European Guitar Teachers Association
Background
The European Guitar Teachers Association was founded in 1990 following preliminary meetings instigated by Gordon Crosskey, professor of guitar at Manchester’s Royal Northern College of Music. John Williams has been its Honorary President since that time.
Its original stated aims were to improve the standard of guitar teaching, to raise the status of the instrument within the musical mainstream and to widen interest in guitar playing.
Much has already been done to achieve these aims and EGTA today acts above all as a resource and a discussion place for guitarists concerned with developing themselves as teachers, and their pupils as players.
National Youth Guitar Ensemble
EGTA founded the National Youth Guitar Ensemble. As the years roll on NYGE has become an established and respected source of the best guitar ensemble training available. Its annual courses culminate in large concerts across the UK.
Easter Course 2008, sponsored by Hiscox Cases and the Bristol Spanish Guitar Centre
Our Easter course will run at Quorn Hall, Leicestershire, from 20th - 25th March ( across Easter ) culminating with a concert at the Bolivar Hall in London. See Below for further details.
The Achievements of EGTA
Publications
EGTA has increasingly used its resources to enable projects to be born, to develop and to flourish.
The EGTA Series published by Chanterelle/Mel Bay, including the One + One and Solo Now books, along with The Baroque Book and Classical Book, is an early example of EGTAs vision. All the books have become extremely popular and are used internationally, not least as set pieces in the syllabuses of the leading examination boards.
Latterly our own journal, Guitar Forum, has developed into the first and only scholarly publication in English devoted to the guitar, and its international acclaim is growing. Guitar Forum grew out of EGTA’s Guitar Journal, and the articles first published there are gradually being made available on line at www.egtaguitarforum.org, attracting thousands of visits each month.
A Common Approach: National Curriculum - EGTA members were substantially involved in the development of A Common Approach, the national curriculum project for instrumental and vocal teaching published by the Federation of Music Services and the National Association of Music Educators. This document is being widely endorsed as an essential reference book for those teaching the classical guitar in schools today.
Member Participation
EGTA is administered by a national committee which also organizes the annual conference. Notable visitors in recent years have included Julian Bream and Graham Wade. Members are kept abreast of news and events, and are encouraged to become actively involved within the Association. All members can submit proposals to the committee for consideration to run local meetings, concerts and seminars under the EGTA banner.
The National Youth Guitar Ensemble (NYGE) 2008 are very grateful for the support offered to them this year by:
The Bristol Spanish Guitar Centre
and
Hiscox Guitar Cases
Bolívar Hall, Embassy of Venezuela,
58 Grafton Way
London W1P 5DL
Tuesday 25th March, 7.30pm
NATIONAL YOUTH GUITAR ENSEMBLE
musical director: Gerald Garcia
Laura Snowden and Tom Ellis (solo guitars)
The National Youth Guitar Ensemble, under musical director Gerald Garcia, make their annual visit to the Bolívar Hall on Easter Tuesday. This year they are joined by two of the UK’s most outstanding young guitarists, Laura Snowden and Tom Ellis, both pupils at the Yehudi Menuhin School. Laura and Tom are the soloists in the first London performance of Gerald Garcia’s Chinese Riffs for two guitars and guitar ensemble and will also play solos by Bach and duets by Carulli and Leo Brouwer.
PROGRAMME
John Dowland
Three Dances Mr. George Whitehead his Almand
M. John Langton’s Pavan
Sir John Souch his Galiard
J. S. Bach
Gavottes I and II (BWV 995) (Laura Snowden)
Ferdinando Carulli
Nocturne Op. 143 No.2 Allegro
Largo
Presto
(Laura Snowden and Tom Ellis)
Colin Tommis
y Felinheli
Note on y Felinheli by Colin Tommis:
y Felinheli is the name of a village in North Wales, on the banks of the Menai Straits. It has a strong traditional Welsh side to it, with many native speakers there – but it also has a Marina and modest housing to rent; the result is that y Felinheli has become a cosmopolitan hub of locals, sailors, young professionals and students. So this ensemble piece reflects this in several ways: the repeated 1st note motif mirrors the Welsh language’s tendency to place emphasis on the penultimate syllable of a word, and the dialogue from one section of the ensemble to another, and from soloists to larger forces, also echoes the interplay of peoples in this charming place. y Felinheli was started when I actually lived in the village, and completed when I fell in love with a girl from there. The love story had a sadder ending than the piece does!
Gerald Garcia
Chinese Riffs Flowers/Drums
Summer
Mother
(soloists: Laura Snowden and Tom Ellis)
Note on Chinese riffs by Gerald Garcia:
The composition "Chinese Riffs" began life as a piece written for the MFO and Danielle Saxon Reeves as a response to their request for more repertoire, possibly with an Eastern feel.
After hearing the group at a rehearsal in late 2006, I was strongly reminded of the sound of a traditional Chinese orchestra, which often consists of many plucked and struck instruments, with the odd shrill flute and reed wind instruments on the top line. The main plucked instruments are the pipa, a kind of lute and the chin, a type of zither, both of which play tremolo melodies and rich chordal accompaniments.
The piece was written in reverse, starting with the tune "Mother" a traditional song from Shanghai, but here with a "Country and Eastern" feel, inspired by the sound of the banjo.
"The Embroidered Purse" was the original second movement - for "Chinese Riffs", it has been replaced by my own arrangement of a piece called "Summer", which has been totally recomposed as a movement with a cadenza punctuating the simple pentatonic melody.
Finally, I finished the first piece of the set - "Flowers, Drums" - a dance based on a piece from from Fengyang, which is a picture postcard of festivities bringing in the spring with lots of noise and fireworks!
INTERVAL (10 minutes)
J. S. Bach
Bourrées I and II (BWV 1010) (Tom Ellis)
Leo Brouwer
Micropiezas (Laura Snowden and Tom Ellis)
Alfonso Montes
Tepuyes
Richard Wright
El Día de San Juan
Note by Richard Wright:
El Día de San Juan is a linked setting of two traditional Venezuelan songs:
San Juan se va, an old processional tune whose 10-bar melody appears here, initially, as a set of five variations, and Dormite mi niño, a popular lullaby. It was written for a large group of young beginners and their teachers to play as part of a children’s concert at the 1999 Festival de Agosto in Caracas and later adapted for use by other guitar ensembles.
It is the feast of St John. Outside the church, irritated by the heat and the gathering crowd, a small boy stands next to his mother, waiting for the procession to come. He can hear it approaching now, chanting voices and a solitary drum accompanied by the random tolling of distant bells.
Suddenly the church bells high above his head explode in a jarring cascade of sound. Startled and overwhelmed, he bursts into tears. His mother picks him up and carries him into the church to calm him down. It’s no good though; he can still hear the bells. Let’s go home, she says.
Outside again. The music reaches a final climax and the procession comes to a halt, but there’s no escape: the banging and clanging echo inside his head all the way home. By now he’s exhausted. Time for bed and a lullaby.
Astor Piazzolla
Adios Noniño
Tickets: £10 (concessions £5)
Reservations: 020 8661 7457