Adam Holzman

adampicInternational performing and recording artist, is hailed as "...polished and quite dazzling,"  by The New York Times, "...brilliant!," by De Gelderlander, Holland, and "...masterful!,"  by The Toronto Star. 

Mr. Holzman's recordings for the Naxos label have been critically acclaimed.  The first two are discs of the music of Fernando Sor and have been called "...irresistible" by Gramophone Magazine. Vol. 1 and II of the music of Manuel Ponce are also now available.  From his CD "The Venezuelan Waltzes of Antonio Lauro" the American Record Guide had this to say, "The landmark recording was David Russell's1980 LP.  Now, 20 years later, comes another masterly recording by Adam Holzman: in many ways it raises the benchmark still further."  His newest release is the Bardenklange of J.K. Mertz. Adam Holzman is founder of the Guitar Department at the University of Texas at Austin where, in addition to his active performing career, he heads a thriving guitar studio.  Mr. Holzman's performance studies were with Bruce Holzman, Albert Valdes Blain, Eliot Fisk and Oscar Ghiglia.

Visit Adam Holzman's web site: http://www.adamholzman.net/


Michael Chapdelaine


mike photoIs the only guitarist ever to win First Prize in the world's top competitions in both the Classical and Fingerstyle genres; the Guitar Foundation of America International Classical Guitar Competition and the National Fingerstyle Championships at the Walnut Valley Bluegrass Festival in Winfield , Kansas. 
  
From New York's Lincoln Center to the Cactus Cafe in Austin, from Milano to Bangkok, Michael continues to enchant, dazzle and surprise audiences and critics alike as he redefines the modern acoustic guitar with his amazing technique, "soulful" expressiveness, and versatility as a performer, composer and arranger/producer. His performances, played on both steel string and classical guitars, include musical styles ranging from blues to Bach to country to rhythm n' blues as he wins his audiences hearts with breath taking technique and the poetic magic of his original musical portraits and landscapes. 
 
Michael is Professor of Music and head of guitar studies at the University of New Mexico.  His teachers included the great Spanish maestro Andres Segovia.

Visit Michael Chapdelaine's web site: http://www.michaelchapdelaine.com/

Theodore Antoniou

antoniou picOne of the most eminent and prolific contemporary artists, leads a distinguished career as composer, conductor, and professor of composition at Boston University. 

As a conductor, Professor Antoniou has been engaged by several major orchestras and ensembles, such as the Boston Symphony Orchestra Chamber Players, the Radio Orchestras of Berlin and Paris, the Bavarian Radio Orchestra, the Tonhalle Orchestra (Zurich), the National Opera of Greece, and the Berkshire Music Center Orchestra. In 1974 he became assistant director of contemporary activities at Tanglewood, a position he held until 1985.  He is the director of the ALEA III International Composition Competition, and since 1989 the president of the National Greek Composers' Association.  Many of Professor Antoniou's compositions were commissioned by major orchestras around the world, and more than a hundred and fifty of his works have been published by G. Schirmer, Inc. & Associated Music Publishers, Inc. and Bärenreiter Verlag (Germany).

He has received many awards and prizes, including the National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship grants and the Richard Strauss Prize, as well as commissions from the Fromm, Guggenheim, and Koussevitzky Foundations, and from the city of Munich for the 1972 Olympic Games.  In December 1997 he was presented with the Music Award from the Greek Academy of Arts and Letters; and in January 2000, the Greek National Radio Broadcast Corporation awarded him the Dimitri Mitropoulos Award for his lifelong contribution to music.
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Apostolos Paraskevas

apostolosHolds a doctorate in composition from Boston University, and an Artist Diploma in guitar from the Modern Conservatory/Greece. 
Fanfare magazine described him as “ an amazingly versatile guitarist”and for his CD Visions of Azure “...a wonderful and essential guitar CD”. Classical Guitar magazine wrote: “Apostolos Paraskevas is a genuine innovator, a young and highly gifted musician..." 

His appearances as a performer/composer with major orchestras around the world include concerts in such venues such as Carnegie Hall/New York, Weill Recital Hall, Jordan Hall, the Athens Concert Hall/Athens, etc.

 
A few of his awards include Grammy Nomination, Bridge Records/Starobin/Newdance 1998,   First Prize“Lukas Foss Composition Competition”/2000, Winner of the 1997 “Call for Scores” (SCI); First Prize “I. Papaioanou Composition Competition” 1997. 


He is the founder/Artistic Director of the Guitar Congress-Festival in Greece/Corfu and an Associate Professor at Berklee College of Music (composition/guitar department) and Northeastern University.  Major publications by Santerrelle /Germany, Guitarrisimo/ Sweden, Papagrigoriou-Nakas Publications/Greece, Clear Note Publications/USA, NorthStar Publications/Great Britain, Centaur and Bridge Records. 


Recent performances of his include two sold out concerts at Carnegie Hall under the direction of Lukas Foss, Program included the Third and Fourth guitar concertos and the orchestral work “Night Wanderings” by Apostolos Paraskevas.  Other recent
performances with the Odessa Phiharmonic/Ukraine, St. Petersburg, New Mexico, San Francisco.  Major teachers: Lukas Foss, Theodore Antoniou.

Leonidas Kanaris

 
Leonidas
Graduated from the Athens Conservatory with a Diploma in Guitar Performance and from the Hellenic Conservatory with a Composition Diploma and with First prizes and distinctions.  Post-graduate studies include studies at the Rubin Academy of Music in Israel. 

He has won four international prizes in competitions. His compositions include works for various instruments and instrumental combinations, songs, as well as orchestral works which have been performed in Greece and abroad by important performers.  In his work he uses diverse idioms and techniques of the 20 century music, which he combines with forms and idioms of various music periods and styles.  

His music was published by Contemporary Music, Fagotto Music and
K. Papagrigoriou - H. Nakas music publications.  In addition, a number of his works have featured in recordings by various artists.  He has given solo recitals in Greece, UK, Israel,  USA, Italy, Poland, Spain, Egypt  and he has appeared as a soloist with various ensembles and orchestras such as The Bach Orchestra of Moscow, The Contemporary Hellenic Music Ensemble  and  The Corfu Festival Orchestra.   He is a member of the Greek Composers Union  and a founding member of the Greek Composers Artistic Forum [KESY].  He is the President of the Hellenic Music Company  and Chairman of the International Guitar Congress-Festival of Corfu.


Dale Kavanagh

Dale Dale Kavanagh is one of the guitar world's most gifted interpreters.

She received her Bachelor of Music degree at Dalhousie University in Canada, and Solisten Diplom at the Musik Akademie der Stadt Basel with Oscar Ghiglia in Switzerland. Between 1986 and 1988 Ms. Kavanagh was a top prize-winner in many international competitions such as Gargnano Competition in Italy, Segovia Competition in Spain, Scandinavian Competition in Finland and Neuchatel Competiton in Switzerland She now performs internationally as a soloist and also in the Amadeus Guitar Duo with German guitarist Thomas Kirchhoff.

She is a regular recitalist and teacher in guitar and music festivals in Canada, Argentina, , China, Thailand, Turkey, Poland, Germany, Holland, Sweden, Hungary, Mexico, England and the United States and has given more than 700 concerts around the world. Many composers have written works for Dale Kavanagh such as Carlo Domeniconi, Roland Dyens, Jaime M. Zenamon, Stephen Dodgson, Stephen Funk-Pearson, Bruce Shavers, Christian Jost and Harald Genzmer.

Her 10 CDs (Hänssler Classic) have received superlative reviews in internationalmagazines including Acoustic Guitar, Classical Guitar Magazine, Fono-Forum, Hi-Fi-Vision, Gendai Guitar, Gitarre & Laute, La Cahir de la Guitare, Musikblatt, Staccato, Soundboard Magazine, Gitar och Luta and many others. Dale Kavanagh is teaching at the Musikhochschule in Detmold, Germany and is also "Musician in Residence" at Acadia University in Canada. She is an exclusive artist with Hänssler Classic since 1999 and plays D'Addario strings.


Visit Dale Kavanagh's web site: http://www.kavanagh.de/








Anthony Paul De Ritis

DeRitisAnthony Paul De Ritis completed his Ph.D. in Music Composition at the University of California, Berkeley, where he studied with Richard Felciano, Jorge Liderman, and Edwin Dugger, and worked with David Wessel at Berkeley's Center for New Music and Audio Technologies (CNMAT) (1992-1997). He received his M.M. in Electronic Music Composition from Ohio University under Mark Phillips (1990-1992); and his B.A. in Music with a concentration in Business Administration from Bucknell University, studying composition under William Duckworth, Jackson Hill and Kyle Gann, and philosophy with Richard Fleming (1986-1990). De Ritis has engaged in summer study at the American Conservatory in Fontainebleau, France under Phillipe Manoury, Tristan Murail, and Gilbert Amy (1991, 1992), the University of Southern California  (1990) and New York University (1989).

Other significant accomplishments include his contracting and managing of 112 musicians for the American premiere of Merce Cunningham and John Cage's Ocean 1-95 with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company presented by Berkeley's Cal Performances (1996), and his score for the Macintosh computer game, Step On It, which won the 1997 MacWorld Arcade Game of the Year.

He is the founder and lead developer of the Online Conservatory collaboration between the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Northeastern University, which has been featured in the New York Times, the Chronicle for Higher Education, Newsweek, Symphony magazine and the Boston Globe. The Online Conservatory allows viewers to explore BSO programs in-depth before their performances.

De Ritis also holds a certificate in Internet Technologies and a Masters in Business Administration with an emphasis in High Tech.

Visit Anthony Paul De Ritis' web site: http://www.casdn.neu.edu/~music/Faculty/DeRitis/home.html