The Village Trip GuitarFest:
Ah, Let’s go Back to the Village

Composers

Klaus Ager is an Austrian composer and conductor. Born in Salzburg, he studied piano, composition and conducting at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, and musicology at Salzburg University. He continued his studies in composition with Pierre Schaeffer and Olivier Messiaen at the Paris Conservatoire. From 1975 to 1986, he directed the Österreichische Ensemble für Neue Musik, and from 1995 to 2000 he was rector of the Mozarteum Hochschule in Salzburg. Beginning in 2000, Klaus dedicated himself to working as a guest composer and lecturer in South and North America, and to campaigning throughout Europe for an improved standing for composers. From 2006 to 2014, he was chairman of the European Composers' Forum (ECF) in Brussels.

Reyes Oteo is an electronic luthier and composer, author of more than 70 works. She has taught as Head of Composition and Instrumentation at the Music Conservatories of Cordoba and Malaga, and as the director of the Contemporary Music Workshop. She has invented and developed a number of edge-cutting interactive instruments and the KittKittPEOW!!!! cyborg project. Reyes has had pieces commissioned for performances in auditoriums and festivals such as the Fonoteca Nacional México, CUNY, Roulette, Audiotheque Miami, Museo Nacional Reina Sofía, Contemporary Music Festival of Cordoba, Campus Estellae Festival, Guggenheim Museum, RadicaldB Etopia and the Sibelius Academy Centre in Helsinki.

Guitarist/composer Daniel Akiva was born in Haifa in 1953, a son of a Sephardic Israeli family of many generations. He graduated from the Robin Music Academy in Jerusalem and earned the Guitar Artist Certificate. Daniel plays the guitar and lute and is a prominent arranger in the Sephardic Jewish music arena. He composes original works that draw upon Sephardic Jewish musical traditions.

Frank J. Oteri has been a crusader for new compositional ideas and the breaking down of barriers both in his own music and as a writer and speaker about the music of others. His musical compositions, which reconcile structural concepts from minimalism and serialism and frequently explore microtonality, have been performed in venues ranging from Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall and the St. Petersburg Conservatory Hall in Russia to Pittsburgh’s Andy Warhol Museum and the PONCHO Concert Hall in Seattle where John Cage first prepared a piano.

Mark Delpriora has enjoyed a tripartite career. As a composer his works have been published by Editions Orphee, Bèrben, Les Productions 'D'oz and Mel Bay. As a performer, Mark’s New York debut was praised by the New York Times: "The first notes of Mark Delpriora's guitar recital established him as a musician of authority. In a little Mozart transcription by Julian Bream, he showed a rare feeling for the specific gravity of a Mozartean phrase, for the inevitability of its rise and fall. Delpriora is a guitarist to be reckoned with." Mark serves as a faculty member at the Manhattan School of Music and the Undergraduate Department and Extension Division at Juilliard.

Performers

Sheer Pluck Guitar Orchestra brings together guitarists from all over the New York City metropolitan area. Sheer Pluck was featured on WNYC’s New Sounds Live, hosted by John Schaefer at the Wintergarden for the premiere of David Lang’s “Interview”. Last March, the group performed at the Museo del Barrio, guests of the Riverside Symphony. That occasion was very likely the only time, ever, that a guitar orchestra was hosted by an established symphony orchestra. The Orchestra has given several sold-out performances at Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall, and a performance at the Morgan Library connecting with an exhibit about Ernest Hemingway between the wars. It was founded in the early 21st century by guitarist, composer and arranger William Anderson, who often conducts the group.

Soprano Theresia Bothe and guitarist Yvonne Zehner together look for the core of the musical content of a song. Their personal arrangements reflect a vivid interpretation and an original way of approaching each piece of music. They believe in engaging the audience in this way, heightening their perception of the emotions and profound feelings expressed in this music. They owe the elaboration of this method to the joyful atmosphere, sensations and moments related physically to the Mediterranean. Time spent together there has inspired the creation of this program in which classical and traditional music interact in free and expressive ways.

Guitarist Michael Vascones was born in 1998 in Queens, New York. Inspired by watching his father play, he started guitar at the age of twelve and began his undergraduate studies at the Juilliard School in 2016, studying under Sharon Isbin. Michael is currently pursuing his graduate degree at Manhattan School of Music as a student of Mark Delpriora. He has won first prize in numerous competitions, most recently he took the National Federation of Music Clubs Classical Guitar Award.

Guitarist Daniel Lippel, called an “exciting soloist” (New York Times), “precise and sensitive” (Boston Globe), and a “formidable guitarist” (Chicago Magazine), enjoys a career ranging through solo and chamber performances and recordings to collaborations in diverse contexts. He has been the guitarist for the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) since 2005. His appearances include the Macau Music Festival (China), Teatro Amazonas (Brazil), Ojai Festival, Acht Brücken Festival (Germany), and the Mostly Mozart Festival (New York). Lippel is co-founder and Director of New Focus Recordings, and has also recorded for Bridge, Kairos, Wergo, Innova, and Tzadik. DMA from MSM, under David Starobin’s guidance.