The 2007 Guitar Foundation of America convention and competition at CSU in Dominguez Hills, California near Los Angeles exceeded my expectations in every way. Convention Director Dr. Scott Morris did an incredible job of coordinating concert artists, workshops, an expansive vendor fair, hotel accommodations, and transportation not to mention the major classic guitar competition in North America. Described by some as "guitar heaven," the talent pool in guitar performance and luthiery couldn't have been more elevated anywhere else on earth.
GFA president Brian Head welcomes French composer/guitarist Roland Dyens, who was commissioned to write the 2007 competition set piece, Anyway.
Roland addresses the audience at his October 19 concert. As it was his birthday, he was serenaded as he walked on stage; Roland then appropriately began his performance with an improvised theme and variations of "Happy Birthday."
As with any event of this nature, my 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. obligation to man the Mel Bay sales booth at the vendors' fair limits the amount of time I can spend participating in the various convention activities. As a classic guitarist myself, I really can't spend much time thinking about what I'm missing at this event as I would wither and die. Basically, I got to see about half of the 4 p.m. recitals plus all of the evening performances.
The Mel Bay Publications booth at the 2007 GFA Vendor Fair.
GFA Vendor Fair/Luthier Slide Show:
A group of rosettes from Russia, available at the GFA Vendor Fair.
During the course of the weeklong event it took two attempts to even walk down all the isles at the vendor fair and I reached the back of the room only once! Business was usually so brisk that I couldn't leave the booth without losing sales. In reality, my overall social and sale experience at the fair depended on who approached me rather than on those I could approach myself, so I am sincerely grateful to those who made purchases and took the time to say hello at the Mel Bay booth.
Several Mel Bay authors attended, performed, or presented workshops in the 2007 GFA event including: Ben Bolt, Keith Calmes, Glen Caluda, Carlos Castilla, GFA founding member Thomas Heck, Bill Kanengiser (and other members of the LAGQ) plus Frank Koonce, Martha Masters, Joseph Mayes, flamenco player Guillermo Rios, and Andrew York.
Ben Bolt- Mel Bay author and originator of the book/cassette format (now book/CD) used worldwide, with composer/guitarist Wulfin Lieske of Germany.
Japanese composer/guitarist/lutenist Shingo Fujii. His work for solo guitar and guitar ensemble, Concerto de Los Angeles, was performed by Bill Kanengiser with the 2007 GFA Guitar Ensemble- with Fujii himself conducting.
Scott Morris, Elina Chekan, Austin Moorhead, and Benjamin Verdery- all Yale graduates.
Composer/guitarist/artist Andrew York stopped by for a visit.
Aside from the usual classical guitar luminaries, I was delighted to meet fingerstyle guitarist Alex de Grassi at the GFA conference. Alex has an intense interest in the classic guitar and its literature, knows many players in the classic guitar community, and is preparing a performance of one of the Rodrigo guitar concertos- on steel strings no less!
At the GFA convention, I got the wild idea of photographing the right hands of many leading players to illustrate current ideas about fingernail shape. See if you can guess which nails pertain to de Grassi:
Guitarist Right-Hand Slide Show
In addition to the International Competition there were special categories for young competitors 15-18 and 11-14. Many of these young guitarists play better than I did when I went to Spain, and some are better than I was when I returned ten years later. I can only justify my continued participation in the classic guitar world with my original compositions and arrangements, interpretive ideas and musical maturity. The kids have the mechanics down cold and can play rings around me; they just need to add dynamic changes, maintain an awareness of tone, and add a personal touch of empathy.
Jorge Caballero takes a well-deserved bow after rendering The New World Symphony as a guitar solo.
Marc Teicholz, past GFA Competition winner and a judge in this year's competition, turned in a solid performance in his October 20 recital.
I also heard some unbelievably talented professionals doing the next to impossible. Jorge Caballero played Kazuhito Yamashita's arrangement of Dvo?ák's "New World Symphony" as a guitar solo, rendering every major orchestral part in the four-movement work from memory. Yamashita had to invent new right-hand techniques to render the work effectively. You can see the YouTube video of Jorge Caballero playing Yamashita's solo guitar arrangement of this work at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaMrXpevb4I
By contrast, another featured artist played all twelve Villa-Lobos etudes back to back, fast and loud with no pause for a breath or applause in between. I can understand the desire to discourage applause between movements on the basis of not breaking the continuity of artistic thought, but it was bruising to the spirit as knowledgeable friends had predicted. The music desperately needed a breath between studies. I found myself wanting to "breathe for the patient" as I had experienced while working as a hospital orderly years ago.
The guitarist redeemed himself in his three encores. Obviously, a good part of the crowd liked his performance. He ended with a piece called "El Colibri"- The Hummingbird, at a speed that bordered on going out of control, but that was the exciting thing about it. Could he play at breakneck speed for a sustained period without losing it, and make funny faces at the audience at the same time? He succeeded but the outcome was not necessarily musical.
Soccer fans competed with guitarists for parking space the night the LA Galaxy played.
Another view of Galaxy Stadium.
Next door to Cal State University is the soccer stadium where the LA Galaxy plays. Carlos Castilla, a Guitar Sessions author from Colombia, skipped the evening GFA concert and went to the soccer game instead. He said it was "fake soccer" because the players tipsy-toed around each other so as not to touch one another. He described girls with full-size pictures of a half-naked Beckham shouting, "David, marry me!"
At the GFA vendors' fair I barely had time to photograph and invite luthiers to participate in Guitar Sessions; in fact, I made it to the back of the ballroom just once after two attempts. Fortunately, some of the fairs attractions and convention attendees came to me at the Mel Bay booth. There I photographed the spokes-model ladies of Trilogy Guitars (Trilogy reps called them "translators") who passed out invitations to the tailgate party which featured free hot dogs, hamburgers and veggie burgers.
The spokesmodel/"translators" of Trilogy Guitars attracted a lot of attention as they strolled about the vendor fair passing out bottled water and invitations to breakfast or a barbeque supper at the Trilogy motor home.
Despite the absence of the spokesmodels, the Trilogy Guitars barbeque was a huge success.
I heard one of the girls freely admit, "I don't know anything about guitars. I was just hired for the day to pass out these invitations and bottled water" with the trilogy label and web address. I was disappointed not to see the spokes-models at the tailgate party, but then, I expect they only eat fruit and veggies and drink bottled water anyway. In addition to student model classical guitars, Trilogy sells high-end acoustic guitars. trilogyguitars.com
This year for the first time, thanks to Scott Morris's brilliant scheduling, I got to hear the GFA competition finalists perform. These guys can't be older than their early or mid 20s and they are practically virtuosos with a staggering amount of technique at their command. One of the finalists broke his thumbnail during his performance but fortunately had some repair materials in his guitar case. He was allowed to exit gracefully to make the repair, but ultimately got called for exceeding the time limit of 25 minutes and got 4th place.
The 2007 GFA Awards Ceremony
Convention Director Dr. Scott Morris awaits his turn to greet the audience at the 2007 GFA awards ceremony.
I would be remiss if I did not report on the honor given to five members of the GFA Board Emeritus: Peter Danner, Gunnar Eisel, Jim Forest, David Grimes, and Thomas Heck. Although some have retired from their careers in guitar education, all remain active as teachers and/or authors. In accepting awards commemorating their service to the GFA, I was impressed with their humility and a sense of humanity that went far beyond the realm of music.
Gateway to the famed Santa Monica Pier. Constructed in 1909 to allow visitors the novel experience of walking over the ocean waves, the pier is open and free to the public 365 days a year.
A view of some of the attractions on Santa Monica Pier.
It was a full week but I had five hours to kill on Monday morning so I checked my bag at the airport and then took a city bus down to Santa Monica Pier, the terminus of Route 66 which passes through Mel Bay's home base of Pacific, Missouri. The pier was just as I remembered it, except the walk to the older downtown area where I lived seemed longer than it was in 1996.
Smoke from the wildfire in Malibu as seen from Santa Monica Pier.
Another view of the expansive Santa Monica Pier. On the pier near the Ferris wheel are a rollercoaster and the vintage carousel that appeared in the film, The Sting.
From the pier, I saw the smoke from the brush fires in Malibu. Unless taken from a satellite, a single still photo couldn't possibly reveal the scope of this fire as the smoke plume went for miles out to sea. On the way to and from the airport a noticeable pall of smoke hung in the air, but like the rest of the world, those of us at the GFA event were only aware of the wildfires through TV coverage.
A lucky shot of a Pacific gull. When I lowered my digital camera it had already flown.
High-rise dwellings of Santa Monica as seen from the observation deck of the pier.
Are you ready for next year's GFA gathering in August? Guitarists, rev up your metronomes and get ready to leave your hearts in San Francisco!
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