Timothy Fox in Recital:
The Complete Works for Solo Guitar of
Heitor Villa-Lobos performed in honor of the composer's 130th birthday
Friday 3 Mar 2017 at 8:00pm The Berkeley Hillside Club is delighted to present guitarist Timothy Fox performing the complete works for solo guitar by famed Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos. Don't miss this remarkable artist performing in our historic and acoustically-excellent hall. The Artists: Timothy Fox - guitar The Program: The Complete Works for Solo Guitar of Heitor Villa-Lobos
performed in honor of the composer's 130th birthday
Valsa Concerto No. 2, Opus 8 Five Preludes Valse-Chôro Chôrinho Suite Populaire Brésilienne Twelve Etudes
About The Composer: Heitor Villa-Lobos (March 5, 1887 – November 17, 1959) was a Brazilian composer, described as "the single most significant creative figure in 20th-century Brazilian art music" Largely self-taught, he gained a love of music through the influence of his father, an amateur musician who hosted weekly musical gatherings. At the age of six Villa-Lobos learned to play cello, and became enamored of the music of J.S. Bach. He traveled extensively with his family throughout Brazil and continued his explorations of that vast land as a young man. During an expedition along the Amazon to the interior of Brazil, he pursued an interest in native chant and rites. He learned to play guitar at age 18 and he began playing with street musicians in Rio de Janeiro, absorbing the melodic and rhythmic elements of Brazil's indigenous musical forms. And while he blended these forms with Baroque harmonic and contrapuntal techniques, the richness and beauty of Brazil's native culture and natural environment remained his dominant muse. "I learned music from a bird in the jungles of Brazil, not from academies," he insisted. He became a prolific composer, creating over 2000 individual pieces during his lifetime. Perhaps his best known works are his Bachianas Brasileiras (Brazilian Bachian-pieces), a series of nine suites written between 1930 and 1945 and scored for different combinations of instruments, voices, and orchestra. His preludes for guitar, written in 1940, are important works in the guitar repertory, and were inspired by Andrés Segovia Later in life, established as an educator and composer, he traveled widely and lived in both New York and Paris, though he remained immersed in the spirit and culture of Brazil, and his love of Bach and of Brazilian folk music.
About the Artist: Classical guitar. Not for sissies. Bette Davis said that, although she amended the remark later in life. Someone else called it a "postage stamp orchestra". It may have been Ben Franklin who also supported the wild turkey as America's national bird. Six strings, a score of frets and a trillion ways to play them, it is an infinitely subtle, and supremely intimate instrument,demanding and exquisite. Timothy Fox has pursed this muse of wood and wire for longer than he cares to remember. He holds Bachelors and Masters degrees in guitar performance from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. He has received guidance in this pursuit from Leo Brouwer, Abel Carlevaro, Bill Connors, Michael Lorimer, Pepe Romero, Philip Rosheger, and George Sakellariou. He learned from every single man jack of them, though, ultimately, are we not all self-taught? The music to be presented at this recital has at least one thing in common: it is all music written for the guitar. There are no arrangements, no transcriptions. Villa-Lobos intended these musical thoughts for this particular instrument. Purity, complexity, simplicity. Mr. Fox promises his very best effort.