Celebrated Guitarist Jason Vieaux to Perform Two Concerts in New York and New Jersey, 5/3 & 5

Celebrated guitarist Jason Vieaux will perform two concerts in the New York area on Friday, May 3 at 8pm presented by the New York City Classical Guitar Society at Baruch Performing Arts Center (55 Lexington Avenue, NYC) and on Sunday, May 5 at 3pm presented by New Jersey City University in Ingalls Recital Hall (2039 Kennedy Boulevard, Jersey City, NJ).

The concerts will traverse the Renaissance (Dowland's popular Fantasy in E Major for guitar); the Baroque period (Bach's Lute Suite in E Minor, which Vieaux will play on guitar); the 19th century (Mauro Giuliani's Grande Overture); the 20th century in Benjamin Britten's reflection on Dowland's music (Nocturnal after John Dowland), as well as Pat Metheny's The Bat, Antônio Carlos Jobim's A Felicidade, and José Luis Merlín's Suite del Recuerdo; and finally the 21st century with Dan Visconti's Devil's Strum, written for Vieaux in 2010.

Of Devil's Strum, Visconti says, "One of the defining myths surrounding American blues guitar playing is about a pact with the supernatural. In one such account, a man meets the Devil at the lonely crossroads in the dead of night, and strikes a bargain: in exchange for inhuman ability and charisma as a guitarist, the man need only sign over his eternal soul. The central moment in several versions of the myth is when the Devil tunes up the doomed man's guitar - the moment when the strings become awakened with unseen power and the man's fate is sealed. My new work for guitarist Jason Vieaux begins at just this moment -the moment of the Devil's long fingers strumming the jangly strings."

Guitarist Jason Vieaux is expanding the definition of what it means to be a classical guitarist and changing the face of guitar repertoire, building a devoted audience and fan base along the way. Vieaux is a musician noted for virtuosic and stirring performances, imaginative programming, and uncommon communicative gifts. His collaborations with flutist Gary Schocker, harpist Yolanda Kondonassis, mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke, and bandoneon/accordion virtuoso Julien Labro continue to display Vieaux's broad range of musical interests. Recent career highlights include solo performances at Lincoln Center, Spivey Hall, the Chautauqua Festival, and a return to Music@Menlo.

In the fall of 2011, Jason Vieaux inaugurated The Curtis Institute of Music Guitar Department with guitarist David Starobin, and he has been Head of the Guitar Department of the Cleveland Institute of Music since 2001, a position he continues to hold. He is also affiliated with Philadelphia's Astral Artists, with which he gives annual outreach concerts.

In June 2012, Jason Vieaux launched the Jason Vieaux Classical Guitar School from ArtistWorks. This revolutionary online school, the first of its kind for classical guitar, gives students of any age, ability, or location an unprecedented level of access to studies with Vieaux through ArtistWorks' Video ExchangeTM accelerated learning platform. Founded in 2008, ArtistWorks offers interactive music lessons from master musicians in a variety of different styles including rock guitar, jazz improv/gypsy guitar, finger style solo guitar, rock guitar, mandolin, fiddle, dobro, acoustic bass, harmonica, jazz/fusion drums, rock drums, DJ scratching, classical piano and banjo. For more information, visit www.jasonvieauxschool.com.

Vieaux's recent performance invitations have included returns to the Caramoor Festival, New York's 92nd Street Y "Guitar Marathon", the Elgin Symphony and others. Numerous highlights for 2012-2013 include concertos with the symphonies of Houston, Toronto, Spokane, Augusta (GA) and Silicon Valley, a performance of the Lukas Foss Concerto for the New Hampshire Music Festival, duo recitals with acclaimed harpist Yolanda Kondonassis and accordion/bandoneon virtuoso Julien Labro, solo recitals in Austin, at the Mannes School of Music and California's La Guitarra Festival, and another Curtis On Tour sojourn, this time to South America.

Jason Vieaux continues to bring important repertoire alive in the recording studio. A new Azica Records album of solo guitar encores is planned for a 2013 release. Among his 11 commercial albums is an Azica disc of Astor Piazzolla's music with Julien Labro and A Far Cry Chamber Orchestra. Bach: Works for Lute, Vol.1 hit No. 13 on Billboard's Classical Chart after its first week and received rave reviews by Gramophone, The Absolute Sound, and Soundboard. Images of Metheny features music by American jazz legend Pat Metheny, who, after hearing this landmark recording, declared: "I am flattered to be included in Jason's musical world." Sevilla: The Music of Isaac Albeniz made several Top Ten lists the year of its release. Vieaux's albums and live performances are regularly heard on radio stations across the country, and his work is the subject of feature articles in print and online around the world every year, including in such magazines as Acoustic Guitar, MUSO, and Gramophone, and on NPR's "Deceptive Cadence" music blog.

Jason Vieaux has performed as concerto soloist with over 50 orchestras, including Cleveland, San Diego, Ft. Worth, Santa Fe, Charlotte, Buffalo, Grand Rapids, Kitchener-Waterloo, Richmond, IRIS Chamber, Chautauqua Festival, and Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia. Some of the conductors he has worked recently include David Robertson, Michael Stern, Jahja Ling, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Stefan Sanderling, David Lockington, Andrew Constantine, Steven Smith, and Edwin Outwater. His solo recitals have been featured at every major guitar series in North America, as well as many of the important guitar festivals in Asia, Australia, Europe, and Mexico. Vieaux's appearances for Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Music@Menlo, Strings Music Festival, Grand Teton Festival, and the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players have forged his reputation as a first-rate chamber musician and programmer. And his passion for new music has fostered premieres of works by Dan Visconti, David Ludwig, Jerod Tate, Eric Sessler, José Luis Merlin and Gary Schocker.

Vieaux is a member of the Advisory Board of the Guitar Foundation of America (GFA), and is affiliated with Philadelphia's Astral Artists, for which he gives outreach concerts. Mr. Vieaux's primary teachers were Jeremy Sparks and John Holmquist. In 1992 he was awarded the prestigious GFA International Guitar Competition 1st Prize, the event's youngest winner ever. He is also honored with a Naumburg Foundation top prize, a Cleveland Institute of Music Alumni Achievement Award, and a Salon di Virtuosi Career Grant. In 1995, Vieaux was an Artistic Ambassador of the US to Southeast Asia, concertizing in Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, India, Bangladesh, Myannmar, and Nepal.

For more information, visit www.jasonvieaux.com.