The Canadian Guitar Quartet Blog

Movember and concerto in Saskatoon

2011-11-22T09:05:00.000-08:00

Backstage after having performed with the Saskatoon symphony (read review), the boys posed for this shot, highlighting their Movember 'staches. Get in on the Movember action, CGQ-style at: http://ca.movember.com/mospace/2577600/

Mexico & El Salvador, summer 2010

2011-01-22T07:12:00.000-08:00

In June 2010, the CGQ completed a very successful and fun-filled tour of Mexico and El Salvador. Thanks to a travel grant from Canadian External Affairs, as well as the Canadian Embassy in Mexico-city, the quartet performed and taught in (chronologically): Pachuca, Guadalajara, Mexico-city (Canadian Embassy), Oaxaca, Mexico-city (UNAM); then in El Salvador: San Salvador and Santa Ana.

Arriving at the airport in Mexico-city, the CGQ was met by Martin Candelaria (no relation to Phil, but we have been calling them cousinssince). Martin is the organizer of the Pachuca guitar festival. Martin is also a member of Duo Argentis, with Mauricio Hernandez. Once in Pachuca the CGQ and Duo Argentis got down to rehearsing the six-guitar arrangement of Rossini’s Overture from the Barber of Seville for some of the upcoming concerts. Two concerts, a masterclass, and an appearance on the morning news show for Hidalgo state TV (plus wonderful meals and tequila) later, we were off to the capital.

We had a few free days in Mexico-city. Our hotel was near the Zona Rosa, which is full of restaurants, cafes, shops, you-name-it. After this bit of downtime, we flew to Guadalajara. We were very, very well received in Guadalajara. The concert went over well and a great time was had by all.

Zipping back to the capital, we next had a concertat the Canadian Embassy in Mexico-city. This private concert was attended by various friends of the Embassy. One notable event on this particular evening was that after the concert Phil had to be taken to the hospital, by ambulance no less. It seems that he developed a wee bitof a digestive tract infection, coupled with mild dehydration. He experienced plenty of discomfort while playing, but the man didn’t miss a note! A quick check-up, some hydration, some antibiotics and he was good to go. The waiting room of the emergency section of hospital is always a good place to ponder how one’s plans are possibly changing.Thankfully, all was well, and everything went back to schedule, well almost everything…

The next part of the adventure brought us to the wonderful city of Oaxaca. When told that we would be going to Oaxaca, many of the Mexicans we met during the tour would tell us that this was the real Mexico. The accommodations were great, the city was deeply picturesque, the concert loads of fun. What was less great was that our flight back to Mexico-city the next day was cancelled due to mechanical problems. We were booked onto a later flight – the consequence being that we landed in Mexico-city right at the moment that our concert at the Unervsidad Nacional Automona de Mexico was scheduled to start. We were whisked through the city to the concert hall, we dressed and warmed up in record time and started the concert only an hour late. Fortunately for us, most of the audience had decided to stay. The concert went well, and, let-me-tell-you, the beer afterwards was very good!

The next part of the trip brought to El Salvador under the auspices of the Mangoré Society of El Salvador, principally in the person of Carlos Payés. Once again, it must be said how well we were received. We performed one concert in San Salvador and one in Santa Ana. However, I think I speak for the group when I say that the highlight of the trip was visiting the grave of Augustin Barrios Mangoré, getting to handle two of his guitars, and meeting Victor Urrutia, the last of the surviving students of Barrios in El Salvador. I must also sadly report that Victor has since passed away, he was 98. During our visit, Victor was most generous with his time, and thrilled with the idea that four Canadians han come to visit him.

These four Candians, quite tired, but very happy with their experience, finally pointed themselves home.

June 2010.

Guitar Alla Grande 2009 (February 5-9 2009).

2009-03-14T12:40:00.000-07:00

(left to right: Denis Poliquin, Chris Stell, me, Alla Grande sponsor poster, Mark Eden, Denis Donegani, Patrick Roux, and Philip Candelaria)

Phew! What a weekend that was!

The 2009 edition of the little-guitar-festival-that-could had 5 concerts, one all out inspiring master class, a great luthier fair, and no less than 3 world premieres.
I had the great pleasure of performing the opening concert with wife, pianist extraordinaire, Catherine Donkin. It was nice to be back in the Fernand Gratton hall at the Conservatoire de Musique de Gatineau. I spent eight lovely years there learning my craft. Our program was a pretty big affair that included excerpts from Bach’s Orchestral Suite number 2 (BWV 1067), Nadia Borislova’s The Ocean Train, Weaving Magic Dance, by Febian Reza Pane, and two works written for us: Theme and Variations by Christine Donkin (yes, Catherine’s sister), a fantastic original work for piano and guitar; and the world premiere of Clarice Assad’s Quebra-Queixo. Premieres are always a tough beast, but we were pretty happy with our performance. QQ itself is a hugely rewarding huge challenge, every bit as hard and as much fun as you might suspect from such a great composer as Clarice, who is certainly qualified to write a chamber work for piano and guitar. Mark Eden and Chris Stell, otherwise known as the Eden-Stell duo, our headliners, had come straight from the airport to be in the audience for this concert. What troopers! (in the photo: after the opening concert, left to right: Alla Grande artistic director Patrick Roux, Catherine Donkin, me)

On Friday morning the guitar orchestra rehearsals got underway. Denis Poliquin, the Alla Grande conductor provided one of the works, called Rêveire, and I wrote the other, Mediterranean Moon, for guitar orchestra with 8 soloists. During this rehearsal, I received a call from Mark Eden. Chris’ guitar had sustained damage during the flight. A very apparent crack had formed right where the neck and the headstock meet…that’s why Mark told me, Chris wasn’t quite able to speak yet. If ever you are traveling to Ottawa with your classical guitar and expect it to get damaged, the Alla Grande weekend is the best time! A plethora of luthiers were about to descend on the city. However, something needed to be done right away. As it happens, internationally renowned luthier Sergei de Jonge, and his equally internationally renowned daughter, Joshia, live a short drive from downtown Ottawa, in a beautiful location on the Gatineau River. So. Chris’ guitar was sent to Sergei, who generously lent him a guitar of his own make in the mean time. It doesn’t get much more exciting than this.

(Conductor Denis Poliquin listens as I play and sing the opening section of Mediterranean Moon).

I had to miss the afternoon Eden-Stell master class – I have this office job: I’m the Assistant Director of the University of Ottawa’s School of Music; while I can get away for concerts and stuff, they do kind of need me to be around the office every now and then…. Suffice it to say that I heard many, many comments from my CGQ colleagues and many of the students that this was one of the most simultaneously entertaining and instructional master classes they’d ever witnessed. The participating students – ensembles all - were going to be performing in the Sunday concert.
(in the photo: Chris Stell in masterclass)

On Friday night the University of Ottawa Orchestra took the stage under the direction of guest conductor David Stewart, the violin teacher at uOttawa. The program consisted of Grieg’s Holberg Suite, with Stewart conducting from the first violin chair (and with his wife, Paule Préfontaine as principal second violin); then Stewart and Préfontaine stood for Mozart’s Concertone for 2 violins, in C Major, K.109. After the intermission, I joined David and the strings for Malcolm Arnold’s Serenade for guitar and strings. The concert concluded with Symphony no. 85 by Haydn. (in the photo: me and the uOttawa Orchestra)
This concert was part of the regular season of the uOttawa orchestra series and only part of Alla Grande through sharing the same weekend and having the serenade (ie guitar) included. All the same, it was a wonderful part of the weekend’s festivities and the beer afterwards was just great, thank-you very much.
(Friday night at the Elephant and Castle, left to right: Catherine, Chris Stell, Julien Bisaillon (behind Chris), Denis Poliquin, Patrick Roux (mostly behind Mark), Mark Eden, & me).

Saturday morning saw more guitar orchestra rehearsals. In the afternoon, uOttawa alumnus Mike Savona gave a great recital with music by Napoléon Coste, John Dowland, Joaquin Turina, Roland Dyens, and Dusan Bogdanovic. Mike does a very nice thing with the Dowland works (Come Heavy Sleep, Can She Excuse, Flow My Tears): he sings and plays. While his playing is smooth and lyrical, his voice finds that world weary sound that Dowland evokes. Really quite stirring. (in the photo: Mike Savona)

Then came the headliners. Honestly and without exaggerating, Chris and Mark’s concert at Alla Grande 2009 was one of the most enjoyable concerts I’ve ever seen. The program started with Chris’ arrangement of Bach’s Concerto in D minor BWV 974. Then the boys launched into a great arrangement (Mark’s) of Torroba’s Estampas. One of the evening’s many crowing moments was their performance of Per Sunoare a Due by Leo Brouwer. Sitting a bit further apart to heighten the complex interweaving sound fabric, Chris and Mark also delivered a side splittingly funny rendition of a disagreement while playing.

(Eden Stell duo)
In the second half the duo played a beautifully evocative work by Phillip Houghton called Wave Radiance. Consisting mostly of pulsing chords cross fading in and out, this work could become very average in lesser hands; however with the Eden Stell duo’s artful negotiation, it showed its simple genius as a work of music. Bravo to the performers, bravo to the composer! Next came an arrangement of old English folk melodies which made me long for the moors outside of Brinscall, Lancashire in a big way. A very ballsy reading of Rodrigo’s Tonadilla preceded this year’s second world premiere. Having heard Chris and Mark play Generator by Garry Ryan in the Wolfville festival in the summer of 2007, I was quite excited to hear he had written something new for the duo. Bazaar! is much like Generator in style, that is, layering of rhythms and textures to give an overall effect. Gary Ryan succeeds very well at creating a certain dance music sound on two acoustic instruments. Bazzar! makes use of a loop that plays what’s being played, but backwards (Number 9, number 9….). All in all it is highly energetic and very good music. Again, bravo composer, bravo performers! Their encore was an oldie but a goodie.

Just before the concert, Sergei de Jonge arrived and handed Chris his newly repaired guitar. Sergei had stayed up all night putting the finishing touches on his repair job. Not only were the repairs structurally sound, but also aesthetically good. After the concert, Catherine and I had everyone one over for the after party. Sorry no pictures – you know how it is. With all the excitement, Sergei forgot his loaner guitar in the hall, so I brought it home with me. The next morning, my good friend Heather Morand Clark (to whom we owe most of the photos in this blog) mentioned that she was quite excited about the upcoming luthier fair, a regular Sunday happening at Guitar Alla Grande. I told to try Sergei’s guitar right away (this guitar was on its way to the luthier fair anyway). Well, it was love at first pluck. After trying and really liking a bunch of different guitars at the fair, Heather went back to her new love and just bought the guitar then and there. I took photos of all the luthiers showing, but not all the photos came out that well. My apologies to those luthiers not pictured here. The full list of luthiers is: Stéphane Audet, Richard Berg, Bruno Boutin, Joshia de Jonge, Sergei de Jonge, Oskar Graf, and Jean Rompré.

(Philip Candelaria tries out a Richard Berg guitar as the luthier observes)

(Bruno Boutin smiles as Heather Mornad Clark test drives one of his guitars)

(Ottawa Guitar Society president Andrew Mah trying out a Jean Rompré)

Then finally came the big student concert. Works from M.D. Pujol, Burkhart, Brouwer, Gagnon, Scarlatti, C. Assad, Kindle and Kanengiser. The students did us all old teachers proud. The final event was the guitar orchestra of 40+ guitarists performing Denis Poliquin’s Rêverie, and the world premier of my new work, composed specially for the Guitar Alla Grande Festival, Mediterranean Moon. Denis did a great job coaching the orchestra through the weekend rehearsals and leading them in the concert. The players in the orchestra were great, special kudos to the 8 soloist in Mediterranean Moon: Simon, John, Dan, Khalid, Alex, Alex, Mark, and Matthieu. Bravo, gentlemen!

(the Alla Grande guitar orchestra under the direction of Denis Poliquin)

Phew! What a weekend! Thanks to all the participants and the all the sponsors, we’ll see you next year…don’t expect me to play 2 concerts and write a new work then though, I’ll be sleeping.

(the world famous Guitar Alla Grande 2009 sponsor poster)

Opening Statement

2008-12-11T10:49:00.000-08:00

Well here we are. This is the Canadian Guitar Quartet’s blog. My name is Louis, I’m one of the four members of the quartet and I will be your host through this chronicle of the CGQ’s activities: the fun, the inspirational, the unavoidable bummers, and the down-right weird things that pop up on the path of art and on the road to the next gig. My intent is to make this blog part current account, part reminiscence.

The quartet has recently passed the milestone of the tenth anniversary of its first rehearsal. We knew within 10 seconds of the first tune we played that we were onto something. In early 2009, we’re going to hit the 10th anniversary of our inaugural concert. These 10 years have flown by! Here then is a list of 10 highlights from the first 10 years of the best career/job I would never had dared wish for, but that dropped in my lap anyway (at some point I’ll recount the story of my start in classical guitar, it’s a fun enough story). In no particular order, then…………..

10 CGQ HIGHLIGHTS for 10 CGQ YEARS

1 - Getting the invitation to be in the quartet in the first place

2- First tour of Chile (can you say Pisco sour?), getting to see the Andes

3-Teaching and performing at Stetson Guitar Workshop (got to hang out with Oscar Ghiglia, Eduardo Fernandez, and story teller supremo Adam Holzman, among many other great talents and wits – discovered the playing and great spirit of Judicael Perroy)

4 - Performing my guitar quartet concerto, Hoe Down, with the Regina Symphony

5- Week spent teaching, playing, eating & drinking in Sao Paulo, Brazil

6 - My first published arrangements, Brahms Hungarian dances 4 and 5

7 - Headlining Yale Guitar Extravgansa alongside Roland Dyens, thanks again, Ben!

8 - NYC debut at the 92nd street Y’s Art of the Guitar Series (Ben Verdery, artistic director)

9 - Headlining the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival alongside Ben Verdery

10 - Two solo lessons with Sergio Assad (ask my wife, I’m still spouting ‘Sergio said this, and Sergio did that.’)

It must be said that this is my list – I’m sure Patrick, Denis, or Phil would come up with a list that would have some similar elements but also a few different ones (for example, Denis met his wife at one of our concerts in British Columbia, that’s kinda tough to top). Also, there are a couple of very big career events coming down the pike, to name but two: World premiere of my first work for guitar orchestra, Mediterranean Moon, in February; Chicago debut for the CGQ in April, which will include a collaboration with dancers!. For more details of great up-coming CGQ events, please visit http://www.canadianguitarquartet.com/ .

Then, there was the time in Temuco, Chile that I had a terrible sneeze... ah, but that’s another story…………………..