“Buffalo is one of the most sophisticated audiences for classical guitar music in the world” said Michael Andriaccio, one half of the Castellani-Andriaccio Guitar Duo. And why wouldn’t we be? To quote a current insurance ad: “We know a thing or two because we’ve seen a thing or two.” Since 2004 the biennial JoAnn Falletta International Guitar Concerto Competition (named after JoAnn Falletta, the Music Director of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra who is also a classical guitarist) has brought to Buffalo almost five dozen world-class guitarists, most of them under age 30. While there won’t be another Falletta competition until June 2018, Joann Castellani and Michael Andriaccio, co-Artistic Directors of the Falletta, along with the BPO, have arranged for a very special treat this year:
Thibaut Garcia, a 22-year-old French classical guitar phenom, will give a recital at 7 p.m. this Tuesday, April 4 in the intimate Mary Seaton Room of Kleinhans Music Hall. Garcia is coming to Buffalo on a 50-city recital tour as part of his 2015 Guitar Foundation of America Competition (GFA) win.
That’s a big deal. A very big deal. Past winners include Falletta Competition finalists you may have seen at Kleinhans: Ekachai Jearakul of Thailand who won the GFA in 2014, Anton Baranov of Russia (2013), Marcin Dylla of Poland (2007), Thomas Viloteau of France (2006), and back in 1992 when he was a very young teenager, long before the Falletta Competition, Buffalo’s own Jason Vieaux. To win the GFA you must have lightning fast fingers, a very “clean” sound (no flubs, no buzzes, and every note of every run must sing out), and great musicianship. You can hear generous samples from his latest CD here.
A GFA winner, in a beautiful venue like Kleinhans, at the ridiculously low price of $10 a ticket (students are free)? You’d be crazy to pass this one up.
A GFA winner, in a beautiful venue like Kleinhans, at the ridiculously low price of $10 a ticket (students are free)? You’d be crazy to pass this one up.
This is classical, not country, but the lyrics to John Sebastian’s “Nashville Cats” apply to GFA winners such as Thibaut Garcia: “Nashville cats, play clean as country water / Nashville cats, play wild as mountain dew / Nashville cats, been playin’ since they’s babies / Nashville cats, get work before they’re two.” Actually, Garcia didn’t start playing until he was seven.
A note to parents: While every world class violinist on stage today started at the age of three, that’s not the case in the guitar world. Garcia is typical of guitarists who usually start when they are around seven or eight. Buffalo instructors will start guitar students at three, but if you have a young person at home, it’s “never too late” to start. And since students will be admitted Tuesday for free (and adult tickets are only $10) and the program starts early at 7:00 p.m. (this is, after all, a “school night”) a recital such as this might be a good way to introduce the idea of classical guitar. And, hey, if you don’t intervene in their musical education, they might choose trumpet or drums! (Pass the Excedrin.)
Garcia’s program will include works by Leopold Weiss, Miguel Llobet, Astor Piazzolla, Joachin Rodrigo, and 2016 JoAnn Falletta International Guitar Concerto Competition judge Donald Crockett’s “Fanfare Studies.”
General admission tickets are $10. Students and members of “Friends of Falletta,” (the supporting group of the JoAnn Falletta International Guitar Concerto Competition) are admitted free of charge. Anyone who joins “Friends of Falletta” at the event will have the cost of their admission applied to their membership, which starts at $50. Kleinhans Music Hall is at 3 Symphony Circle (where Porter, Richmond, and North street meet) in Buffalo, NY 14201. For tickets and information, call (716) 885-5000 or visit kleinhansbuffalo.org/event/thibaut-garcia-in-recital.