kithara duo

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Seventh Annual Guitar Orchestra Workshop

Hello Guitar Lovers!
We (Kithara Duo) are happy to announce our yearly guitar orchestra festival, now in its seventh year! The festival will be held on February 24th-26th 2012 at St. Andrew United Methodist Church in Plano, TX. We are excited to present Presti in their North Texas debut. Please click here for the festival brochure and application.
Hope to see you there!

Monday, May 30, 2011

Kithara Duo's debut CD "Beings"

Our debut CD "Beings" for Soundset Recordings, named after one of Olga's compositions recorded for the first time on this album, is finally available for purchase. It is gratifying to see the result of all the hard work that went into making it happen!
The disk presents a selection of compositions for guitar duo by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco and Olga Amelkina-Vera, as well as an arrangement for guitar duo of Astor Piazzolla’s Lo Que Vendrá. This all-modern program showcases a wide range of moods and compositional styles, as well as a variety of delicate instrumental colors only possible in guitar duo. All the artwork on the CD are Olga's originals. To listen, buy individual tracks, or order the CD, please click here.

Intermezzo published by Productions d'Oz

Olga's guitar quartet Intermezzo has been published by Productions d'Oz. The piece is inspired, among other things, by commedia dell'arte, therefore her choice of cover, a Renaissance depiction of a commedia troupe.

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Sixth Annual Guitar Orchestra Workshop, Feb.26-28, 2011

We had another great festival this year! The students all worked so hard and played a recital consisting of solos, small ensembles, and guitar orchestra. Our guest artist, Mark Anthony Cruz, was a wonderful addition, and the students really enjoyed
his masterclass and lecture on Fingerboard Theory. We can't wait to do this again next year! Our guest artists next year will be Presti, the first North American all-women guitar ensemble. Below are some pictures from this year's festival.

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Ex Tenebris published by Productions d'Oz

We are extremely excited to announce the publication of Olga's composition Ex Tenebris as part of The Frank Koonce Series of the Canadian publishing house Productions d'Oz. This work was commissioned and premiered this year by Valerie Hartzell. Being included on The Frank Koonce Series is a great honor, and it was a learning experience to go through all the stages of the editing process with him in preparing this work for publication. The images on both the front and back covers of the score are details from one of Olga's original art pieces. The composition is now available at Productions d'Oz.

Concert in Ecuador

Our August concert in Ecuador was held in the beautiful performance space of Museo de Los Amantes de Sumpa in the city of Santa Elena. The roof of this elegant hall is built out of bamboo, a common building material in Ecuador, and thatched with bamboo leaves, which gives the place an upscale yet "earthy" look. More than 300 people were in the audience, and it was a thrill to play for them since we were told that this was the first classical music concert ever held in Santa Elena.

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Performance of Shingo Fujii's "Concierto de Los Angeles" with William Kanengiser

This past weekend, we had the great pleasure of playing in the guitar orchestra for the Dallas premiere of Shingo Fujii's "Concierto de Los Angeles" with William Kanengiser as the soloist. The performance took place at the University of Texas at Dallas on the concluding night of the Ninth Annual UTD International Guitar Competition and was conducted by UTD's Dr. Enric Madriguera. The composer was in residence for the entire duration of the festival, and the whole experience was inspiring and educational.

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