Author Archive
I played a small series of chamber concerts with a very demanding program: Debussy Sonata for Harp, Viola and Flute (of course, guitar replacing the harp), Takemitsu “Toward the Sea” and Schubert’s “Arpeggione”. Here is a video from our performance at the annual festival Fiesta de la guitarra:
It has been a crazy week: Sunday, 20th Nov. Opening night of a guitar festival in Tartu. New chamber music program with guitar, flute and viola (Schubert’s Arpeggione, Takemitsu’s Toward the Sea and Debussy’s Sonata for harp, flute and viola). 400 km to drive, home for night. Monday, 21th Nov. Teachers’ courses in Jõhvi, total [...]
Went to Milan last weekend for seeing a ballet in La Scala. We had some spare time the day after and I thought I would visit a place that would somehow be connected to the Italian classical guitar or lute tradition. I thought that although Francesco da Milano was not born in Milano but Monza, [...]
This season we have agreed to play 50-60 concerts at schools to introduce the flamenco culture. Estonian State Concert is the agency and players are: Kristo Käo (guitar, handclapping, cajon, dance, talking), Reigo Ahven (cajon, handclapping, guitar, dance, talking), Maria Rääk (dance, handclapping, teaching). Here is a short promotional video that the agency came up [...]
Once in a while I need a break from playing the guitar. This year I have discovered two possible things to do besides playing music. In July I got my first experiences as an alpinist. I spent a few weeks in altitudes higher than 3500 m and the peak was about 5000 m so I [...]
I was cleaning up my notes and stuff and found some 7-year old video recordings about me playing a couple of recitals:
Just came back from the academy and brought my brand new guitar. My luthier Viljar Kuusk completed it last week but still kept it for polishing. Now I said it’s enough because I have to play tomorrow and the day after. He can continue polishing some other time The guitar is special in many ways [...]
Last week I had a chance to perform the A major concerto by Carulli in front of an orchestra. I don’t play often the concertos but it happens and then it’s like the first time again. This time the event called for a happy classical piece with maximum duration of 10-12 min. So I chose [...]
Today is the last day of the Frankfurt fair but I just got home and can share some news already. This year my schedule was so tightly packed with meetings that I did not get out of the halls 4.0 and 3.0 and 3.1 at all. The latter is what should interest classical guitarists. Hall [...]
Often I find myself in conversations where people praise the things that they know about. What do I mean by that? Well, classical guitarists tend to say that everybody knows classical guitar and train conductors say that the security bars at the crossroads are always down. But if you look a bit further than your [...]
