The University of Akron is proud to announce:
Classical Guitar Alumni Festival
March 2-3, 2007
Fifteen alumni to perform in two day marathon!
The University of Akron School of Music will host its first-ever Classical Guitar Alumni Festival on Fri-Sat, March 2-3. Fifteen alumni will be featured in performance, celebrating Guitar Department Chaiman Stephen Aron’s 26 years of teaching at the University. The concert schedule is as follows:
Fri. Mar. 2, 5pm, Guzzetta Recital Hall: Chris Akin, Michael Curtis and James Marron
Fri. Mar. 2, 8pm, Guzzetta Recital Hall: Rusty Jones and James Buckland
Fri. Mar. 2, 10pm, Guzzetta Recital Hall: Eric Noden
Sat. Mar. 3, 1pm, Guzzetta Recital Hall: Alex Dean, Adam Sarata, Paul Petric
Sat. Mar. 3, 4pm, Guzzetta Recital Hall: Loren Fortna, Scott Schwertfeger, Patrick Joyce
Sat. Mar. 3, 8pm, Guzzetta Recital Hall: Joshua Millard, Mir Ali, Danny Voris
All concerts are free and open to the public.Â
All featured performers studied classical guitar at the University of Akron; some earned BM’s, others MM’s, and a few got both degrees from the University. The roster includes performers who were in Mr. Aron’s first class at Akron, in 1981; others graduated as recently as 2003.
Featured artists include Danny Voris, of Capital University in Columbus, whose original guitar compositions have been featured on five CD’s; Mir Ali, of the Buffalo Guitar Society in NY, whose flamenco and neo-Pakistani stylings have led to international concerts and recordings; James Buckland, of Converse College, SC, who plays historically informed 19th century music on an instrument he built himself; and Eric Noden, of Chicago, whose career as a early-American blues singer and guitar virtuoso have garnered him critical acclaim.
We will hear Chris Akin, now of Louisville, KY, playing Latin American and Spanish music and reunited with his duo partner from 1983, Michael Curtis, of Wooster College. Curtis will play with his hammered-dulcimer duet partner, with whom he has released two CD’s. Alexander Dean, a DMA candidate at Eastman School of Music, Rochester, NY will play 17th century music on a five-course Baroque guitar. In performance of his own compositions, we will hear James Marron, of Ashland University (and Akron U.) as well as Scott Schwertfeger, of the Columbia Institute of Fine Arts in Falls Church, VA. Further performers, each with his own unique take on the classical guitar repertoire, include Joshua Millard, of Rochester, NY; Loren Fortna, of Montclair, NJ; Patrick Joyce, of Fairmont College, WV; Adam Sarata, of Muskingham College; Paul Petric, of Hiram College; and M. Rusty Jones, of the University of Missouri, Colombia.
Full concert programs are posted online at www.uakron.edu/music/guitar. For more information, please contact the director, Stephen Aron, at stephenaron@mac.com.
