At the forefront of a generation of guitarists for more than twenty years, playing with brilliance, warmth, and grace
“His technique is virtuosic but always at the service of the music, his interpretations intelligent and tasteful, his performances characterized by meticulous preparation and intense emotional commitment.” — Soundboard
Friday, October 17, 2014, at 8:00 PM
Baruch Performing Arts Center
55 Lexington Avenue (entrance on East 25th Street between Lexington and Third Avenues)
New York City (see map)
Tickets: $27.50 / $22 for students, seniors, and NYCCGS members. Join now.
Click here to purchase tickets or call (646) 312-5073 or (866) 811-4111.
Program
MELLI Cappriccio
BACH Prelude, Fugue and Allegro, BWV 998
HAYDN Sonata No. 44
LEGNANI Fantasie, Op. 19
PARASKEVAS Life (in the Garden of Eden)
WILLIAMS Hawikah
TAMEZ Guajira Va, Atravesado
CELIL REFIK KAYA Sonata (dedicated to Adam Holzman)
TORROBA Sonatina
For more than twenty years, Adam Holzman, recording artist, concert performer, soloist, and educator, has been at the forefront of a generation of guitarists. Born in New York City in 1960, he began the guitar at the age of seven as a student of his older brother, Bruce Holzman, and continued his private study with Albert Valdes Blain and Eliot Fisk. He returned to work with his brother at Florida State University, where he received his music degrees. In addition, he studied in the master classes of Oscar Ghiglia in Siena at the Academia Musicale de Chigiana and at the Aspen Music Festival. Twice he was chosen to perform in the historic masterclasses of the legendary Andrés Segovia.
Mr. Holzman has received rave reviews from concert critics around the world. He as been hailed as “polished and quite dazzling,” by The New York Times. He has performed at the prestigious Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, distinguished New York venues such as Kaufman Hall at the 92nd St. Y, Merkin Hall, and Carnegie Recital Hall, as well as in music festivals and series from Miami to San Francisco and from Boston to New Orleans. His extensive international performances have taken him throughout Europe, Canada, Mexico, and Central and Latin America.
Mr. Holzman’s recording for the Naxos label have been critically acclaimed. The first two are discs of the music of Fernando Sor and have been called “irresistible” by Gramophone magazine. Vol. I and II of the music of Manuel Ponce are also now available. Of the Sonata for Guitar and Harpsichord on Ponce Volume II, Classical Guitar magazine (U.K.) says “It’s a fine and substantial work and here it receives the finest recording yet.” His recording debut, on HRH Records, is a collection of rarely- or never-before-recorded selections. According to the American Record Guide this performance is “so flawless he makes it all sound easy.” Of his release of the Venezuelan Waltzes of Antonio Lauro, the American Record Guide had this to say: “The landmark recording was David Russell’s 1980 LP. Now, 20 years later, comes another masterly recording by Adam Holzman: in many ways it raises the benchmark still further.” His newest Naxos release is the Bardenklange, Op. 13, of Johann Kaspar Mertz.
Mr. Holzman’s commitment to new music has led him to co-commission Samuel Adler’s First Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra. He was the first person to perform the music of Roland Dyens in North America, and he has also premiered works by composers Robert Helps and Stephen Funk Pearson.
Adam Holzman is founder of the Guitar Department at the University of Texas at Austin where, in addition to his active performing career, he heads a thriving guitar studio. From 1992 to 1994, Mr. Holzman held the title of “Maestro Extraordinario” given by the Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo Leon, Monterrey, Mexico, where he served as Artist-in-Residence. In 2001, he was awarded the Ernst von Dohnanyi Prize for Outstanding Achievement from Florida State University and the Robert W. Hamilton Fine Arts Award from the University of Texas.
He lives in Austin, Texas with his wife, Carolyn, and their son, Benjamin.
