For Tickets and More: sfperformances.org | 415.392.2545 | 1

present…

JASON VIEAUX | GuitarJULIEN LABRO | Bandoneon

Friday, October 20, 2017 | 7:30pmHerbst Theatre

PÄRT Fratres (arr. Labro) GNATTALI Suite Retratos (arr. Labro) 1. Pixinguinha (Choro) 2. Ernesto Nazareth (Valse) METHENY Antonia (arr. Vieaux) PIAZZOLLA Escualo (arr. Labro/Vieaux)

INTERMISSION

BALKANSKI Prelude and Scherzo

GNATTALI Suite Retratos (arr. Labro) 3. Anacleto de Madeiros (Schottisch) 4. Chiquinha Gonzaga (Corta Jaca)

Jason Vieaux & Julien Labro are represented by Jonathan Wentworth Associates Ltd., 5501 45th Ave. #208Hyattsville, MD 20781 Jwentworth.com

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ARTIST PROFILES

Tonight is the San Francisco Performances de-but of Jason Vieaux and Julien Labro.

Grammy-winner Jason Vieaux, “among the elite of today’s classical guitarists” (Gramophone), is the guitarist that goes be-yond the classical. NPR describes Vieaux as, “perhaps the most precise and soulful classical guitarist of his generation.” His most recent solo album, Play, won the 2015 Grammy Award for Best Classical Instru-mental Solo.

Vieaux has earned a reputation for put-ting his expressiveness and virtuosity at the service of a remarkably wide range of music, and his schedule of performing, teaching, and recording commitments is distinguished throughout the U.S. and abroad. Recent and future highlights include performances at the Caramoor Festival, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, New York’s 92Y, Ravinia Festival, Chamber Mu-sic Society of Lincoln Center, Bard Music Festival, Music@Menlo, Strings Music Fes-tival, and Grand Teton.

A first-rate chamber musician and pro-grammer, he frequently collaborates with artists such as the Escher Quartet, harp-ist Yolanda Kondonassis, and accordion/bandoneón virtuoso Julien Labro. Vieaux’s passion for new music has fostered pre-mieres of works by Avner Dorman, Dan Visconti, Vivian Fung, Keith Fitch, Eric Sessler, Jeff Beal, Gary Schocker and many more. He has performed as concerto solo-

ist with nearly 100 orchestras, including Cleveland, California, Houston, Toronto, San Diego, Fort Worth, and Buffalo.

Vieaux continues to bring important repertoire alive in the recording studio as well. His latest album, Infusion with ban-doneonist Julien Labro, was released in Oc-tober 2016 on Azica Records and features Vieaux and Labro in their own arrange-ments of works by Leo Brouwer, Piazzolla, Gnattali, Metheny, and iconic 1980s rock band Tears for Fears. Vieaux recently re-corded Alberto Ginastera’s Sonata for Guitar Op. 47 for a Ginastera Centennial album produced by Yolanda Kondonas-sis, which was released in October 2016 on Oberlin Music. His duo album Together, with harpist Yolanda Kondonassis, was re-leased in January 2015. In addition to his Grammy-winning 2015 solo release Play, his previous albums include a recording of Astor Piazzolla’s music with Julien Labro and A Far Cry Chamber Orchestra, Bach: Works for Lute, Vol. 1, Images of Metheny, and Sevilla: The Music of Isaac Albeniz. Vieaux was the first classical musician to be fea-tured on NPR’s popular Tiny Desk series.

In 2012, the Jason Vieaux School of Clas-sical Guitar was launched with Artist-Works Inc., a technological interface that provides one-on-one online study with Vieaux for guitar students around the world. In 2011, he co-founded the guitar department at The Curtis Institute of Mu-sic, and in 2015 was invited to inaugurate the guitar program at the Eastern Music Festival. Vieaux has taught at the Cleve-land Institute of Music since 1997, heading the guitar department since 2001.

Vieaux is affiliated with Philadelphia’s As-tral Artists. In 1992 he was awarded the pres-tigious GFA International Guitar Competi-tion First Prize, the event’s youngest winner ever. He is also honored with a Naumburg Foundation top prize, a Cleveland Institute of Music Alumni Achievement Award, and a Salon di Virtuosi Career Grant.

Vieaux plays a 2013 Gernot Wagner gui-tar with Augustine strings. For more infor-mation, visit jasonvieaux.com.

Heralded as “the next accordion star” by Howard Reich of the Chicago Tribune, Julien Labro has established himself as one of the foremost accordion and bandoneón play-ers in both the classical and jazz genres. Deemed to be “a triple threat: brilliant tech-nician, poetic melodist and cunning ar-ranger,” his artistry, virtuosity, and creativ-ity as a musician, composer and arranger have earned him international acclaim and continue to astonish audiences worldwide.

French-born Labro was influenced early on by traditional folk music and the me-lodic, lyrical quality of the French chan-son. Upon discovering the music of jazz legends, he quickly became inspired by the originality, freedom, creativity, and the endless possibilities in their musical language. After graduating from the Mar-seille Conservatory of Music, Labro began winning international awards including the Coupe Mondiale, the Castelfidardo Competitions, and many others. In 1998, Labro moved to the United States, where he further pursued his musical dream. Equipped with advanced degrees in clas-sical music, jazz studies, and composition, Labro draws from his diverse academic background and eclectic musical influ-ences as he searches for new themes and untried concepts, transforming and devel-oping his creative ideas into new projects.

Labro has collaborated with numerous professional symphonies and chamber en-sembles, often playing the dual roles of solo artist as well as composer/arranger. These include the conductorless Boston-based chamber orchestra, A Far Cry, Spektral Quartet, Ensemble Vivant of Toronto, and Curtis On Tour from the Curtis Institute of Music faculty of Philadelphia. He has been a guest artist with numerous symphonies and chamber ensembles such as the De-troit Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the Arkansas Symphony, the Grand Rapids Symphony, the Cape Cod Sympho-ny, the Cleveland Pops Orchestra, the Leb-anese Philharmonic Orchestra, the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra and many more.

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415-242-4500 omniconcerts.com236 West Portal Ave. #1, San Francisco, CA 94127

The Omni Foundation Guitar Series is made possible in part by generous grants from the D’Addario MusicFoundation and Grants for the Arts/S.F. Hotel Tax Fund.

YAMANDU COSTAOctober 18, 2017 7:30 pm Herbst Theatre

JASON VIEAUX – guitar JULIEN LABRO – bandoneon October 20, 2017 7:30 pm Herbst Theatre *

IRINA KULIKOVANovember 11, 2017 7:30 pm

St. Mark’s Lutheran Church *

ALVARO PIERRIDecember 1, 2017 7:30 pm Herbst Theatre *

LEO KOTTKEFebruary 2, 2018 7:30 pm Herbst Theatre

ELIOT FISK andANGEL ROMEROMarch 10, 2018 7:30 pm Herbst Theatre * * In association with San Francisco Performances

Alvaro Pierri

Yamandu Costa Shin-ichi FukudaEliot Fisk Badi Assad Andrea De Vitis

GRISHA GORYACHEV& ANDREA DE VITIS

D’ADDARIO PERFORMANCE SERIESMarch 24, 2018 7:30 pm

Green Room

SHIN-ICHI FUKUDAApril 7, 2018 7:30 pm

St. Mark’s Lutheran Church

DYNAMITE GUITARS2nd Edition

April 21, 2018 7:30 pm

Herbst Theatre

PAUL O’DETTEApril 28, 2018 7:30 pm

St. Mark’s Lutheran Church *

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Labro’s musical journey has taken him all across North America, Europe, the Middle East and South America. He has performed and collaborated with groups and artists such as Hot Club of Detroit, Brazilian pianist João Donato, Argentin-ean Grammy winning composer and pia-nist Fernando Otero, vocalist Cassandra Wilson, clarinetist Anat Cohen, Lebanese oud master Marcel Khalife, saxophonists Miguel Zenón, James Carter, and Jon Ira-bagon, composers Du Yun and Avner Dor-man, and guitarists Larry Coryell, Frank Vignola, Tommy Emmanuel, and John and Bucky Pizzarelli.

After a busy summer performing all across the U.S. at several classical and jazz festivals including the Newport Jazz Festi-val, Labro will open the 2017 season with a two-week tour in Finland with guitarist Olli Soikkeli, presenting music from their new release Rise & Grin. In October, Labro will reconnect with Jason Vieaux to perform in several cities across the country. Other highlights of the season include Labro’s debut at the prestigious Gilmore Keyboard Festival, where he will be performing clas-sical and jazz concerts with the Julien Labro Quartet, and a performance with the San Angelo Symphony. In his free time, Labro is working on composing a new bandoneón concerto that will be a sequel to his accor-dion concerto Apricity. To learn more about Labro, visit julienlabro.com.

PROGRAM NOTES

Fratres

ARVO PÄRTBorn September 11, 1935, Paide, Estonia

The Estonian composer Arvo Pärt has written a body of music that is frequent-ly performed and immensely popular throughout the world. Pärt wrote Fratres af-ter his conversion to the Russian Orthodox Church and an intense study of medieval

plainchant and polyphony. The work uses simple harmonies and rhythms to create a serene, spiritual background, which is com-plicated by dissonant augmented intervals in the melodic line and outbursts of rapid and virtuosic writing. The challenge for the performers is to always maintain the medi-tative core of the work. Originally composed for violin and piano it has subsequently been arranged for many different ensembles. Ju-lien Labro arranged the version for guitar and bandoneon heard this evening.

Suite Retratos

RADAMÉS GNATTALIBorn January 27, 1906, Porto AlegreDied February 3, 1988, Rio de Janeiro

Radamés Gnattali was a Brazilian com-poser who successfully combined both popular and classical elements in his com-positions. Suite Retratos has four move-ments based on popular styles associated with and named after Brazilian compos-ers from the past. The first movement is a choro entitled Pixinguinha; it is followed by a waltz, Ernesto Nazareth and a Schottisch dance, Anacleto de Medeiros. The suite ends with a corta jaca dance, Chiquinha Gonzaga. Tonight, two movements of Suite Retratos are played in each half of the program.

Antonia

PAT METHENY Born August 12, 1954, Lee’s Summit, MO

Pat Metheny is a best-selling American jazz guitarist and composer whose influ-ences include classic and progressive jazz, the music of Latin America, Joni Mitchell, Buckethead and classical composer Steve Reich. Antonia is a modified tango written for Metheny’s album Secret Story and fea-tures the accordion as lead instrument.

Escualo

ASTOR PIAZZOLLABorn March 11, 1921, Mar del PlataDied July 4, 1992, Buenos Aires

By nationality Astor Piazzolla was Ar-gentine. All four of his grandparents were Italian immigrants and he was something of an uprooted migrant himself. Raised in New York he lived at various times in Argentina, Rome and Paris. He studied composition in Paris with Nadia Bou-langer and made his career as a composer and performer inspired by the traditional Argentine tango. Like flamenco and the blues, tango developed as the voice of a disadvantaged social group. A product of the musical tango culture of Buenos Ai-res, Piazzolla used the influences of 19th century opera, jazz and 20th Century clas-sical composers to create a more urgent, passionate extension of the genre, his own contemporary chamber music. He liked to quote Tolstoy who said, “tell the story of your village and you tell the story of the world.” Piazzolla remained true to his roots, but he told his story so skillfully that musicians and audiences throughout the world have discovered him. Escualo (Shark), composed in 1979 for the famous tango violinist Fernando Suarez Paz, re-fers to shark fishing, Piazzolla’s favor-ite pastime. This work is one of the most rhythmically challenging among Piazzol-la’s compositions, and is famously known as the most difficult to perform.

Prelude and Scherzo

ROSSEN BALKANSKI Born March 15, 1968, Sofia

Rossen Balkanski is a Bulgarian com-poser of works for orchestra, chorus, chamber ensembles and guitar that have received international acclaim. The Pre-lude and Scherzo was originally written for guitar and piano and has been arranged for guitar and bandoneon by Julien Labro and Jason Vieaux.

—Program Notes by Scott Cmiel