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| photo by Oteo |
Written by Jason Gottfried
The Aaron Shearer Summer Institute will celebrate its inaugural year with two concerts at the Canyon Community Center in Springdale. A faculty concert will be held on Friday, July 31, followed by a student concert on Saturday, Aug. 1. Both concerts are scheduled at 7:30 p.m.
Credited as being “the father of the American classical guitar,” Aaron Shearer was one of the most prolific guitar pedagogues in American history, directing prestigious guitar programs at Peabody Conservatory and the North Carolina School of the Arts and holding an adjunct professorship of classical guitar at Duquesne University.
The week-long summer program involves private lessons with world-class performers and teachers, group classes and workshops in the Shearer method—which involves technique, memorization, visualization, and performance development—and guitar ensemble and orchestra experience, culminating in performances at the end of the week.
The faculty concert features Ricardo Cobo (UNLV), a virtuoso in demand as a soloist, chamber musician, lecturer and recording artist who founded the Guitar Las Vegas Allegro Guitar Series.
Also featured is Thomas Kitka (Duquesne University), a former student of Shearer’s who has performed for the likes of Maya Angelou and Toni Morrison.
Another former Shearer student, Kami Rowan (Guilford College) is teaching at the summer institute and is president of two Greensboro, NC-based nonprofit organizations: Music for a Great Space and the Piedmont Classic Guitar Society.
Famed composer Alan Hirsch is on faculty this summer. Hirsch and Shearer collaborated in the ‘80s to create two very successful pedagogic series of instructional guitar books published by Mel Bay and Alfred Music.
Will Adams, who is also participating in the symposium, is a specialist in Shearer’s mental techniques, applying them to the corporate settings for problem-solving purposes.
Tickets to the concert featuring this quintet of Shearer method specialists and virtuosi are $10 for Z-Arts members and $15 for the general public. The concert featuring the 30-piece ensemble of guitar students the following night is free and open to the public.
For more information about the concerts, please visit zarts.org/wp/classical-guitar-symposium-faculty-performance and zarts.org/wp/classical-guitar-symposium-student-performance.
For more information about the summer institute, please visit www.aaronshearerfoundation.org/site/summer-institute.
