Virtuoso guitarist Sharon Isbin plays at Fairfield University's Quick Center for the Arts

Virtuoso guitarist Sharon Isbin plays at Fairfield University's Quick Center for the Arts

"Her instrument speaks with a thousand colors…positively hypnotic." Chicago Tribune

The Grammy Award-winning classical guitarist Sharon Isbin is acclaimed worldwide for her extraordinary lyricism, technique and versatility. She has given sold-out performances throughout the world in the greatest halls including New York's Carnegie and Avery Fisher Halls. On Friday, Jan. 30 at 8:00 p.m., Isbin will take the stage at Fairfield University's Quick Center for the Arts to play a solo recital. Journalist Robert Sherman will hold a pre-concert Art to Heart discussion from 7:00 to 7:40 p.m.

Isbin has been hailed as "the pre-eminent guitarist of our time" and her catalogue of more than 25 recordings - from Baroque, Spanish/Latin and 20th Century to crossover and jazz-fusion - reflects a remarkable versatility.

The program Isbin has planned for the Quick Center supports the acclaim she has received over the years while demonstrating the high regard in which composers hold her. Her performance includes several works written especially for her: Leo Brouwer's "The Black Decameron" (1981); John Duarte's "Joan Baez Suite, Opus 144 (2002); Tan Dun's (Oscar-winning composer of the film score for Ang Lee's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon") "Seven Desires for Guitar" (2000). In addition, she includes Brazilian music that depicts native legends and musical influences from the Amazon, Spanish dances as well as Spanish music indigenous to various regions of Spain and ballads inspired by African love tales, which incorporate colorful and evocative Afro-Cuban rhythms.

Isbin has broken ground many times in her formidable career: She was the first guitarist ever to win the Munich Competition; her Billboard Top 10 Classical disc with the New York Philharmonic marks the first time the Philharmonic ever recorded with a guitar and follows their Avery Fisher Hall performances of June 2004 with Isbin as the Philharmonic's first guitar soloist in 26 years; she is Director of guitar departments at the Aspen Music Festival and Juilliard School, where she created the department and became the first and only guitar instructor in the institution's 100-year history.

Isbin began studying guitar at the age of nine while living with her family in Italy. She later studied with Andrès Segovia and Oscar Ghiglia. She has been acclaimed for expanding the guitar repertoire with some of the finest new works of the century. She has commissioned and premiered more concerti than any other guitarist, as well as numerous solo and chamber works.

Tickets are $35 and are available online at fairfield.edu/quick or by calling the Box Office at (203) 254-4010. The toll free number is 1-877-ARTS-396. For more information, visit the website at fairfield.edu/quick .

Posted On: 01-08-2009 10:01 AM

Volume: 41 Number: 177