2nd Classical Minds Festival

By popular demand, we are pleased to offer a week of intensive study of the classical guitar. Under the leadership of faculty members Randall Avers, The Kithara Duo, Marc Garvin, Beau Benson, Valdemar Phoenix and Valérie Hartzell, participants will explore a rich area of repertoire with private lessons, master classes and topical course offerings. Tuition, which is $250, includes all classes, lessons, concerts, master classes, and lunch. If not performing in master classes, tuition is $200. Auditors are welcome to attend starting at 11 am Tuesday through Saturday. The fee is $20 and auditors may attend all afternoon events (bring your guitar if you want to join the Guitar Orchestra Class!).
The goal of this festival is to increase each student's sight-reading abilities, gain ensemble experience through the Guitar Orchestra Class by playing in it, conducting, and practicing in sectionals, and of course, reaching individual goals through the private lessons and/or master classes. Beau Benson will be writing a Concerto for Guitar Orchestra and Duo, the duo part will be played by the Kithara Duo. All parts will be sent out with each student's packet, it is advised that students prepare their parts BEFORE the festival. The festival is open to guitarists of all ages and levels.

Private Classical Guitar lessons will be offered by Randall Avers (advanced students only), Beau Benson, Marc Garvin, Fernand Vera, Olga Amelkina-Vera, and Valerie Hartzell.
Private Flamenco Guitar lessons will be offered by Valdemar Phoenix.
It is possible to take both flamenco and classical guitar lessons throughout the week, make sure to note this on the application.

Master classes:
Anyone interested in participating in master classes must receive approval by sending either a tape or cd with at least 10 minutes of music (both soloists and guitar ensembles are welcome). We encourage intermediate and advanced students to participate. Master classes will be given by Randall Avers, Kithara Duo, and Valerie Hartzell. Beginners may attend the master classes and are free to take private lessons. Students should arrive in May prepared with music scores for their master classes. For more information, please contact Valerie Hartzell at (281) 856-9920 or email her at valeriehartzell@yahoo.com.

Deadline is April 22nd:
Please send tape or cd, along with application, and $15 application fee to:
Alan Austin, Executive Director
Texas Music Festival
2nd “Classical Minds” Guitar Festival
120 School of Music Bldg.
Houston, TX 77204-4017
If not participating in the master classes, please only send in application and $15 fee by April 22nd.
Concert Tickets: $15 for General Public; $10 for students/senior citizens/Guitar Houston; a festival concert package is available for $50 (5 concerts)

Once the application, fee, and cd/tapes are received, each participant will be sent an acceptance package with detail information and Guitar Orchestra Music. FULL tuition must be received by May 15th.

Out of town musicians, welcome! University of Houston, located in downtown Houston, offers on campus housing and meals. Room and board is $200 for 6
nights. Reservations must be made by Friday, April 29th. If interested contact Alan Austin at (713) 743-3167 or tmf@uh.edu.

Faculty and Artist's Bios:

When 17-year old Randall Avers captured second prize in the prestigious Guitar Foundation of America's International Competition in 1991, he became the youngest finalist in the competition's history and earned immediate recognition as one of America's top young guitar players. He has gone on to earn seven additional awards in international competitions including the Guitarists of Leadership and Distinction Competition (G.O.L.D.), the Yamaha Music Competition, and the XXème Concours Internationale de Guitare Rene Bartoli.
Avers has performed in festivals and concerts throughout North America, Europe, Africa and in the Middle East. In 1998, he was selected to be an Artistic Ambassador of the United States and toured North Africa and Egypt teaching, lecturing and performing American Jazz and classical music.
Away from the concert stage, Avers is an instructor, lecturer, arranger and composer. His collection of guitar duos, “Twelve Silly Songs for Twelve Silly Strings”, co-composed with Rami Vamos, has been performed internationally by various artists including the Newman-Oltman Duo. VISTAS, his 1996 solo recording debut, has received praise from both critics and musicians. His second solo recording is due to be released this year.
Avers began his musical studies at age 6. He obtained degrees at the Oberlin Conservatory (BM) and the University of Arizona (MM). Prior to obtaining his MM, Avers attended the Conservatoire Nationale Supériere de Musique et de Danse in Paris, where he became the first American to receive first prizes in both classical guitar and chamber music. He has also studied at the North Carolina School for the Arts, University of Akron, and Walnut Hill School for the Arts affiliated with the New England Conservatory. He is a recipient of the Theodore Presser Award and the Harriet Hale Woolley Scholarship.
Randall Aver's new cd, Puerto Viejo was released in mid-November, 2004. He currently teachers and lives in Oslo, Norway.
"Avers is one of the most impressive arists I came across in the last few years."
-Sergio Assad, Latin Grammy winner
"MAGIC... unusual depth and versatility for a young man in his twenties."
-Tunisia News, Tunisia (1998)

The Kithara Guitar Duo, board members of the Fort Worth Guitar Guild, was formed in 2002. Performances include at the Montgomery College Guitar Festival, the 2nd annual Mesquite Guitar Festival, University of Texas in Brownsville Guitar Ensemble Festival, Fort Worth Guitar Guild, a summer tour of Belarus, a performance of Vivaldi’s “Concerto for two Mandolins” with the Flower Mound Chamber Orchestra, at the "Classical Minds" Guitar Festival at University of Houston, and the duo has colaborated with Col Canto at the First Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Houston. The Duo has performed live on 88.7FM, KUHF twice in 2004 on Dean Dalton's afternoon show, 'The Front Row'.
Fernand Vera and Olga Amelkina-Vera are the Co-Directors of the Texas Music Festival: 2nd 'Classical Minds' Guitar Festival at Moores School of Music, University of Houston.

Olga Amelkina-Vera is a native of Belarus, former republic of the Soviet Union. Having begun her musical studies at an early age on cello and then on piano, she had not discovered classical guitar until 1998, when she came to the United States to do her undergraduate work at the University of St.Thomas in Houston, TX. There, she was the only recipient of the Basilian Fathers full academic scholarship. After starting her classical guitar studies in 1998 with Terry Gaschen at the University of St. Thomas, she also became part of Valerie Hartzell’s private studio. Olga graduated with her Bachelor’s of Arts in Music Summa Cum Laude in 2000 and in 2004 she graduated Summa Cum Laude from the Master’s program in Guitar Performance at the University of North Texas under Tom Johnson, where she was a Teaching Fellow. She has performed in masterclasses for such artists as Ricardo Cobo, Elena Papandreou, Adam Holzman, Antigoni Goni, and Denis Azabagic. In June of 2003, Ms. Amelkina-Vera received a full scholarship and an invitation to be a teaching assistant at the 'Close Encounters: Voice and Guitar Chamber Music Festival' at University of Houston's Moores School of Music. Together with Fernand, she currently is faculty at the Music Conservatory of Texas in Frisco.

Fernand Vera earned his Bachelor’s of Arts in Music degree with Terry Gaschen from the University of St. Thomas in 1998. That year, he was the recipient of the Music Chair’s Performance Award. Upon completion of undergraduate work, Fernand explored the folk guitar tradition of South America during his three-month stay in Ecuador. Upon his return, he studied privately under Valerie Hartzell, a former student of Manuel Barrueco. In 2002, he completed his Master’s of Music degree Summa Cum Laude in Guitar Performance from the University of North Texas School of Music in Denton, where he studied under Tom Johnson. He has performed in masterclasses for well-known artists such as Ricardo Cobo, Antigoni Goni, Denis Azabagic, and Roberto Aussel. He has performed nationally and overseas, launching his European performing career in the summer of 2002, when he played a solo concert for the Gomel Classical Guitar Society in Belarus. Currently, Fernand is faculty at the Music Conservatory of Texas in Frisco and is working on a Doctorate in Guitar Performance at the University of North Texas.

Valdemar Phoenix has worked with many internationally-known flamenco dancers and singers, including Paco del Puerto, Timo Lozano, Tibu La Tormenta, to name but a few.
Between 1991 and 1996 he toured the US and Canada as guitarist with the Houston Ballet, performing in two American Premiers, "Ghost Dances" and "The Cruel Garden."
Val most enjoys composing and arrangement of music for Teatro Flamenco productions. To date, he has produced: Viñetas Flamencas (1991); Gráfico (1994); Nueva España Suite (1994); The Amor Brujo Suite. (1995); Ritmo Azul (2002).
From 1988 - 1996, Val performed and toured with classical guitarist Marc Garvin. In 1992, Val and Marc recorded music of Manuel de Falla, which was released in Marc's album Marc Garvin.
Val has also appeared on stage with a variety of other musicians, including the Sephardic group Alhambra, the Garvin-Snaufer Duo, harpsichordist Will Volker, classical guitarist Maria Cortés, the Indian Dance troupe Anjali, and classical/jazz recording artist Anthony Weller.
Valdemar is also a member of the faculty at the University of Houston-Downtown Music Department, where he teaches guitar music history.
1983 - Present - Musical Director of Gitanerias Flamenco
"An outstanding group ... power and musical authority." - Robert Wilson, Young Jazz Artists Music Camp (2004)
Lucia Rodriguez-Sanchez and Valdemar Phoenix have been performing together with their group Gitanerías Flamenco since 1983. Their work, firmly based in the essence of traditional flamenco, also reflects a contemporary approach to the art.
Lucia y Valdemar have performed at major international festivals, at college campuses, schools, and arts events throughout Texas, where they are based. Their work has also taken them to Alabama, Louisiana, New York, the New England States, Canada, and Washington. They have toured through the Texas Commission on the Arts since 1983 and performed under the sponsorship of Young Audiences. They are also on the touring roster of the Mid America Arts Alliance.
They were the subject of a Houston PBS documentary, and they are the producers of Gráfico, a made-for-TV video production, which was broadcast through Time-Warner. Their CD, Nuestra Sangre Flamenca, has received high acclaim from professional flamencos and aficionados alike. Their second CD is now in production.
Original Works - Lorca! (2004); Ritmo Azul (2002); The Amor Brujo Suite (1995); Nueva España Suite (1994);
Gráfico (1994); Viñetas Flamencas (1991)

Lucia & Valdemar's second CD, currently being recorded. Release Date is early Spring 2005

WATCH FOR THE RELEASE OF RITMO AZUL!

Beau Benson, praised by Guitarra Magazine as being “at the vanguard of up and coming artists” began his study of the guitar at the age of five, learning first from his father. At the age of nine, he began his study of classical music with guitarist and composer Brian Clement-Foreman. Mr. Benson recently completed his Bachelors of Music at the Meadows School of the Arts of Southern Methodist University on scholarship where he studied guitar with Robert Guthrie and conducting with Drs. Jack Delaney and Paul Phillips. He has also studied guitar with many of today’s leading performers and pedagogues, and was awarded a grant by the D’Adarrio Foundation for the Performing Arts to study and perform in Italy during the summer of 2000. Mr. Benson won second place in the 2000 Hubbard Chamber Music Series Solo Competition and was a finalist in the 2002 Stafford International Guitar Recital Competition.
Mr. Benson currently serves as Associate Conductor for the Flower Mound Chamber Orchestra and works as a guest conductor, which recently brought him to the Midwest International Band and Orchestra Convention in Chicago, Illinois. Mr. Benson also enjoys composing for a wide variety of instruments and ensembles. Most recently he has written three guitar concerti, works for solo guitar, chamber music, music for SATB a cappella, a fantasie for solo violin and strings, and a symphony.
As a performer, Mr. Benson maintains a busy concert schedule which includes solo and chamber performances as well as appearances with orchestras such as the North East Texas Symphony, Flower Mound Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra of New Spain, Mesquite Symphony, and the Houston Civic Symphony. He recently appeared at the yearly convention of the American Musicological Society with the Orchestra of New Spain, about which the Houston Chronical noted, “The music bounced along with saucy humor, driven by the baroque guitar.” A number of Mr. Benson’s performances have been broadcast over local and national radio and television, and have garnered praise from both audiences and critics alike. Upcoming engagements include an appearance on Chicago’s Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series, as well as the world premieres of his first orchestral tone poem, Fama, after Vergil’s Aeneid, and his Concerto for guitar and winds.

Marc Garvin has appeared with Cecilia Bartoli and the Houston Grand Opera, the Pittsburgh Symphony Chamber Music Ensemble and in performance with Luciano Pavarotti and the Houston Symphony. He has performed at Washington D.C.'s Kennedy Center and has toured as a soloist and ensemble member throughout Canada and the United States. As a frequent performer with the Houston Ballet, he has performed as a soloist in the American Premier of Christopher Bruce's "Ghost Dances". He is also the recipient of Solo Recitalist and Duo Recitalist Grants from the Texas Commission on the Arts, where he performs throughout the state. As a recording artist, Marc Garvin’s first solo album was released in 1993 to wide praise and critical acclaim.
As a graduate with a degree in music from Carnegie-Mellon University, Marc Garvin has placed a high emphasis on music education. He is an artist on the roster of Young Audiences of America, and was an active teaching artist for the Texas Institute for Arts in Education. As a classical guitar instructor, Mr. Garvin has been on the faculties of Carnegie-Mellon University, San Jacinto Jr. College, Houston Community College and Houston Baptist University. He currently teaches classical guitar students in his private studio. Many of his students have gone on to pursue degrees and careers in the music field.
His course, “Designing Your Future in the Business of Music" has helped many students of music and professional musicians prepare for successful careers in the music field. A large portion of this course is instructive in the area of personal finances for musicians.
Additionally he has lectured widely to music teachers in a course entitled “Power Principles For Achievement In Teaching Music.” This lecture is designed for music teachers to improve their teaching abilities, motivate themselves and their students, and attract new students.
As a part of the Texas Commission on the Arts, Kimberly Snaufer and Marc Garvin have entertained audiences throughout Texas. Some TCA performances include Eagle Pass, Sonora, University of Houston-Clear Lake and Waxahachie.The Snaufer-Garvin duo has been selected for the prestigious Heartland Arts fund. This performance roster provides performance grants to artists in its 15 state touring region throughout the United States.Their widely received CD, "Zero Hour” (Cecilia Productions) is available internationally through the Sylvia Woods Harp catalog.

Valerie Hartzell began her classical guitar studies on a half-size Ramirez at the age of three. At the age of six, she studied with maestro Alexandre Lagoya at the Académie Internationale d’Eté in Nice, France. She has participated in master classes with several internationally acclaimed artists, including Ako Ito, Castellani-Andriaccio Duo, David Russell, and Elena Papandreou.
In 1991, Ms. Hartzell made her debut performing Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s “Concerto for guitar and orchestra” with the New Philharmonic Orchestra of Irving, Texas. She made her international debut in San Mamete, Italy at the Festival del Piccolo Mondo in August 1994. She has performed in Europe, Canada, the U.S. and has appeared on television in Nice, FR. In August 2003, Ms. Hartzell was the first performer to win the “K-Artist of the Month Contest” sponsored by Houston’s former classical station, KRTS, 92.1FM. Additionally, she received 2^nd prize at the Portland Guitar Competition, 1^st prize at the 10^th International Guitar Competition “Simone Salmaso” in Viareggio, Italy and 1^st prize at the Concours de Guitare Classique Heitor Villa-Lobos in Nice, France.At the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University, Ms. Hartzell was awarded the highest undergraduate scholarship for the classical guitar and studied with Manuel Barrueco earning her Bachelor’s Degree in 1997. She was awarded a Graduate Teaching Fellowship at Radford University with Robert Trent and was placed as Adjunct Faculty while studying for her Master’s Degree in Music. She received her performance degree in May of 1999 and currently, she is a Professional Teacher at Moores School of Music, University of Houston and is Adjunct Faculty at the Houston Community College.
Valerie Hartzell is the creator and Director of Texas Music Festival's "Classical Minds" Guitar Festival at Moores School of Music, University of Houston.

Gabriel DeHoyos (b. 1981) is a native of Houston, TX, where he began his jazz guitar studies at the age of fourteen as a member of the award winning Mac Arthur High School jazz ensemble. Soon, he became part of Mike Wheeler’s private studio, while continuing his studies at the University of Houston’s Moores School of Music. In 2001, at the suggestion of his teacher, Gabriel transferred to the University of North Texas School of Music, where his interest in classical guitar repertoire lead him to major in Classical Guitar Performance under Thomas Johnson. Gabriel has also studied privately with Valerie Hartzell, Matteo Mela, and Mitchell Weverka. He has performed in master classes for such international artist as Dimitri Illarionov, Timo Korhonen, and with Randall Avers at the 2004 'Classical Minds' Guitar Festival. Currently, Gabriel is completing his Bachelor’s of Music degree and maintaining an active teaching, competing, and performing schedule in the North Texas area.

LINKS:
Randall Avers
Valerie Hartzell
worldguitarist
guitarhouston
Naxos
GFA
Texas Music Festival
Guitarra Magazine
Valdemar
Garvin