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KONINKLIJKCONSERVATORIUMBRUSSEL

27, 28 & 29April 2018

BrusselsGuitar Laboratory Rethinking the six-string Icon

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Brussels Guitar Laboratory

27, 28 & 29 April 2018

Rethinking the Six-String Icon

An initiative of guitarprofessor Antigoni Goni,

the KCB Research Department,and Brussels Arts Platform

Dear friends and music lovers,

It is with great pride and joy that we present to you the Brussels Guitar Laboratory.

From the 27th to the 29th of April, our inspiring, innovative, and daring doctoral students will share with you their research journeys, through which curiosity, passion, and creativity have been their compass. In their hands our instrument unfolds its full potential, which is bound to surprise even the most seasoned aficionado.

Join us for three days of recitals and workshops to feel the thrill of discovery and be transported by the guitar’s unique allure.

Brussels Guitar Laboratory || 3

Antigoni GoniProfessor of Guitar

Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel


After decades as a popular icon, shedding new light on the guitar should cast some interesting shadows.

In a series of concerts and workshops, PhD students and researchers of the Brussels Royal Conservatory’s guitar studio beat unconventional tracks to and from their beloved instrument.

Gut strings, motion sensors, excavations of mechanical debris, imagined bows, and symbiotic choreography.

This is not the guitar you know, but surely one you are curious to meet.


Rethinking the Six-String Icon


Brussels Guitar Laboratory

6 || Rethinking the Six-String Icon

Friday | 27 April 2018

At 8pmCONCERT Seis Doncellas Bailan by Yiannis EfstathopoulosTempelzaal, Kleine Zavel 5

Saturday | 28 April 2018

From 11 am till 12.30 pmWORKSHOP What Guitarists Can Learn from Bow Technique by Kostas TosidisRoom A028, Royal Conservatory of Brussels, Regentschapsstraat 30

From 2pm till 3.30 pmWORKSHOP The Guitar in the IT Revolution by Pierre BibaultRoom A028, Royal Conservatory of Brussels, Regentschapsstraat 30

From 4 pm till 5.30 pmWORKSHOP Guitar technique in Spanish High-Romanticism by Yiannis EfstathopoulosRoom A028, Royal Conservatory of Brussels, Regentschapsstraat 30

At 8 pmCONCERT Bricolage by Maarten Stragier, Flesh and Wood by Luca IsolaniConcert Hall Royal Conservatory of Brussels, Regentschapsstraat 30

SCHEDULE


Sunday 29 | April 2018

From 11 am till 12.30 pmWORKSHOP Percussion Techniques on Classical Guitar by Luca IsolaniRoom A028, Royal Conservatory of Brussels, Regentschapsstraat 30

From 2pm till 3.30 pmWORKSHOP Bricolage by Maarten StragierRoom A028, Royal Conservatory of Brussels, Regentschapsstraat 30

From 4pm till 5 pmROUND TABLE DISCUSSION, moderated by pianist Jan MichielsRoom A028, Royal Conservatory of Brussels, Regentschapsstraat 30

At 6pm CONCERT A Portrait of Zad Moultaka by Pierre Bibaultand Tokens: A Century of Modern Guitar Music by Kostas TosidisConcert Hall Royal Conservatory of Brussels, Regentschapsstraat 30 at 6 pm

RESERVATION/ INSCRIPTION

For the concerts: Free admission on condition of reservation by e-mail to [email protected]

For the workshops: participation in all workshops is free. Those interested in active participation can send an e-mail [email protected] with the workshops in which they would like to enroll, their personal information, and (if applicable) their school and year of study. Spots will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis



Friday | 27 April 2018 | 8pmTempelzaal Royal Conservatory of Brussels, Kleine Zavel 5

Free admission on condition of reservation by e-mail to [email protected]

Seis Doncellas Bailan Yiannis EfstathopoulosIn the second half of the 19th century, guitarists Arcas and Tárrega collaborated with luthier Antonio de Torres to lay the foundation for the classical guitar as we know it. A few decades later, that same instrument would ride a wave of neoclassicism and nationalism to become an icon of Spanish culture. Manuel de Falla, as well as composers of the influential Generation ’27, began to write for the guitar. They were drawn to its rich heritage, which had one foot in the illustrious Spanish renaissance and baroque and the other in vibrant folklore. Yet at the same time the music they wrote stood firmly in the present, looking beyond their native culture to the impressionist developments in Paris. Thus the guitar came to inhabit a space between the popular and intellec-tual, between exoticism and modernism. In an intimate recital on gut-string guitar, Yiannis Efstatholpoulos pays homage to this seminal diversity by returning to its origin—Garcia Lorca’s six dancing maidens, three of flesh, three of silver.

ProgramFrancisco Tárrega (1852-1909) Capricho Arabe

Rosa García Ascot (1902-2002) Española

Gustavo Pittaluga (1906-1975) Homenaje á Mateo Albeniz

Salvador Bacarisse (1898-1963) Pavane

Rodolfo Halffter (1900-1987) Giga

Julián Arcas (1832-1882) Murcianas (dedicated to Antonio de Torres)

Manuel de Falla (1876-1946) Homenaje (Le Tombeau de Debussy)

Julián Bautista (1901-1961) Preludio y Danza

Ángel Barrios (1882-1964) 2 Little Pieces

Sabicas (1912-1990) Zapateado

CONCERTS


Saturday | 28 April 2018 | 8pmConcert Hall Royal Conservatory of Brussels, Regentschapsstraat 30


BricolageMaarten StragierBricolage is the ability to use whatever one finds and recombine it to create something new. Done right it can be delectably subversive; it can expose the cracks and contradictions in our everyday preconceptions. This is certainly the case for the music of composers José Maria Sánchez-Verdú and Mauricio Pauly. Veritable “junkyard virtuosos,” both decided to rummage through the historic discards of the beloved guitar in order to create new instruments. Maarten Stragier performs the result: a classical guitar that has shed its insecurities about dynamic range and finds full expression in hyper-intimate chamber music; and an electric guitar stripped of its machismo swagger and swallowed whole by a mesmerizing noise-scape of electronic glitches.

ProgramJosé Maria Sánchez-Verdú Tres Caprichos (2005)

Mauricio Pauly Sky Destroys Dog (2014, rev. 2016)

Flesh and WoodLuca IsolaniPercussion has become an increasing part of the guitarist’s toolbox. This physical interaction with the instrument alters how we relate to it. In this light, our old practices are inevitably reconfigured. This reconfiguration has generated a wealth of inspiration for players and composers alike. Luca Isolani gives us a sampling from a century of experimentation: Turina evokes the clicking heels of flamenco dancers; Petrassi paints a nocturnal scene with a palette of mesmerizing timbres; and guitarist-composers D’Angelo and Ryan daftly expand playing technique toward a virtually seamless integration of newfound percussive possibilities.

ProgramJoaquìn Turina Fandanguillo Op.36 (1929)

Gofffredo Petrassi Suoni Notturni (1959)

Nuccio D’Angelo Electric Suite (1995)

Funky

Soft

Raga-Blues

Song

Gary Ryan Benga Beat (2011)


Sunday | 29 April 2018 | 6pmConcert Hall Royal Conservatory of Brussels, Regentschapsstraat 30


A portrait of Zad MoultakaPierre Bibault

Pierre Bibault delves into the work of French-Lebanese composer and visual artist Zad Moultaka. If this is your first encounter with Moultaka’s music, the European premiere of Kahraba for electric guitar and electronics will no doubt make it a memorable one. Existing in sound as well as a caligraphic copper engraving, this work puts the notion of gesture front and center in the creative process. Also on the program the titanic Calvario for classical guitar and electronics. Calvario was inspired by Christ’s falls during the stations of the Cross, in which Moultaka sees a cyclical movement towards the divine not unlike the whirling trance of Sufi muslim ascetics.

ProgramZad Moultaka Calvario (2008)

Kahraba (European premiere)

Tokens:A Century of Modern Guitar MusicKostas Tosidis

In this concert, Kostas Tosidis shares some of his modern favorites. Among them: mementos from the rebelious years of Leo Brouwer; flamenco-inspired vignettes by Gasull; pocket-size master-pieces by giants Milhaud and Poulenc; an early treasure from the oeuvre of Gubaidulina; Latvian institution Vasks’ medidations on lonileness; and Tosidis’ very own transcription of Ligeti’s cello sonata.

ProgramLeo Brouwer Canticum Tarantos

Gyorgy Ligeti Sonata for cello (arr.Kostas Tosidis)

Francis Poulenc Sarabande

Sofia Gubaidulina Serenade

Darius Milhaud Segoviana

Peteris Vasks Sonata of Loneliness

Feliu Gasull 10&1 Estudios

10 | Rethinking the Six-String Icon

CONCERTS

Saturday | 28 April 2018 | 8pmConcert Hall Royal Conservatory of Brussels, Regentschapsstraat 30


BricolageMaarten StragierBricolage is the ability to use whatever one finds and recombine it to create something new. Done right it can be delectably subversive; it can expose the cracks and contradictions in our everyday preconceptions. This is certainly the case for the music of composers José Maria Sánchez-Verdú and Mauricio Pauly. Veritable “junkyard virtuosos,” both decided to rummage through the historic discards of the beloved guitar in order to create new instruments. Maarten Stragier performs the result: a classical guitar that has shed its insecurities about dynamic range and finds full expression in hyper-intimate chamber music; and an electric guitar stripped of its machismo swagger and swallowed whole by a mesmerizing noise-scape of electronic glitches.

ProgramJosé Maria Sánchez-Verdú Tres Caprichos (2005)

Mauricio Pauly Sky Destroys Dog (2014, rev. 2016)

Flesh and WoodLuca IsolaniPercussion has become an increasing part of the guitarist’s toolbox. This physical interaction with the instrument alters how we relate to it. In this light, our old practices are inevitably reconfigured. This reconfiguration has generated a wealth of inspiration for players and composers alike. Luca Isolani gives us a sampling from a century of experimentation: Turina evokes the clicking heels of flamenco dancers; Petrassi paints a nocturnal scene with a palette of mesmerizing timbres; and guitarist-composers D’Angelo and Ryan daftly expand playing technique toward a virtually seamless integration of newfound percussive possibilities.

ProgramJoaquìn Turina Fandanguillo Op.36 (1929)

Gofffredo Petrassi Suoni Notturni (1959)

Nuccio D’Angelo Electric Suite (1995)

Funky

Soft

Raga-Blues

Song

Gary Ryan Benga Beat (2011)



Participation in all workshops is free. Those interested in active participation can send an e-mail to [email protected] with the workshops in which they would like to enroll, their personal information, and (if applicable) their school and year of study. Spots will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis

What Guitarists Can Learn from Bow TechniqueKostas Tosidis28/4, 11 am-12.30 pmRoom A028, main building Royal Conservatory of BrusselsRegentschapsstraat 30

Due to the percussive nature of our beloved plucked instrument, the guitarist’s technique tends to be approached in a granular fashion. We focus on the mechanics of the singular attack, a one-size-fits-all for sound creation of any volume and any given musical context. In studying the guitar’s bowed siblings (violin, viola, cello, double bass), Kostas Tosidis realized we are all the poorer for it. In the intricacies of bowing technique, the musician’s anatomy is inextricable from elements such as phrasing, articulation, and the use of dynamics. Kostas’ research as a PhD candidate uses the bow as an inspiration for a similar refinement of guitarists’ technical awareness.

The workshop will consist of a group session, in which Kostas will work with students on improv-ing their technical finesse through an enhanced understanding of their own anatomy. This knowl-edge will then be related back to examples from the repertoire.

Active participants must be guitarists Maximum number of active participants: 12 Auditors welcome

The Guitar in the IT RevolutionPierre Bibault28/4, 2 pm- 3.30 pmRoom A028, main building Royal Conservatory of BrusselsRegentschapsstraat 30

The central role of information technology is an obvious fact of contemporary existence. It perme-ates every corner of our lives, from the private to the professional. In this workshop, Pierre Bibault discusses how we, as classical musicians, can adapt to and even flourish in the information-


WORKSHOPS

technology revolution. To illustrate his point, he gives the participants a look under the hood of his technological equipment and lets them try their hand at motion-sensored musical performance.

All instrumentalists are welcome as active participants. Maximum number of active participants: 5Auditors welcome

Guitar technique in Spanish high-romanticismYiannis Efstathopoulos28/4, 4pm -5.30 pmRoom A028, main building Royal Conservatory of BrusselsRegentschapsstraat 30

Historical performance practice for our instruments typically stops at the development of the modern guitar by Antonio Torres. Hereby we completely overlook the impact of nylon strings when they were introduced in 1948. Yiannis Efstathopoulos has spent the last several years analyz-ing historical instruments, strings, methods, and recordings. He began playing pre-1948 repertoire on gut strings again and found they opened a world of forgotten possibilities, a part of the music’s soul lost in our habituation to nylon.

In this workshop Yiannis introduces students to the historical sources for his research. These will then serve as a point of departure for exploring the forgotten art of the left hand: the great expres-sive potential of practices like vibrato, portamento, and slurs on a gut-strung instrument. Active participants will be invited to put this knowledge to work in an open and collaborative masterclass on repertoire by Francisco Tárrega.

Active participants must be guitarists and are asked to prepare a prelude by Francisco Tárrega.Maximum number of active participants: 2 Auditors welcome




WORKSHOPS

Percussion Techniques on Classical GuitarLuca Isolani29/4, 11 am-12.30 pmRoom A028, main building Royal Conservatory of BrusselsRegentschapsstraat 30

Percussion has become an increasing part of the guitarist’s toolbox. This new physical interaction with the instrument alters how we relate to it. In its light, our old practices are inevitably reconfig-ured.

In Luca Isolani’s workshop, students learn to play relevant percussion excerpts from the repertoire. Luca explains how these percussive techniques function in their compositional contexts, and how they impacted the development of guitar performance practice.

Active participants must be guitaristsMaximum number of active participants: 5Auditors welcome

BricolageMaarten Stragier29/4, 2pm- 3.30 pmRoom A028, main building Royal Conservatory of BrusselsRegentschapsstraat 30

Bricolage is the ability to use whatever one finds and recombine it to create something new. Done right it can be delectably subversive; it can expose the cracks and contradictions in our everyday preconceptions.

In Maarten Stragier’s workshop, students get to try their hand at musical bricolage in an interpre-tation of Suspension-Aggrégat by Kasper Toeplitz. Using your own instruments, electric guitars and effects pedals provided by Maarten, and whatever you can find that might be of use, you get to challenge your own preconceptions of music making and find expression where you might least expect it.

Active participation is open to all composers and instrumentalists. Non-guitarists are encour-aged to experiment with the guitars provided. No prior knowledge is required.Maximum number of participants: 6Auditors are welcome to listen and help in the creative process

Round Table DiscussionModerator: Jan Michiels29/4, 4pm-5 pmRoom A028, main building Royal Conservatory of BrusselsRegentschapsstraat 30

The performers talk about the relevance and intended impact of their research at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels.



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BIOGRAPHIES

ANTIGONI GONI

Universally praised for her profound artistic sensitivity, her exquisite sound, and for her unmatched palette of colors and dynamics, the Greek guitarist Antigoni Goni is internation-ally acclaimed as a true ambassador of the guitar and a sought-after pedagogue.

Her career blossomed in the mid 90s after winning the Guitar Foundation of America Competition, which resulted in some 65 concerts in North America and a contract with Naxos Records. Since then she performed virtually everywhere, in concert halls such as the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Covent Garden and the Wigmore Hall in London, the Odeon of Herodes Atticus in Acropolis (Athens) as well as the Philharmonic and the Cappella Sale in St. Petersburg, the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, and Weill Recital Hall in Carnegie Hall in New York to mention just a few.

Her highly successful recordings for Naxos, Koch, and Timespan records have been praised for being "expressively poetic and technically exciting" and have been received with great enthusiasm by the international musical community.

She is the founder of the Guitar Department at the Pre-College Division of Juilliard School of Music of New York where she also taught for 10 years. Since 2005 Antigoni Goni has been Professor of Guitar at the Royal Conservatory in Brussels (Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel) and a member of its Artistic Committee. In April 2015, the Royal Conservatory named her “Professor of the Year” making her the youngest profes-sor ever presented with the “Madame de la Hault” prize, awarded by the Brussels Royal Conservatory’s “Patrimonium”.

In 2007 she founded and started directing “the Volterra Project, Summer Guitar Institute”, an innovative Classical Guitar workshop that every summer gathers in Tuscany (Italy) interna-tional students and professionals of the highest caliber for ten days of intense study and inspired performances.

The Brussels Guitar Laboratory is an initiative of Antigoni Goni and the research depart-ment of the Royal Conservatory of Brussels.



PIERRE BIBAULT

Classical and electric guitar performer Pierre Bibault explores all periods of music, with a particular attraction toward contemporary music. He performs more than fifty concerts a year in various countries (USA, Europe, Asia), and in numerous and prestigious venues.

As a soloist, he performs a contemporary music repertoire combining classical and electric guitars, electro-acoustics, live electronics, samplers, loopers, 3D sensors, and computers. As a chamber musician, he performs regularly for renowned contemporary music ensembles such as 2E2M, Mezwej, and Thierry Pécou’s Ensemble Variances, which he joined in 2017. He has played in Radio France’s Présences Festival, London’s Wigmore Hall, and Brussels’ Bozar. He is also very active in various ensembles with cello, violin, flute, voice, guitar, and chamber and jazz orchestras, and has made many recordings for major institutions and labels such as France Musique, Caliope Records, and Warner Erato.

He is a teacher-researcher at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels, where he is currently finishing a PhD in the arts. He is also a full-time professor at the Conservatoire de Sèvres.


BIOGRAPHIES

YIANNIS EFSTATHOPOULOS

Yiannis Efstathopoulos (b. Dráma, Greece, 1987) is a guitarist, artistic researcher, and pedagogue based in Brussels. He obtained with highest distinction his master’s degree from the distinguished guitar class of professor Antigoni Goni at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels in Belgium, where he also studied contemporary music with Bart Bouckaert and lute with Dirk De Hertogh. His further studies on early music were led by Nicolas Achten and Xavier-Diaz Latorre.

Currently Efstathopoulos is a PhD candidate in the arts of the Royal Conservatory of Brussels and the Free University of Brussels (VUB). His thesis focuses on the Spanish guitar in the “Generation ’27” and its historically informed performance practice. Much of his research activity is devoted to historical instruments and the evolution of Spanish guitar schools. His interest focuses on the late romantic period and Spanish repertoire until World War II, on authentic period instruments and strings.

Yiannis has given recitals and chamber music concerts in Greece, Italy, Spain, Belgium, and the Netherlands in reputable concert halls such as Palais des Beaux Arts, Flagey (Brussels), Palacio Chigi (Siena), Seu Vella (Lleida), and Megaron Concert Hall (Thessaloniki). During the winter of 2017 he recorded his first solo album with guitar works of the Spanish modern-ism. He teaches in the Spanish Institute Cervantes in Brussels, and since 2014 has worked as an assistant researcher/teacher in the Royal Conservatory of Brussels.



LUCA ISOLANI

After graduating cum laude under the guidance of Maurizio Villa at the Conservatorio di Napoli, Luca Isolani moved to Belgium where he had the privilege of studying with Antigo-ni Goni at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels, obtaining a master’s degree in music with high distinction in 2013.

During his educational path, he took part in numerous master classes and courses with professors and world-renowned musicians such as Sharon Isbin, Konrad Ragossnig, Sergio and Odair Assad, Roland Dyens, Margarita Escarpa, Rene Izquierdo, Gaelle Solal, and Marco Socias.

As a guitarist, Luca Isolani has performed all over Europe both as a soloist and with chamber music ensembles, sharing the stage with classical and folk musicians from around the world.

This drove him to explore the different uses of the guitar, finding out how a more intensive use of heterogeneous techniques requires a change of perspective on the guitar playing and on the performers themselves.

As a result of these experiences, Isolani has recently started a PhD in the arts within the framework of the Royal Conservatory of Brussels and the Free University of Brussels (VUB). Starting from percussion-producing actions in classical guitar literature and how those lead to a full rethinking of the performance, he explores the embodied knowledge of the so-called hybrid guitarist.

Since the end of his studies, Luca Isolani has devoted himself to pedagogical activity. As a teacher, he has been working for the Music Academies of the Fédération Wallonie Bruxelles since 2013 and worked as assistant professor for the guitar department of the Royal Conservatory of Brussels from 2015 to 2017.

Luca Isolani plays a guitar by the Italian luthier Angelo Vailati.


BIOGRAPHIES

MAARTEN STRAGIER

Belgian guitarist Maarten Stragier’s refreshing take on concert programming and a passion for contemporary music take his performances from the original to the unusual. His musical sensitivity and innovative spirit have brought him to European and American houses and festivals of outstanding reputation.

A collaborative musician, Stragier is a member of chamber ensembles Promenade Sauvage and Aporia Survival Kit and is an active freelance artist with different ensembles and orchestras (among others Ensemble Intercontemporain, Ictus ensemble, La Monnaie, and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project). He works closely with composers on the interpreta-tion of their music and loves to take part in the creation of new works.

Maarten Stragier holds a doctorate in Musical Arts from New England Conservatory in Boston, where he studied under Eliot Fisk. He earned a master’s degree under Antigoni Goni at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels and studied at the Accademia Chigiana under Oscar Ghiglia. He is a recipient of the 2010 Köberle award for extraordinary musical achieve-ment. Currently Maarten is an assistant professor and researcher at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels.



KOSTAS TOSIDIS

Kostas Tosidis (b. Thessaloniki, 1978) completed his musical studies at the Agios Pavlos Conservatory in Thessaloniki, Greece, in Yannis Papakrasas's class with the highest grade and the first prize in the year 2003.

In 2006 he graduated with distinction and honor from Mozarteum University in Salzburg, Austria. During his bachelor's degree he was part of Eliot Fisk and Ricardo Gallen's classes. In 2009 Kostas Tosidis obtained his master's degree with distinction and honor from the same institution, and he became Eliot Fisk's assistant at the Mozarteum University.

Tosidis won seven international prizes with the Miscelanea Guitar Quartet. His solo projects include concerts throughout Europe, and he has recorded five CDs with solo and chamber music repertory.

Kostas Tosidis is one of the founding members of the renowned Miscelanea Guitar Quartet. Their aim is to create a unique interpretation of original compositions for a guitar quartet.

Since September 2016, Tosidis has been a PhD candidate in the Royal Conservatory of Brussels. His topic of research explores the possibilities of playing arrangements of contem-porary pieces for cello, violin, and viola on the guitar without losing the music’s intention or style. His doctoral research will conclude with commissioned works by composers such as Atanas Ourkouzounov, Marios Joannou Elias, Feliu Gassul, Marko Dottlinger, and Giannis Papakrassas.

Kostas Tosidis plays a guitar built by Alector Guitar, uses Knobloch strings and a guitar rest by Guitarlift.

www.brusselsartsplatform.be

Koninklijk Conservatorium BrusselRegentschapsstraat 30Kleine Zavel 5


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