Oberlin Guitar Ensemble Fall 2024 II
We had our second Fall Guitar Ensemble concert on Sunday. It featured the very exciting performance of a new guitar quartet piece by Thomas Flippin, as well as several works for guitar and voice and more. We had an excellent audience in our favorite room for guitar, Kulas Hall. Atypically, we had a screen pulled down on stage, for use in the final piece. Unfortunately, a technical glitch required that the projector remained on throughout the concert; this is why you’ll see a screen-saver image behind most of the ensembles. Here is a run-down of the proceedings; the full program is at the end of the post.
We began with two of Rodrigo’s Tres Villancicos, as presented by Delaney Fox, soprano and Grigor Ylli, guitar.
Grigor Ylli and Delaney Fox play Rodrigo in Kulas Hall
Next, flutist Chloe Pauyo and guitarist Damian Goggans played Damian’s arrangement of a piano work by Florence Price.
Damian Goggans and Chloe Pauyo perform in Kulas Hall
Soprano Ava Paul was joined by Solis Dornan on guitar, next, for three Schubert lieder.
Solis Dornan and Ava Paul perform Schubert
We returned to music of Rodrigo next, with a set of three Spanish songs, as presented by soprano Sabrina Schubert and guitarist Rio Manzanares.
Rio Manzanares and Sabrina Schubert perform music of Rodrigo
Delaney Fox returned to the stage then, for a performance of the complete Folk Song Arrangements of Benjamin Britten, as accompanied by Sam Schollenberger.
Sam Schollenberger and Delaney Fox play music of Britten on the Kulas Hall stage
Finally, our concert concluded with a guitar quartet of particular interest: In The Abstract. Commissioned by Ex-Aequo, an organization based in Austin that champions new guitar music and young innovative performers and is directed by Evan Taucher, and composed by Thomas Flippin, the piece is unusual in a couple of ways. First, while written for guitar quartet, it incorporates four movements for solo guitar—one for each player. Second, as each of the eight movements is inspired by a painting by the American artist, Norman Lewis, the performers are to play in front of a slide presentation of the paintings. I was present in Austin at the premiere of this piece and was taken by both the music and the effect overall, and immediately determined to incorporate the piece in our ensemble work this semester. Ours was the second performance of this interesting, challenging and compelling new work. Congratulations, Thomas Flippin, for contributing yet another terrific piece to the literature. The guitarists on stage were Damian Goggans, Solis Dornan, Rio Manzanares and Sam Schollenberger.
Guitarists Sam Schollenberger, Rio Manzanares, Solis Dornan and Damian Goggans play Thomas Flippin’s new quartet
Many thanks to the guitar students and their dedicated musical partners for a terrific performance!
