Colby-Sawyer College to Host Workshop and Performance by Italian Classical Guitarist Emanuele Segre
The award-winning Italian guitar virtuoso Emanuele Segre will bring his interpretations of the classical guitar repertoire to a performance at Colby-Sawyer College on Wednesday, April 7, 2010, at 7 p.m.
The concert will take place in Wheeler Hall at the Ware Campus Center. Admission is free and open to the public.
Segre has been winning awards and competitions for decades, including the 1987 East & West Artists Prize in New York, which allowed him to make his debut at the Carnegie Recital Hall. In 1989 he was selected for the UNESCO International Rostrum of Young Performers. Early in his career, The Washington Post hailed Segre as “a musician of great promise.” The New York Times praised the “subtlety and warmth” of Segre's performance, and Italy's La Repubblica called him “one of the most interesting guitar talents of today.” It has been more than three years since Segre last performed at Colby-Sawyer, thrilling listeners.
Though the guitar was probably invented in Spain in the 16th century and has always been associated with languid evenings in Madrid or Seville, Segre lives in the shadow of the famous white marble cathedral in the fast-paced northern Italian city of Milan, where he studied at the Milan Conservatory. He plays an instrument that he believes was “reborn” less than a century ago.
“The second half of the [19th] century there [were]… very few guitarists around,” he told a reporter for the Stoc kton, Calif., Record. “It was only in [the 20th] century through Segovia that the instrument came back.”
The Spanish guitarist Andrés Segovia, who transcribed dozens of classical works for guitar, was, Segre said, “the very first man who brought the guitar into the concert halls.”
“In some ways, it's an instrument that's always looked on as an instrument without a tradition,” he concluded. “In that way, also, you can explore new possibilities with the instrument. You can get lots of other sounds as well as moods out of this instrument.”
Segre exploits the riches of his instrument not only in his repertoire – which ranges from well-known transcriptions from Bach to works by modern Catalan composers – but in his technique, which delights in taking an unconventional turn.
On Tuesday, April 6, Segre will offer a free guitar workshop at 5 p.m. to a limited number of people. If you would like to participate, please call Campus Activities at 526-3759 to register.
The event is sponsored by the Colby-Sawyer College Cultural Events Committee and paid for by the Olivetti Series Endowment Fund.
To learn about other upcoming events at Colby-Sawyer College visit www.colby-sawyer.edu/events
Colby-Sawyer, founded in 1837, is a comprehensive liberal arts and sciences college located in the scenic Lake Sunapee Region of central New Hampshire. Students learn in small classes through a select array of programs that integrate the liberal arts and sciences with professional experience.
Colby-Sawyer College, 541 Main Street, New London, N.H. 03257 (603) 526-3000
