Happy Valley Guitar
Orchestra Celebrates New Work in Spring Concert at Sweeney Hall
Northampton, MA—The Center for the Arts is pleased to present
composer, performer and guitar innovator Peter Blanchette directing his
critically acclaimed Happy Valley Guitar Orchestra (HVGO) at Sweeney Hall,
Smith College Northampton on Friday, May 9 at 7:30 pm. HVGO’s annual spring
concert features an expectedly unexpected program of music from minimalist
composers Philip Glass and Arvo Pärt, 18th century Scottish dance
music of Nathanial Gow, music of critically-acclaimed midwest rockers Wilco,
and instrumental music of the post-punk rockers The Smiths.
Now in its fifth season, HVGO
pushes the music of Philip Glass further with arrangements of Metamorphoses I & III for piano.
Blanchette on HVGO’s embrace of Glass: “He came of age as an artist in the 60s
in America, so perhaps it is no coincidence that the patterns in Glass’ music
are very similar to riffs in guitar-driven rock music. The meditative state one
arrives at, if one plays Glass properly, gives his music a naturalistic quality
that belies the almost manic, mechanical structure of his pieces.”
HVGO (www.hvgo.org) is an avant-garde music ensemble,
founded by Peter Blanchette in 2009 and comprised of more than 20 talented
acoustic and electric guitarists from widely varied traditions. HVGO is a
resident company of the Northampton Center for the Arts, and is supported by
the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and the Frank Lucchesi Trust.
Though known as a Bach
specialist, Blanchette (www.archguitar.com)
has a repertoire of unusual and celebrated musical arrangements that run from
medieval to contemporary to ethnic styles.
Blanchette is the recipient of WFCR Foundation’s 2011 Arts &
Humanities Award for Outstanding Individual, and is a veteran performer of such
venues as Spain’s Cordoba Festival of the Guitar, Boston’s Symphony Hall, NPR’s
“A Prairie Home Companion,” The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, The
Town Hall, New York City, and WGBH Boston’s live radio broadcasts.
Tickets are $15 for adults, $12
for students and children. They are available in advance at www.nohoarts.org
and at the door from 6 pm on the evening of the performance. Door sales are
cash or check only. This performance is made possible by generous support from
PeoplesBank.
