2018 New England Guitar Ensembles Festival

Saturday and Sunday, March 17-18, 2018

Longy School of Music of Bard College, 27 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138

Guest Performer: Eliot Fisk

Guest Composer: Robert Beaser

2-Day Festival Pass: $45. 1-Day Festival Pass: $35

Concert only: $30 / 25 / 20

All events at Longy School of Music of Bard College, 27 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
Map. Parking options. Public transportation: Harvard Station, Red line.

Two full days of workshops, classes, and concerts focus on the guitar as an ensemble instrument. This year, we are particularly excited to announce the premiere of a new commission by one of the most significant American composers today: Robert Beaser.

If your group is unable to stay for both days of the festival, we welcome one day participants as well.

NEGEF is generously supported by the Augustine Foundation and by the D’Addario Foundation. We are grateful for their continued commitment to this annual event and ongoing project to explore and promote the artistic, educational, and community-building potential the guitar ensembles.

Festival Directors: Dr. Daniel Acsadi and William Riley, guitar faculty at Longy School of Music of Bard College.

Schedule of Events

Saturday, March 17

9:00 – 9:30 AM – Registration and Setup
9:30 – 10:00 – Technique and Warm-up Class
10:00 – 11:30 – Festival Orchestra Rehearsal (Beaser Chaconne – sectionals)
11:30 – 12:15 – Ensemble Workshops

12:15 PM – Lunch

1:30 – 2:15 – Ensemble Workshops
2:15 – 3:45 – Masterclasses with Will Riley & Dan Acsadi
4:15 – 6:00 – Festival Orchestra Rehearsal

6:00 – Dinner

7:30 – BCGS Members / Conservatories Concert

Sunday, March 18

8:30 – 9:00 AM – Registration and Setup
9:00 – 9:30 – Technique and Warm-up Class
9:30 – 11:30 – Festival Orchestra Rehearsal
11:15 – 12:00 – Ensemble Workshops

12:00 PM – Lunch

1:00 – 1:45 – Practice / Prep Time
1:45 – 3:15 – Ensembles Showcase Recital
4:00 – Closing Concert:
World Premiere of Chaconne by Robert Beaser
Eliot Fisk Recital

Festival Details

Eliot Fisk

Guitarist Eliot Fisk is known worldwide as a charismatic performer famed for his adventurous and virtuosic repertoire. He is also celebrated for his willingness to take art music into unusual venues (schools, senior centers, and even logging camps and prisons!). After nearly 50 years before the public he remains as his mentor Andres Segovia once wrote, “at the top line of our artistic world.”

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.

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.”

Robert Beaser

Robert Beaser has emerged as one of the most accomplished creative musicians of his generation. Since 1982, when the New York Times wrote that he possessed a “lyrical gift comparable to that of the late Samuel Barber,” his music has won international acclaim for its balance between dramatic sweep and architectural clarity. The Baltimore Sun writes “Beaser is one of this country’s huge composing talents, with a gift for vocal writing that is perhaps unequaled.” His opera The Food of Love, with a libretto by Terrence McNally, is part of the Central Park trilogy, which opened to worldwide critical accolades at Glimmerglass and New York City Opera. Televised nationally on PBS Great Performances, it received an Emmy nomination in 2000.

If you are interested in bringing your ensemble (any level) to the festival, please contact us.