WCGS Member Newsletter – October 2018 – Wilmington Classical Guitar

Greetings WCGS Members!

We’re really excited to be kicking off our tenth season of Wilmington Classical Guitar this Saturday,October 20! Our goal this year is to increase our attendance; there are simply too many empty seats in our beautiful hall. Please give us a hand and tell your friends and family about our amazing concerts coming up, and share our event on Facebook. Every little bit helps, and your help is invaluable here.

Thomas Viloteau

Upcoming Event: Thomas Viloteau with special guest Keith Calmes
We kicked the doors in with our season opener Meng Su last year, and we’re doing it again this year with 2006 GFA Winner Thomas Viloteau. For those of you who don’t already know Thomas’ work, you are missing out. His playing is top notch; just check out his videos on YouTube and I’m sure you’ll agree. In case you don’t know Thomas, he won the prestigious GFA International Concert Artist Competition in 2006, prevailing over hundreds of exceptionally talented guitarists from all over the world. Thomas has studied intensely at an international level, moving from Barcelona, to Paris, San Francisco, London, Tucson, Rochester and Montréal seeking advice from some of the leading professors like Alvaro Pierri, Alberto Ponce, Judicaël Perroy, Tom Patterson, Roland Dyens, Nicholas Goluses, Paul O’Dette and Marc Teicholz. You may recall the name Judicael Perroy from other bios in our series; Judicael won the GFA competition himself in 1997, and his students include many GFA winners, including our two previous year’s winners Xavier Jara and Thibaut Garcia. Besides an impressive education and performance resumé, Thomas has recently taken a faculty position at Peabody Conservatory teaching alongside Manuel Barrueco and Julian Gray; imagine how many guitarists were vying for that position…

Tickets are on sale now in our Online Store. Your WCGS Member coupon code for this concert is viloteauWCGS. To get your member discount, add a General Admission ticket to your cart, and then apply the coupon code in the cart or at checkout for your discount.

Share our event on Facebook!

Upcoming Event: Masterclass with Thomas Viloteau
Coming up on Saturday, October 20 at 1:30pm, 2006 GFA Winner Thomas Viloteau will be teaching a masterclass in the West Room of Church of the Covenant. Performance slots are all full, but we have plenty of room left to watch the class as an auditor. If you haven’t been to a masterclass yet, now is a perfect time. Registration is required. Sign up as an auditor in our Online Store. Auditing is always FREE and very much encouraged. I always feel I learn more as an auditor than I do as a performer, so I can’t recommend it enough.

If you’d like to perform in an upcoming masterclass, please take a look at our Online Store to sign up. We have masterclasses upcoming with Jeremy Lyons & Lisa Perry, Alec Holcomb, and 2017 GFA Winner Tengyue Zhang.

Past Event: 3rd Annual WCGS Showcase Concert Recap
Thanks to everyone who came out to our third WCGS Members Showcase concert September 22, 2018! We really enjoyed hosting this concert and were so glad to see familiar faces in the audience. Special thanks to the WCGS members who volunteered to perform. Everyone brought their very best and it showed. Congratulations everyone; I’m looking forward to hosting more events like this. Performers included: Bill Simmons, Scott Kuykendall, Simon Varley (WCGS Treasurer), Nikolay Gavlishin, Ralph Dominica (WCGS Secretary), John Nguyen, Alex Pollock, and Kevin Cope. Thanks also to Karen Kegelman and the Delaware Historical Society for graciously hosting our event in Wilmington’s historic Old Town Hall (Wilmington, Delaware), and making us feel especially welcome. What a beautiful space full of beautiful people. We hope to be back soon!

Pictures of our performers are on Facebook and on our website. Check them out!

October Salon
Our October salon is coming up on Sunday the 28th at 6 pm (doors open at 5:45). Monthly salons take place at the Church of the Covenant, 503 Duncan Rd, Wilmington, DE 19809. The church is easily accessible from 95 and has ample parking on the street and in a private parking lot. Our meeting will be in the West Room, which is appropriately situated on the West side of the building. Our entrance is in the corner of the building right off the West side of the parking lot (see link).

Google directions to the Church: Presbyterian Church of the Covenant

**Also, if you are coming to the salon, please arrive between 5:45 and 6:00. I will LOCK the door at 6:00 so it is not left open and unattended. If you arrive later than 6:00, please text me at (302) 650-8797 and I will be happy to let you in. Knocking loudly may also work.

The following salon will take place on November 18th. Mark your calendars!

2018 Salon Schedule

September Meeting Recap by Ralph Dominica, WCGS Secretary
Our turnout was pretty light on September 23rd following our Membership Showcase Concert at the Delaware Historical Society the day before. The smaller group allowed us plenty of time for performance and constructive feedback. Thanks to everyone who came. We had some great conversation including a discussion on the benefits of masterclass participation. I know summer schedules are pretty busy and I missed a couple of salons myself. Hopefully, now with autumn’s arrival and the beginning of a new WCG Concert Season we will see more of you at our upcoming salons

Here’s a list of who played this month and the pieces that they performed.
Matthew Lavanish – Prelude No.1 by Heitor Villa-Lobos
Ralph Dominica – Adelita by Francisco Tárrega
Graham Williamson – Studies Op. 60 No.13 and No.19 by Matteo Carcassi
Simon Varley – Water Color by Andrew York
Gregg Tashker – Paniolo Soul by Jeff Peterson

Other Events
The concert season is right around the corner. Check out all the great listings, including If you learn of other classical guitar events in the area please let us know so we can get them on our calendar.

For more information on upcoming events, please visit our event calendar at https://wilmingtonguitar.org/calendar.

To submit an event, please Email our event calendar coordinator at events@wilmingtonguitar.org.

We’re closing on on 2,200 likes on Facebook! Make sure you’re one of them, and help us break the 2,500 mark! https://www.facebook.com/wilmingtonguitar

Best,
Matthew Lavanish
President & Artistic Director – The Wilmington Classical Guitar Society

Wilmington Classical Guitar Season X – 2018-19
September 22 – WCGS Members Showcase at Old Town Hall
October 20* – Thomas Viloteau, classical guitar with special guest Keith Calmes at Presbyterian Church of the Covenant
November 17 – Brendan Evans, classical guitar with special guests Zach Alex & Liam Thomas at Presbyterian Church of the Covenant
February 23* – Jeremy Lyons, classical guitar and Lisa Perry, soprano with special guest Evan Conrad at Presbyterian Church of the Covenant
March 23* – Alec Holcomb, classical guitar with special guest Darla Rublesky at Presbyterian Church of the Covenant
April 28* – GFA Winner’s Tour featuring Tengyue Zhang, classical guitar with special guest Everett Shen at Presbyterian Church of the Covenant
May 25 – 7th Annual WCGS Members Concert at Presbyterian Church of the Covenant