Scott Lewis, Michael Karmon, Michael Chapdelaine, Charles Griffin, and David Loeb.

As founders and directors of New Jersey’s Raritan River Concerts, the duo established the Raritan River Music Festival, Aritsts-in-the-Community Residency Program, and New Music Commissioning Program. On The Air Magazine proclaimed: "Newman and Oltman are true musical explorers, and their performances are as electrifying as their choice of repertoire." When Newman and Oltman teamed up with the Turtle Island String Quartet for a recent concert, The Star-Ledger reported: "The standing ovation was probably one of the loudest noises to ever happen in rural Clinton."

Michael and Laura are founders and directors of the New York Guitar Seminar at Mannes, bringing together guitars from all around the world each summer at Mannes College of Music in New York City.

Laura Oltman graduated with honors from Florida State University and teaches at Princeton and Rutgers Universities. Michael Newman is a graduate of The Mannes College of Music and serves on the faculty there. In between concert tours, Michael and Laura are still restoring their 19th-century house on the Delaware River in New Jersey, where they live with their horse ("Bunny") and numerous cats.

Laura Oltman plays a 1981 Thomas Humphrey Pre-Millennium guitar with D'Addario EXP45C Composite Coated Normal Tension strings. Michael Newman plays a 1978 Thomas Humphrey Pre-Millennium guitar with D'Addario EXP46C Composite Coated High Tension strings.

Renaldo Guadalupe Álamo
Born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Dr. Renaldo Guadalupe Álamo is becoming well known in the guitar world not only as a classical guitar performer, but as a composer as well. His CD Incógnita, which includes some of his compositions, has received good critics among important figures in the classical guitar world. Jorge Morel says: “It is a joy to listen to this recording. Mr. Guadalupe has chosen a very attractive program for his new CD, including works of great quality. His interpretation of all the pieces here are played with the quality that these composers deserve. Splendid Performance!”

Competing, he won the Third place at the 10th Carrefour Mondiale de la Guitare, Martinique, December 1992; and the Second Prize at the 2erne Prix d’Interprétation des Caraïbes, May 1995.

He has played in different parts of Puerto Rico, the United States, México, Venezuela, Martinica and Spain. He was Artist Director, Organizer, and Coordinator of the team that presented the 1st Guitar Festival at Ponce, Puerto Rico in October 2006.

Mr. Guadalupe holds a Doctor of Musical Arts in Guitar Performance from the Frost School of Music of the University of Miami. His doctoral dissertation A Compilation of Selected Callisthenic Exercises Designed to Address Specific Technical Aspects in Guitar Performance is considered as a great contribution to the classical guitar world in which he discusses issues like the need of working certain technical exercises for the mechanical improvement of the hands, avoiding serious illnesses such as the Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, and others.

He has studied with important artists such as Leonardo Egúrbida, Manuel Barrueco, David Russell, Roland Dyens, Alirio Díaz, Abel Carlevaro, Norbert Kraft, Antigoni Goni, Ricardo Cobo, Ana María Rosado, Iván Rijos, Carlos Barbosa Lima, Juan Mercadal, René González, Thomas Patterson, and Pepe Romero.

He has not only been a well-educated classical guitarist, he has also moved on and explored flamenco guitar studying with Paco Serrano at Córdoba, Spain. He also played for two years with Antonio Santaella Flamenco Dance Company, and taught flamenco guitar at Casa España in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

He has taught at the University of Arizona, University of Miami, University of Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico Music Conservatory, and at the Interamerican University of Puerto Rico, among other music institutions. He is currently a faculty member of The Hartt School, Community Division and The Hartford Music Conservatory. Renaldo is also a classical, popular, flamenco, spanish, and latin guitarist in venues and restaurants in the Hartford, Connecticut area, where he currently resides.