Benoît and I just came back from a week of performing and teaching in my home state, Ohio. We had stops at the University of Akron and the Massillon Museum, along with a private performance at my father’s workplace, Hennis.
The Massillon Museum hosted a Stark County artists exhibit and we were invited to give a performance for the 400 attendees. Photographer Brian Thornberry was there to take photos of the event.
The University of Akron guitar department hosted us for two days. During our visit, we taught a 3 hour masterclass and were on the judging panel for the Jim Stroud Competition. We heard some compelling performances over those two days. Congratulations to all the participants, and to the finalists: John, Adam, Stephen and Margaret. Benoît and I gave a performance that included some solo music by Benoît Albert and Ralph Towner, and duo performances of the Brouwer’s Micro Piezas, the Piazzolla Tango Suite, Silly Songs written by myself and Rami Vamos. We dove into two separate free-improvisations entitled “Noise I and II”. We decided to make a third “Noise” for the encore. Comments about the improvisations ranged from “Amazing” to “Bizarre”.
We’d like to thank all the arrangers for inviting us: Steve at Akron, Christine at MassMU, and the Hennis family. We hope to be back again soon.
