Eliot Fisk Transcribes Bach Cello Suites For Guitar at VPAC, 12/6

Guitarist Eliot Fisk, known worldwide as a charismatic performer famed for his adventurous and virtuosic repertoire, will perform the J. S. Bach cello Suites 1, 3, and 6 as he has transcribed for guitar onstage at the Valley Performing Arts Center (The Soraya) on Wednesday, December 6 at 8:00 pm.

After nearly 50 years performing for the public, Fisk remains as his mentor Andres Segovia once wrote, "at the top line of our artistic world." Currently, Fisk continues to break new ground for the guitar with marathon performances of these transcriptions of all 6 Bach solo cello Suites, as well as duo performances with guitar legend Angel Romero and with a new trio formed with virtuoso guitarists Joaquin Clerch and Aniello Desiderio.

Patrick Rucker in the Washington Post said the these performances of the Bach Cello Suites are "a delight. Fisk is a consummate stylist. The preludes sounded almost improvisatory in character. Some of the most exhilaratingly virtuosic playing occurred in the quick courantes, while the lively gigues concluded each suite with an air of culminating inevitability. The slow, richly embellished sarabandes were particularly eloquent, rising to a ferocious pathos in the C minor Suite and, in the joyful C major Suite, bathed in an aura of calm repose. Throughout, Fisk's uncanny ability to convey Bach's intricate polyphony, always over a sturdy bass, impresses most."

Eliot Fisk was the last direct pupil of Andres Segovia and also studied interpretation with the legendary harpsichordist Ralph Kirkpatrick at Yale University, from which he graduated "summa cum laude" in 1976, and where, directly following his own graduation in 1977, he founded the guitar department at the Yale School of Music.

The repertoire of the classical guitar has been transformed through Fisk's innumerable transcriptions (including works by Bach, Scarlatti, Haydn, Mozart, Paganini, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Granados, Albeniz
and many others). In addition, numerous new works have been dedicated to him by composers as varied as Leonardo Balada, Robert Beaser, Luciano Berio, Ralf Gawlick, Nicholas Maw, George Rochberg, Daniel Bernard Roumain and Kurt Schwertsik.

This concert, part of The Soraya's Onstage Sessions: Chamber Music will be presented onstage alongside the audience, providing an intimate encounter the Ensemble. The concert is followed by a reception with the artist. The Soraya is at 18111 Nordhoff Street, Northridge, CA 91330. Tickets are available by phone at (818)677-3000, and online at ValleyPerformingArtsCenter.org.

About Eliot Fisk

Eliot Fisk has performed as soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Houston Symphony, Rochester Symphony, Orchestra of St. Lukes, Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, Pro Arte Orchestra, American Composers Orchestra, Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP) and many others.

He returns regularly to major concert series such as Stanford Lively Arts, Spivey Hall (Atlanta), Duke University Performances, Newman Center for the Performing Arts in Denver; Lincoln Center, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the 92nd Street Y in NYC, Da Camera Society of Houston, Da Camera Society of Los Angeles, San Francisco Chamber Music; Segovia Series at Pick-Staiger Hall at Northwestern University; Jordan Hall, Boston; Orange County Performing Arts Center; Brahms, Mozart and Schubert Saal (Vienna); Mozarteum Grosser Saal (Salzburg); Wigmore Hall and Queen Elizabeth Hall (London) and at numerous guitar festivals such as those of Cordoba, Spain; Belgrade, Serbia; and Iserlohn, Bad Aibling and Hersbrueck, Germany.

The long awaited release of Robert Beaser's monumental guitar Concerto (dedicated to Eliot Fisk) on LINN records in 2017 elicited rave reviews online and in print. In the spring of 2017, Eliot Fisk premiered Son Dementes Cuerdas with the famed Arditti String Quartet with performances on two continents culminating in a performance at Wigmore Hall in London in a concert also featuring the Sequenza XI for solo guitar composed for and dedicated to Eliot Fisk by Luciano Berio.

He is also celebrated for his willingness to take art music into unusual venues (schools, senior centers, and even logging camps and prisons!).

Eliot Fisk has performed with a dizzying array of chamber music colleagues including flutist,Paula Robison; clarinetist, Richard Stoltzman; cellist Yehuda Hanani; violinists Ruggiero Ricci, Gidon Kremer and Joshua Bell, the Shanghai, Juilliard, Miro, Borromeo and Arditti String Quartets.

He has invented numerous crossover projects with among others Paco Peña (flamenco guitar); Joe Pass and Bill Frisell (jazz guitar) chanteuse, Ute Lemper and Turkish music specialist, Burhan Öçal.

Eliot Fisk remains a prolific recording artist. Recent releases include Ralf Gawlick's Kollwitz Konnex for soprano and guitar (Musica Omnia) Anthony Paul de Ritis's Pop Concerto with Gil Rose leading the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, a pair of CDs of new music dedicated to and transcribed by Fisk of works by Beaser, Corigliano, Schwertsik, and Rochberg (Wildner Records) and duo discs with flamenco legend, Paco Peña (on Nimbus Records) and cellist, Yehuda Hanani (Albany Records).

Described by one New York Times headline as a "Fiery Missionary to the Unconverted", Eliot Fisk is Professor at the Universität Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria, where he teaches in 5 languages, and in Boston at the New England Conservatory where in 2010 he received the Krasner Award as "Teacher of the Year."
In June 2006, King Juan Carlos of Spain, awarded Eliot the "Cruz de Isabel la Católica" for his service to the cause of Spanish music. Earlier recipients of this honor have included Andres Segovia and Yehudi Menuhin.

Eliot Fisk is Founder and Artistic Director of Boston GuitarFest (www.bostonguitarfest.org) an annual cross-disciplinary event co-sponsored by the New England Conservatory and Northeastern University and now entering its 13th consecutive year. In 2017 he created and served as Artistic Director of the first ever and immensely successful Salzburg Guitar Fest at the Universität Mozarteum in Salzburg.

In summer of 2014 he toured China perfomring with his wife, classical guitarist, Zaira Meneses, and the couple's young daughter, pianist Raquel Fisk.

About Valley Performing Arts Center (The Soraya)

The Soraya opened its 2017-2018 season on September 16 with a performance of AMADEUS Live (Milos Foreman's 1984 Academy Award-winning Best Picture with live orchestra) with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and members of the LA Opera Chorus. The evening honored the Younes and Soraya Nazarian Foundation in recognition of the family's recent $17 million gift that will rename VPAC as the Younes and Soraya Nazarian Performing Arts Center, known as The Soraya. The gift is one of the largest in the history of the California State University and the system's largest single gift to support the arts; gift to support the programming and operations of the award-winning Valley Performing Arts Center - which has become one of the cultural jewels of the region in the six years since it opened.

The 2017-18 Soraya season signals a new era for the premier event venue. Under the leadership of Executive Director Thor Steingraber, the renamed Younes and Soraya Nazarian Performing Arts Center expands its programming and outstanding multidisciplinary performances. The mission of The Soraya is to present a wide variety of performances that not only includes new and original work from the Los Angeles region but also work from around the world that appeal to all of LA's rich and diverse communities.

Located on the campus of California State University, Northridge, The Soraya's season offers a vibrant performance program of nearly 50 classical and popular music, dance, theater, family and international events that will serve to establish The Soraya as the intellectual and cultural heart of the San Fernando Valley, and further establish itself as one of the top arts companies in Southern California. The award-winning, 1,700-seat theatre was designed by HGA Architects and Engineers and was recently cited by the Los Angeles Times as "a growing hub for live music, dance, drama and other cultural events."

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