Guitar Festival
Holloway Hall

Classical Guitar Festival and Competition

Saturday April 21, 2012

Teacher Biographies

Saturday Teachers:

Sunday Teachers:

Hailed as a “revelation to hear” by The Washington Post, the Newman & Oltman Guitar Duo’s phenomenal musicianship places them solidly at the top of their field. Their innovative programming, matchless technique and ensemble precision, combined with their commitment to expanding the repertoire for guitar duo make them a standout chamber ensemble in every way.

Newman & Oltman’s concert tours have taken them to world cultural capitals and premiere venues across five continents. The Duo has demonstrated extraordinary stylistic breadth in their collaborations with such diverse artists as author Frank McCourt (“Angela’s Ashes”), composer/conductor Marvin Hamlisch and the Pittsburgh Symphony Pops, violinist Arnold Steinhardt, fiddler Eileen Ivers, and numerous string quartets including ETHEL, Calder, Daedalus and Turtle Island.  

Highlights of this season include the world premiere of “Concierto Buenos Aires” composed for the Duo by Nuevo Tango Master Daniel Binelli with l’Orchestre de l’Opéra de Reims in France and with the Virginia Symphony (JoAnn Falletta, Music Director).  Also this season, Newman & Oltman will join forces with the dynamic violinist Tim Fain – featured performer in the hit film “Black Swan” – for a program of works by classical and contemporary composers. Recent and upcoming performances include partnering with Grammy Award-nominated Clarice Assad at the Raritan Music Festival, the Newcomb Classical Guitar Festival in New Orleans, the Grand Canyon Music Festival, the New York Guitar Seminar at Mannes and most recently at the Pittaluga International Guitar Competition and Convention in Alessandria Italy.

Through their groundbreaking New Music Commissioning Program, Newman & Oltman have built a unique repertoire of works for two guitars by composers such as Paul Moravec, Augusta Reed Thomas, Lowell Liebermann, Dušan Bogdanovic and Roberto Sierra. The duo’s latest CD, Music from Raritan River (MSR Classics 1298), which was hailed by Fanfare Magazine as “top notch” and “a winner all around”, features a collection of world premieres commissioned by the duo over the past decade.  Their artistry has also been captured on nearly a dozen other acclaimed recordings and has been recognized by grants and awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, Chamber Music America and ASCAP, among others.

The Duo has served as ensemble-in-residence at New York’s Mannes College of Music since 1987.  Michael and Laura are founders and artistic directors of the New York Guitar Seminar at Mannes, which takes place every summer in New York City (www.mannes.edu/guitar). They also are founders and music directors of New Jersey’s Raritan River Concerts and the Raritan River Music Festival (www.raritanrivermusic.org). 

Laura Oltman graduated with honors from Florida State University and teaches at Princeton University.  She studied with Bruce Holzman, Oscar Ghiglia, Luisa Sanchez de Fuentes, and Andrés Segovia.  Michael Newman is a graduate of The Mannes College of Music and serves on the faculty there.  His teachers were Thomas Anthony, Alberto Valdes Blain, and Oscar Ghiglia.  In between concert tours, Michael and Laura are still restoring their 19th-century house on the Delaware River in New Jersey, where they live with their numerous cats.

Laura Oltman plays a 1981 Thomas Humphrey Pre-Millennium guitar with D’Addario EXP45C Composite Coated and Titanium Treble Normal Tension strings.  Michael Newman plays a 1978 Thomas Humphrey Pre-Millennium guitar with D’Addario EXP46C Composite Coated and Titanium Treble High Tension strings. 

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Daniel Boring is a rare performer who specializes in various instruments including baroque, classical and romantic guitars, baroque lute and theorbo.  He has performance degrees from the State University of New York at Buffalo and the Ithaca College School of Music, and former teachers include the Castellani-Andriaccio duo, Donald Miller, Timothy Schmidt, Pablo Cohen, and James Tyler.  He has participated in master classes given by Oscar Ghiglia, the Assad duo, the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, Anthony Rooley, Nigel North, Ronn McFarlane, Robert Barto, Ricardo Iznaola, and Adam Holzman.

Mr. Boring made his European debut in Rome, Italy in 1995 where he participated as chamber artist with the Rome festival orchestra and ballet troupe.  Return engagements throughout Italy include performances with the Opera Theatre of Lucca orchestral member and chamber music artist. He has also toured Europe as a member of Due Colori, a soprano/guitar-lute duo with soprano Megan Monaghan, with whom he has released the recording Irish Airs and Ballads. 

As a soloist and continuo player on lute, theorbo, and baroque guitar, Mr. Boring performs with such baroque groups as the Philadelphia Bach Festival Orchestra, La Fiocco, The American Society of Ancient Instruments, and the Vox Ama Deus Baroque Orchestra with whom he has made several recordings on the Lyrachord Early Music record label.  He also has performed with various opera companies throughout the United States including Pittsburgh Opera, Ithaca Opera, Teatro Grattacielo and Glimmerglass Opera.  

As a teacher, Mr. Boring served as Director of Classical Guitar Studies at the University of Louisville School of Music, and taught at the Preparatory Department of the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.  Currently in the Philadelphia area, Mr. Boring is on faculty at Muhlenberg and Montgomery County Community Colleges.  At Muhlenberg College, he serves as the Director and Conductor of the Muhlenberg College Chamber Orchestra, and is instructor of Historical Instruments and Classical Guitar.

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David J. Pace Drawing from experience as a guitarist, audio engineer and woodworker, David J. Pace hand-builds concert guitars in his Baltimore, Maryland workshop. His designs feature both traditional as well as composite double-top soundboards.  Pace’s work was featured in the March-May 2011 issue of the French magazine Guitare Classique.

At the 2012 SU Festival, Pace will give a workshop on “Understanding the Modes of Vibration as an Influence on Soundboard Design” demonstrating modal vibration patterns on a guitar soundboard plate. Pace will also discuss the practical implications behind the experiment in terms of how classical guitar soundboards are braced and sculpted.

 

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Danielle Cumming, Festival Director

dmcumming@salisbury.edu

410-677-3269

 Classical guitarist Danielle Cumming is an active performer, studio teacher and lecturer. She holds a Doctorate in Performance from McGill University and a Masters in Performance from the University of Toronto, where she studied with Norbert Kraft.

A native of Canada, Danielle’s performances have been broadcast on national television and radio. In addition to giving recitals in North America, Danielle has performed in Europe and has served on international guitar competition juries. After a year of study in Spain, Danielle released her solo CD, postcards, a recording of 20th century repertoire with world music influences. She continued to pursue her interest in issues of exoticism in classical and popular guitar music in her doctoral paper, Led Zeppelin and Carlo Domeniconi: Truth Without Authenticity?

In addition to teaching guitar and popular music history at Salisbury University, Danielle is also a certified yoga instructor, and has created and taught yoga programs to help musicians prevent injuries and handle performance anxiety.

Danielle is a D’Addario artist.

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