MP3 Minneapolis Guitar Quartet - Dances of Spain and Argentina
Music arranged for four classical guitars. Works by Ginastera, J.S. Bach, Lambert, Granados and Davies.
16 MP3 Songs in this album (58:55) !
Related styles: CLASSICAL: Chamber Music, CLASSICAL: Keyboard Music
People who are interested in Los Romeros The Los Angeles Guitar Quartet should consider this download.
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With the passion, style, and musical sophistication borrowing from the best chamber music and string quartet traditions, the Minneapolis Guitar Quartet has successfully made its case as one of the world''s leading guitar ensembles since its founding in 1986. "Flawless, musical and witty" (Classical Guitar Magazine, England), the MGQ has performed throughout the United States both in recital and with orchestra, balancing a dizzying array of first-rate repertoire ranging from Renaissance and Baroque to Spanish, Latin American and Romantic, to highly imaginative existing and newly commissioned contemporary works. Cutting-edge composer/performer Daniel Bernard Roumain, one of the more than 20 composers commissioned by the MGQ, calls the group "more than a guitar quartet, more than superb musicians, and more than a great chamber group. They are ambassadors of sound, style, and substance."
In 2006, the MGQ began a fascinating new concert collaboration with Flamenco dancer Colette Illarde, featuring an original production of "Six Pieces on Spanish Folksongs" by the great Spanish composer Enrique Granados. With music arranged by the MGQ, the choreography by Ms. Illarde reflects the extraordinary vitality of Spanish culture and includes Spanish regional and folk dancing, classical ballet and flamenco.
The Minneapolis Guitar Quartet tours regularly throughout the United States in works with full orchestra such as Joaquin Rodrigo''s "Concierto Andaluz" and Ian Krouse''s "Cantiga Variations;" and with string orchestra in David Hahn''s "Concerto alla Barocco" and a new arrangement of Antonio Vivaldi''s Concerto in C. Concerto appearances include the Austin Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Britt Festival Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra and the Columbus (GA) Symphony, among others. In recital, the MGQ appears in such cities as Seattle, Chicago, New Orleans, Los Angeles, Baltimore, Omaha, and Williamstown (MA). Other highlights include Princeton University, the Il Encuentro Internacional de Guitarra at the National Arts Center in Mexico City, the Omni Foundation Dynamite Guitar series in San Francisco, the Stetson International Guitar Workshop in Florida, and the Guitar Foundation of America Festival. Its concerts may feature as wide a range of repertoire as Bach, Piazzolla, Peter Maxwell Davies, Ginastera, Purcell, Rodrigo, Stravinsky, many new works by commissioned composers, and an exceptional arrangement of Mussorgsky''s Pictures at an Exhibition. The web magazine https://www.tradebit.com called it "the best arrangement of these 16 movements (Pictures at an Exhibition) I have heard…While staying true to the original sense of the pieces, the Quartet brings fresh colors and lyricism."
With funding assistance from organizations such as the Jerome Foundation, the American Composers Forum and the Schubert Club, the Minneapolis Guitar Quartet has commissioned many new works for guitar quartet. Recently commissioned composers include notable Chinese-American composer Huang Ruo who recently was recorded by NAXOS, internationally performed Cuban-American Ileana Perez Velazquez, and award winning composer Anthony Gatto. MGQ’s commissions also include works by Bun-Ching Lam, Daniel Bernard Roumain, Yuanlin Chen, Edie Hill, Eleanor Hovda, David Evan Thomas, Janika Vandervelde, David Hahn, Ian Krouse and David Kechley.
The MGQ has been heard on the nationally syndicated Saint Paul Sunday, and on National Public Radio''s Performance Today. The group''s first three CDs on the Albany and GSP labels — "New Works for Guitar Quartet," "Over Land and Sea" and "Pictures at an Exhibition" — garnered unanimous international critical acclaim. "With (Over Land and Sea)," said Soundboard Magazine, "the MGQ demonstrates that it is one of the major guitar ensembles in the world."
Committed educators as well as performers, members of the Minneapolis Guitar Quartet (Joseph Hagedorn, Jeff Lambert, O. Nicholas Raths, and Jeffrey Thygeson) often appear to teach and present workshops at festivals and universities throughout the United States. The cultural accessibility of the guitar makes it a natural for the MGQ''s educational and outreach programs like its two popular versions of "Guitar Talk" for ages 5-12 and 13 through adult.