photo by Felix Salazar (http://www.felixsalazar.com)
Peter Yates
Peter Yates is a composer and a guitarist. His work has included sixteen tours of Europe with the Elgart/Yates Duo, over one hundred premieres, and a book on prepared guitar. He also builds and plays versions of the arpeggione, a bowed guitar invented in 1823 and rarely seen since. His compositions include numerous PopArt songs, a puppet opera about the Watts Towers and a DVD ghost-town opera in which historic photographs come to life and sing. His works have been performed on Italian National Radio (RAI), microfest, The Living Arts Festival, NOW Festival, Festival of American Music, in Mexico, Europe and across the United States. He is on the faculties of music at UCLA and at the California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. Videos of his work can be found at his youtube channel.
“A particularly lucid fretboard dreamer. An unreconstructed modernist, he is also sensitive to vernacular and popular styles.” – The Los Angeles Times
“A particularly lucid fretboard dreamer. An unreconstructed modernist, he is also sensitive to vernacular and popular styles.” – The Los Angeles Times
Buzz Gravelle
Buzz Gravelle – composer, multi-instrumentalist and music educator—has been involved with new music for plucked strings for over twenty years. Buzz was a founding member of the Modern Arts Guitar Quartet (1991-1995), an ensemble of guitarists/composers that explored the leading edges of new music for classical guitar—prepared guitar, serialism, minimalism, aleatoric, and electro-acoustic music. As a solo recitalist he is known for creative programming and has extended the repertoire of the classical guitar and classical mandolin through his own compositions, transcriptions, and the premiering of new works written for him. He has performed throughout the western United States, in addition to Canada, Mexico, Italy, Austria, and Germany. Buzz holds both M.F.A. and D.M.A. degrees in Music from UCLA. Buzz serves on the faculty of California Polytechnic University at Pomona and is the founder and director of the Santa Monica Academy of Music. See www.buzzgravelle.com for more information on his professional activities.
Walter Marsh
Walter Marsh studied with Theodore Norman at UCLA, where he earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in guitar performance in 1995. He was a member of the Modern Arts Guitar Quartet from 1991 to 1995, performing on the west coast of the US, Europe and Mexico. Walter has had a particular focus on modern music. Since 2012, with Peter Yates and Buzz Gravelle, he has been a member of ensembleFRET, an ensemble performing music for mandolin, guitar and arpeggione (bowed guitar). He is also a composer, with new music for ensembleFRET. See www.waltermarsh.com for more information on his professional activities.
Guest Artist
Alexandra Grabarchuk
Dr. Alexandra Grabarchuk is a Ukrainian-born musicologist and performer. She currently teaches at UCLA & Mt. San Antonio College, and performs with groups such as Jouyssance Early Music Ensemble, C3LA, Tonality, Superdevoiche, Duo GuitAria, and ensembleFRET. She is also the Assistant Conductor of the San Gabriel Valley Choral Company. www.alexgrabarchuk.com
