Eliot Fisk | Classical Guitarist
Sunday, September 25, 2011 | 4:00pm
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Photo: Jesse Weiner
The American guitarist, Eliot Fisk, was the last direct pupil of Andrés Segovia and is the holder of all reproduction rights to Andre Segovia’s music, given to him by Segovia’s wife, Emilia. Fisk studied interpretation under harpsichordists Ralph Kirkpatrick and Albert Fuller at Yale University, where he graduated summa cum laude in 1976. After graduation, he was asked to form the Guitar Department at the Yale School of Music. He was the winner of the International Guitar Competition in 1980.
A creative innovator linked to the great romantic tradition of the past, Eliot Fisk is one of the most
exciting and unique artists before the public today. Known world wide for his adventurous repertoire and
willingness to take art music into unusual venues (including schools, senior centers and even prisons!)
he belongs, as his great mentor Andrés Segovia once wrote, at the top line of our artistic world.
He has
expanded the repertoire for the guitar enormously through countless ground breaking transcriptions of works
by J.S. Bach, Scarlatti, Haydn, Mozart, Paganini, and others as well as through commissions from leading
composers as varied as Luciano Berio, Leonardo Balada, Robert Beaser, Wiliam Bolcom, Xavier Montsalvatge,
Nicholas Maw, George Rochberg and Kurt Schwertsik. His numerous transcriptions and editions are published
by Universal, Presser, Ricordi and Guitar Solo Publications.
Photo: Keitaro Yoshioka
Eliot Fisk’s forays into unconventional territory have included collaborations with chanteuse Ute Lemper; Turkish music master Burhan Öçal; jazz guitar legend Joe Pass; flamenco great Paco Pena; and master of castanets Lucero Tena.
Eliot Fisk’s numerous recordings for the Musical Heritage Society, DGG, Arabesque, and EMI have
elicited unqualified praise and even entered the Billboard charts as bestsellers. Most of these recordings
include repertoire never before performed on the guitar such as his legendary reading of the 24 solo
violin Capricci, Op. 1 of Paganini (Has to be heard to be believed!
- Ruggiero Ricci), his recordings of
contemporary works by Luciano Berio and George Rochberg or his recording with Paula Robison of Robert
Beaser’s Mountain Songs, which was nominated for a Grammy. Guitar Review wrote that his versions of
the complete J.S. Bach unaccompanied violin Sonatas and Partitas, BWV 1001-1006 “place him alongside
Casals and Gould as one of this century’s greatest interpreters of Bach.” On a lighter note, Gramophon Magazine
described his transcriptions for violin, cello and guitar of Bach's Violin Sonatas BWV 1014-1019:
"If exploring the instrumental potential of the continuo is Baroque music's equivalent of exploring
Star Trek’s final frontier, then guitarist Eliot Fisk may be its Captain Kirk and his transcription
of Bach’s Six Violin Sonatas its Starship Enterprise."
Photo: Keitaro Yoshioka
Eliot Fisk lives in Boston, Salzburg, and Granada, Spain with his wife, Zaira, and their 6-year-old daughter, Raquel. He uses a handmade Thomas Humphrey Millennium guitar and another by upcoming luthier Stephan Connor. He received the Grand Cross of Isabel la Cátolica on June 10, 2006, from King Juan Carlos of Spain, for his service to the cause of Spanish music. Earlier recipients have included Andrés Segovia and Yehudi Menuhin. Fisk earned the award for contributions to Spanish music as an interpreter and teacher.
PROGRAM
- Agustin Barrios: Un Sueno en la Floresta
- Scarlatti: 6 Sonatas
- Bach: Ciaccona from the Partita in D minor, BWV 1004
----- Intermission -----
- Kurt Schwertsik's EIN KLEINES REQUIEM (ded. to Fisk)
- Paganini: selected Caprices
RECORDINGS
Click on any of the recordings below to purchase them from Amazon.com.
