VCM Presents: 10th Annual International Guitar Night

Sunday, November 8, 2009, 8:00 pm
VCM Presents: 10th Annual International Guitar Night
Lulo Reinhardt, Itamar Erez, Stephen Bennett and Brian Gore

DATE/TIME: Sunday, November 8, 2009, 8:00 pm
EVENT: VCM Presents International Guitar Night
VENUE: Alix Goolden Hall 907 Pandora Ave
TICKETS/ADMISSION: $25 / $20 / $10
INFO: bookings at vcm.bc.ca 250-386-5311
LINKS: http://internationalguitarnight.squarespace.com/

International Guitar Night will make its 10th Annual U.S.  Tour in January/February 2010.  To celebrate, IGN founder Brian Gore welcomes Lulo Reinhardt, a descendant of Django from Germany who mixes his family’s trademark Gypsy Jazz with new forays into Latin music; Itamar Erez from Israel, whose symphonic compositions echo his Middle- Eastern roots, and r enowned harp guitarist Stephen Bennett from Virginia.

The Performers

Lulo Reinhardt is an extremely gifted guitarist who was taught by his father at the age of five. At twelve, he played in the Mike Reinhardt Sextett and later co-founded the group, “Django Reinhardt and the Heartbreakers.”

His name has achieved international acclaim. In 1991, he founded “I Gitanos” with his father Bawo and cousin Dege, touring throughout Europe. He has played with Toto and Marta Glenn, released CD´s and played at the music festival “Rock gegen Hass”(Rock against Hate), another concert in aid of the north African Sahouri in the city of Tinduf, Algeria. In the meantime he has established an outstanding reputation as a composer and guitarist.

Whether playing his great-grandfather’s harp guitar, his 1930 National Steel or a standard 6-string, Stephen Bennett is a guitarist to hear. His playing has won awards and critical praise. In live performance and on record, his diverse musical influences and interests are joined with a lifelong love affair with the sound of guitar strings.

Stephen Bennett was born in Oregon , grew up in New York and has lived in Virginia for the better part of the last three decades. Since his 1987 first-place win at the National Flatpicking Championship in Winfield, Kansas (The Walnut Valley Festival), he has become known as a versatile guitarist who consistently garners critical praise and audience enthusiasm for his recordings and live performances.

Aside from his work on the six-string guitar, Stephen is also one of the world’s premiere performers on the Harp Guitar, an instrument he indirectly inherited from his great-grandfather. As a composer and arranger, he has created an enduring repertoire and a significant body of recorded work for this instrument.

Itamar Erez is an Israeli born Canadian composer, pianist and guitarist with a breadth of expression from European classical to jazz, world music and beyond.

Growing up in Tel-Aviv, Israel, Erez received several annual grants from the America-Israel Cultural Fund to support his early studies of guitar, piano and composition. Itamar has studied classical guitar with Mr. J. Urshalmi, known as a world expert in the classical guitar field.

Under his guidance Itamar has performed at the 2nd International Guitar Festival In Tel- Aviv (1988) with great success. Along his guitar studies, Itamar continued with his piano and composition studies with renowned teachers such as M. Wiesneberg (piano, theory) and Prof. Abel Ehrlich (composition). Initially pursuing a classical career, Erez studied composition at the Robert Schumann Musikhochschule, in Dusseldorf, Germany with Manfred Trojahn and with Simon Bainbridge at the Guildhall School of Music, in London, England.

In 1994, Erez was short-listed for the English National Opera’s Stephen Arlen Award

“Brian Gore’s strong, well developed melodies and intriguing chord sequences set him apart from the myriad of steel-string fingerstylists who compose in open tunings.  His finely crafted poetic “songs without words” take the listener on a spellbinding emotional ride.”
–Ron Forbes Roberts, Acoustic Guitar Magazine

“An artist of the highest caliber.”
–Ray Toumey, the Boulder Chautauqua

San Francisco guitar poet Brian Gore is gaining a reputation as one of the most interesting and influential performers of “the next generation” in fingerstyle guitar. A musical romantic, his compositions draw inspiration from myth and modern literature. Hailed as having “…one of the most unique new acoustic guitar styles on the scene today (News and Review),” his lyrical, understated compositions integrate classical and percussive techniques that display what the Los Angeles Times calls “a characterful bounce and spaciousness all his own.”

Gore’s style of playing offers strikingly beautiful tone and dynamics– qualities that are often hard to find in steel string players.  His melodic, evocative songs rely heavily on the use of open tunings, extending the “stream of consciousness” style of guitar composing he grew up with in Northern California.  “Music started out as a kind of therapy for me,” says Gore.  “Consequently, I am a very emotional player. Now, my style of playing has also become a well honed craft. I am very grateful I can share this with people.”

His buoyant personality and odd sense of humor help add lightness to his shows.  “By the time I’m done with a performance,” explains Gore, “people really know the meaning of the term ‘extroverted introvert’.”  While Gore integrates some of the flashier percussive techniques into his pieces, the poetic quality of his music is preserved.  “Because my music is simple and somewhat rootsy, it’s easy to relate to, which is something I’m thankful for.  Also, it helps keep me grounded.”

Gore is an artist in residence at the Boulder Chautauqua, and endorses LR Baggs Equipment, Ryan Guitars and Morris Guitars. He is founder of the International Guitar Night, sponsored by Acoustic Guitar Magazine. His first CD, produced by Peppino D’Agostino, is called The Path of Least Resistance. His second CD, Legacy: Solo Guitar and Duets, is available on Germany’s Acoustic Music Records Label.  His music has been featured on NPR’s nationally syndicated Echoes Radio, and many other local public radio programs.

Brian founded The International Guitar Night in 1995 as a forum for the world’s finest guitarists/composers to play their latest original songs and share musical ideas with their peers in public concert.  This has evolved into critically acclaimed annual tours in the US (starting in 2000),  Canada (starting in 2006) and the UK (starting in 2007),  a CD on Favored Nations Records released in 2004, a guitar instruction book published in 2005, and IGN releases on Warner Music Canada (the 3rd annual CD will be released in 2008).