The Westport Arts Center is honored to present the world-renowned classical guitarist Eliot Fisk on Sunday, May 15 at 3 p.m. at the Arts Center.
Eliot Fisk is a charismatic performer known for his adventurous and virtuosic repertoire. He has received critical acclaim in recital, as a soloist with major orchestras, and in a wide variety of chamber music combinations. In 1996 he appeared in a command performance in the Palacio de los Cordova in Granada, Spain, for then U.S. President Bill Clinton and King Juan Carlos and their families. He is celebrated for his performances in unusual venues including schools, senior centers, logging camps, and art galleries.
Russell Platt, the Westport Arts Center’s Curator for Chamber Music and The New Yorker music editor stated, “Eliot Fisk is the most celebrated of American guitarists, and it will be an honor to welcome him back to Westport after his sold-out recital of two seasons ago -- I know his many fans will be very pleased.”
“Eliot Fisk is world renowned as an advocate and commissioner of contemporary music, and so I’m glad to say that in addition to classic works by Bach (transcriptions of two of the Suites for Solo Cello), Frescobaldi, and Albeniz, our concert will boast a world premiere from the Pulitzer Prize finalist Harold Meltzer, Accidental Wilderness, a piece that reflects on the man-made work of creation and destruction that went into the beautiful Quabbin Reservoir in central Massachusetts,” Platt added.
The repertoire of the classical guitar has been transformed through Fisk’s transcriptions (including works by Bach, Scarlatti, Haydn, Mozart, Paganini, Albeniz and many others), through works dedicated to him by composers as varied as Luciano Berio, Leonardo Balada, Robert Beaser, Nicholas Maw, George Rochberg, Daniel Bernard Roumain and Kurt Schwertsik, and through his collaborations with musicians in classical, flamenco, jazz, and world music styles.
Eliot Fisk was the last direct pupil of Andres Segovia and also studied interpretation with the legendary harpsichordist Ralph Kirkpatrick at Yale University, from which he graduated “summa cum laude” in 1976. Described by one New York Times headline as a “Fiery Missionary to the Unconverted”, Eliot Fisk is Professor at the Universitaet Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria, where he teaches in 5 languages, and in Boston at the New England Conservatory.
As part of the concert event, Platt will share his commentary and musical experiences, providing chamber music newcomers and aficionados with a unique opportunity to learn more about the genre and the program.
Tickets for the concert are $65 and are available on westportartscenter.org or by calling 203/222-7070.
The Westport Arts Center thanks WSHU for their generous support.
More About Eliot Fisk
In the 2016-17 season Fisk continues to break new ground for the guitar with marathon performances of his transcriptions of all 6 Bach solo cello Suites at the National Gallery in Washington D.C. and a new quintet for guitar and strings being composed for Fisk and the famed Arditti String Quartet by eminent German composer Wolfgang Rihm to be featured in multiples performances on two continents starting in 2017. 2016 will also see the long awaited release of Robert Beaser’s monumental Guitar Concerto, dedicated to Eliot Fisk, with Jose Serebrier leading the Royal Scottish National Orchestra on LINN Records.
Eliot Fisk has performed as soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Houston Symphony, the Rochester Symphony, the Orchestra of St. Lukes, the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, the Pro Arte Orchestra, the American Composers Orchestra, Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP) and numerous other prominent orchestras around the world. He returns regularly to major concert series such as Stanford Lively Arts, Spivey Hall (Atlanta), Duke University Performances, Newman Center for the Performing Arts in Denver; Lincoln Center, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the 92nd Street Y in NYC, Da Camera Society of Houston, Da Camera Society of Los Angeles, San Francisco Chamber Music; Segovia Series at Pick Staiger Hall at Northwestern Unviersity; Jordan Hall, Boston; Orange County Performing Arts Center; Brahms, Mozart and Schubert Saal (Vienna); Mozarteum Grosser Saal (Salzburg); Wigmore Hall and Queen Elizabeth Hall (London) and at numerous guitar festivals such as those of Cordoba, Spain; Belgrade, Serbia; and Iserlohn, Bad Aibling and Hersbrueck, Germany.