Theme, Variations and Finale by Frederic Hand

Aloha Friends,
I wanted to share a special video with you all before the summer ends. Two years ago, my former teacher, mentor, and dear friend, Frederic Hand wrote and dedicated a substantial new work to me entitled Theme, Variations and Finale. It is a deeply profound and innovative piece. It is a piece that (in my humble opinion) is timeless. Fred’s musical language and his compositional voice on the instrument are unique. This is evident when one listens to this work.

I premiered Theme, Variations and Finale in January 2022 at the Yale School of Music. Since then, I have continued to study it and seek out more of its musical truths. I performed it in various concerts. This past June, I finally recorded it and later made the video.

I was fortunate enough to work on the piece with Fred a few times during that period. It was both a delight and a challenge playing a piece that the composer plays so exquisitely! Throughout this time, I was grateful that Fred granted me great artistic freedom.

I would like to thank Matt LeFevre for his beautiful recording and engineering of the piece. Giacomo La Vita for his wonderful videography and John Olson for his sensitive video editing.

Finally, I would like to publicly thank Fred Hand for writing such a meaningful work. From the moment I first saw the notes on the page to now has been a life-affirming artistic journey and a great honor.

Until the next time,
Peace, love, and guitars!
Ben
(August 12, 2024)

Musical Heritage Society Records re-releases early Bach recordings

I am thrilled and honored to have Musical Heritage Society Records re-release my two early Bach recordings: Bach Transcriptions and Bach: Two Generations.
They were recorded yesterday, ok maybe a month ago, ok, I don't even remember when! I am not sure if that is even me on the cover of the Transcriptions CD. I  am hoping they will provide some joy and meaning in today's world. 
After all, Bach is timeless!
As always, Peace love and guitars!
Ben

Guitarists Play for Maui - Sunday December 17, 2023

To raise funds for so many who literally lost everything, we asked professional guitarists who either attended the class or were guest teachers, to make videos as short musical tributes to the island. The result is an incredible marathon video benefit concert entitled Guitarists Play for Maui, that will stream on YouTube on Sunday, December 17, starting at 4:00 PM EST. Most of the videos are newly created for this concert - several are new compositions written for the occasion and are offered with the sole purpose of helping the people of Maui.

“A Giant Beside You” on Guitar Trek’s new release

Australia’s acclaimed guitar quartet Guitar Trek releases their recording On Song that features “A Giant Beside You” as well as woks by Richard Carlton, Stephen Goss, Paulo Bellinati, Robert Davidson, Mark Issacs, Nikita Koshkin, Lennon-McCarthy and Leo Brouwer.

SiriusSM Symphony Hall

Ben’s Bach Chaconne to be aired on SiriusSM’s Symphony Hall Friday September 1 at 9pmPT and Saturday September 2 at 12pmET). It will also be on demand on the SXM App
If you are able, please donate to the Maui Fire and Disaster Relief fund at Mauiunitedway.org
Watch the complete performance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quf_ukqCXN0&ab_channel=benverdery

Guitarist/composer Ben Verdery’s new album “A Giant Beside You” features the award-winning Ulysses Quartet

World premiere recording includes music by Bryce Dessner, Leonard Bernstein, Verdery; plus music by Javier Farías

Release date: June 16, 2023
ReEntrant/New Focus

Rare are recordings coupling guitar and strings; rarer still are ones featuring world premieres of recently composed material, in this case pieces by Bryce Dessner (b. 1976) and Verdery….Verdery and Ulysses Quartet benefit equally from this collaboration. A Giant Beside You casts him as an intrepid and imaginative explorer and the quartet as equally adventurous and up to the many challenges posed by such a wide-ranging project. In slightly less than an hour, the five travel confidently from American classical to South American folk and make room for arresting detours along the way—a scenic and intriguing journey, to say the least. Textura, September 2023

Ben Verdery plays classical and electric guitar with the award-winning Ulysses Quartet on his new album, “A Giant Beside You” (rel. June 16 on ReEntrant/New Focus). The recording features a work written for him by Bryce Dessner, a longtime friend and collaborator. Also on the album – the 17th title in his discography – is Verdery’s arrangement of Leonard Bernstein’s Clarinet Sonata for classical guitar and string quartet, Chilean composer Javier Farías’ “Andean Suite,” and two of Verdery’s original compositions. Nearly all are world premiere recordings.

About his “Quintet for High Strings” Bryce Dessner says, “The work was composed for my dear friend, Ben Verdery, who has been a part of my life for nearly twenty-five years. This quintet brings me back to my primary instrument — the guitar — and my relationship with Ben, which was so formative in my development as a musician. In this new piece, I am exploring my relationship to the instrument in a new way.”

The two original compositions on this album by Verdery are related: a theme in “About to Fall” is heard in the opening motif of “A Giant Beside You.” The former is an homage to the late composer Ingram Marshall, a close friend of Verdery's. The latter takes inspiration from Sly and the Family Stones’ classic song “Stand!”. Verdery also puts his compositional prowess to use in an arrangement of Bernstein’s Clarinet Sonata. “It was evident from the outset that the clarinet part simply played on the guitar would not be musically satisfying,” he said. His solutions included having one of the violinists play in unison with the guitar from time to time, and giving passages with sustained notes to the cello or viola. Also, said Verdery, “to my utter delight, several of the piano passages played beautifully on the guitar.”

The album closer, “Andean Suite” by Javier Farías, evokes Andean folklore, from the Peruvian Yawar Fiesta (a symbolic fight celebrating the power of the indigenous people over the Spanish), to an Andean music form called huayno, and the Bolivian dance Diablada.

Contact ClassicalCommunications@gmail.com to request a physical CD or digital copy of this recording.

Download A Giant Beside You cd booklet

Photos: CD Cover Photogravure by Lothar Osterburg, Ben Verdery by John Olson, Bryce Dessner by Graham MacIndoe

BIOGRAPHIES
Hailed for his innovative and eclectic musical career, Benjamin Verdery tours regularly throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, and Asia, performing at major venues and festivals. As a recording artist, Verdery has released more than 17 albums, some featuring works composed especially for Verdery by Martin Bresnick, Roberto Sierra, Aaron Jay Kernis, Hannah Lash, Christopher Theofanidis, Ezra Laderman, Bryce Dessner, Ingram Marshall and others. Verdery has recorded and performed with scores of diverse artists, including Andy Summers, Leo Kottke, Anthony Newman, Jessye Norman, Herman Prey, Paco Peña, John Williams, hip-hop artist Billy Dean Thomas, Jiji, and the St. Lawrence String Quartet. A prolific, published composer, many of Verdery’s compositions have been performed and/or recorded by John Williams, David Russell, the Assad Duo, Los Angeles Guitar Quartet and Guitar Trek. He has been commissioned to compose works for guitar solo, duo, large ensembles, and film. Since 1985, Verdery has been guitar professor at the Yale School of Music. From 2007-2019 he served as Artistic Director of 92NY’s Art of the Guitar series and has been Producer of the Maui Summer Master Class since 1999.

The Ulysses Quartet has been praised for its “textural versatility,” “grave beauty” and “the kind of chemistry many quartets long for, but rarely achieve” (The Strad). Founded in the summer of 2015, the group won top prizes at the Fischoff National Chamber Music, Schoenfeld, Vietnam, and Osaka international chamber music competitions. Violinists Christina Bouey and Rhiannon Banerdt, violist Colin Brookes and cellist Grace Ho hail from Canada, the United States and Taiwan and hold degrees from The Juilliard School, Manhattan School of Music, New England Conservatory and Yale School of Music. Ulysses Quartet was the Juilliard Graduate Resident String Quartet as Lisa Arnhold Fellows (2019-2022).

Javier Farías’ music has been performed and recorded by guitarists Eliot Fisk, Ben Verdery, David Tanenbaum, Ricardo Cobo, Carlos Perez, Andy Summers (legendary rock guitarist of The Police), jazz-fusion guitarist Mike Stern and others. In 2014 Farías was awarded a commission from the Fromm Music Foundation at Harvard University. He won first prizes for his compositions in the Andrés Segovia Contest, the Michele Pittaluga Competition for Classical Guitar, and the 2 Agosto International Competition.

Bryce Dessner is a vital and rare force in new music. He has won Grammy Awards as a classical composer and with the band The National, of which he is founding member, guitarist, arranger, and co-principal song-writer. He is regularly commissioned to write for the world’s leading ensembles, from Orchestre de Paris to the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and is a high-profile presence in film score composition, with credits including The Revenant, for which he was Grammy and Golden Globe nominated, Fernando Mereilles’s The Two Popes, Mike Mill’s C’mon C’mon and Bardo, by Alejandro González Iñárritu.

Ke Sakihitin Awasis (I Love You, Baby)
You Got to Run (Spirit of the Wind)

Aloha Friends!

I hope this email finds you in great health and spirits. I wanted to share two brand new videos of two songs I arranged for solo guitar by the legendary singer-songwriter/activist Buffy Sainte-Marie. I have known of Buffy Sainte-Marie since I was ten years old, when I heard her iconic protest song “Universal Soldier.” A year ago I heard a Terry Gross Fresh Air interview with her discussing her new authorized biography by Andrea Warner.

I was so taken by the interview that I immediately went out and bought a copy. After reading it, I listened to all the recordings of hers I could find, searching for songs that I might arrange. The anthemic melodies, lyrics/message, and her emotional performances of these two songs deeply moved me. They are songs Buffy Sainte-Marie wrote later in her career, in a style she calls Pow Wow Rock. "Ke Sakihitin Awasis (I Love You Baby)" is from her recording Power In the Blood. "You Got To Run (Spirit of the Wind)" is from her recording Medicine Songs, and is co-written by Tanya Tagaq.

A huge thanks goes out to Matthew LeFevre for recording and editing the audio. In addition, a huge thanks to John Olson for filming/editing the video and finding such a magical location to shoot it! And oh yes and to all the birds who sang in “You Got To Run!”

Wishing you all much peace, love, guitars, and a wonderful end of summer!

ben