Matthew Ardizzone, guitar

New Updated Bio

Guitarist Matthew Ardizzone has performed throughout the United States and Canada
and was a prizewinner in the Stotsenberg and Rantucci International Guitar Competitions.
In addition to being a solo recitalist, he is an active collaborator. His recent chamber
music partners include violinist Movses Pogossian, tenor Gregory Kunde, and
saxophonist Matthew Sintchak (Duo Nouveau). This spring he will perform in Ann
Arbor with flutist Leone Buyse.

Matthew's first CD, entitled Mazurka!, was recently released by the Aardvark Media
record label, and has been nationally distributed. It was a recipient of a 2001 "Crystal
Award for Excellence." An avid scholar, Matthew's work has been published in
Soundboard Magazine and with Mel Bay Publications. His festival appearances as a
performer and teacher include the Shady Side Chamber Music Festival (Pittsburgh),
Brave New Works (Ann Arbor), and the Ithaca College Guitar Festival; he has given master classes at schools throughout the country, including the Cleveland Institute of Music, Eastern Michigan University, and the University of Iowa.

With Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in guitar performance from Ithaca College, Matthew was the first guitarist to receive the Doctor of Musical Arts from the Eastman School of Music where he was also awarded the Performer's Certificate. He has been on
the faculties of Eastman's Community Education Division, St. John Fisher College, and Nazareth College in Rochester, NY (the latter since 1992). He now resides in Ann Arbor and teaches at Bowling Green State University. For updates on Matthew's activities,
visit his web site at http://www.matthewardizzone.com.

"Guitarist Matthew Ardizzone was an expert in the intricacies of his role, always playing with sensitive nuances…"
-Mark Kanny Pittsburgh Tribune Review
Tuesday, August 1, 2001

Notes for Program
"Determined to put himself to work before it was too late" as he kept telling me, William produced a steady stream of miniatures, including the Britten Improvisations and the Five Bagatelles for Julian Bream.‘Thus, Susana Walton describes the circumstances under which her husband began work on his first and only work for solo guitar. The English guitarist Julian Bream, having worked with many composers on new works for guitar, described Walton's pieces as requiring the least amount of editing. These so-called "trifles" are chock full of Walton's dry humor and wit.

Sergio Assad is best known as half of the guitar duo, the Assads. Together with his brother Odair, he has championed the rich repertoire of his native Brazil, as well as arranging music of Bach, Scarlatti, Gershwin and others. His first composition for solo guitar strongly reflects his Brazilian roots.† At the same time, elements of Western European styles are present in the motivic unity between movements, the contrapuntal passages, and the shamelessly romantic middle movement.

Cuban guitarist and composer Leo Brouwer combines Afro-Cuban folklore, rhythms and textures with a reference to Boccaccio“s 13th-century collection of erotic and comedic tales, The Decameron. El Decameron Negro is based on an African folk tale describing a warrior wrestling with a secret desire to be a musician.† When he falls in love with a princess, he embarks on a heroic campaign to free his tribe of all impending threats, after which he escapes with his love and his harp to live happily ever after, and with a clean conscience.

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