Invited Return Performance
Saturday March 28th., 2009 at 7:30 p.m.
Cedar Park, Murray Road, Mickleover, Derby
Steven Thachuk is becoming known as one of Canada’s most outstanding young guitarists. He has appeared in recital, as a chamber musician, and soloist with orchestra throughout North America, Great Britain and Europe. Thachuk has performed most of the major concertos in the guitar repertoire with orchestra and has had concerts broadcast on American public radio. He is also a member of the Meyer-Thachuk Guitar Duo with American guitarist Ken Meyer. In the 1998/99 concert season, the duo made their Ford Performing Arts Centre (Toronto) debut performing Rodrigo’s Concierto Madrigal with the Toronto Philharmonic. His playing has drawn critical acclaim. Classical Guitar Magazine has described his performances as “perfectly and sensitively done”. On a performance of Rodrigo’s Fantasia para un Gentilhombre in Wales, Great Britain, the Tivy-Side Examiner praised his “astounding virtuosity and musicality”. In addition to many other awards, he received the prestigious Chalmers Performing Arts Training Grant in 1994, which enabled him to continue his studies abroad, and was a top finalist in the Freschen International Competition in Köln.
An avid supporter of new music, Thachuk has premiered numerous works by composers such as Liviu Marinescu, Robert Baker, Denis Dion, Luke Mercier and Scott Adams. In 1997, he gave the world premiere performance of Scott Adams’ Eurasia for Guitar and Orchestra in New York.
In addition to his performing career, Thachuk has an international reputation as a leading teacher and pedagogue of the instrument. He is much in demand for masterclasses and concerts at universities, conservatories, and major guitar festivals throughout North America and Europe. Recent festival appearances have included the Iserlohn Gitarren-Symposium, the Gevelsberg Gitarren-Festival, the Stetson International Guitar Festival, the Halifax International Guitar Festival, and the Eastman Summer GuitarFest in Rochester, New York. In 2002, Steve Thachuk was appointed as Professor of Guitar at California State University, Northridge. Previously, he has served on the faculties of the University of Toronto, the Glenn Gould Professional School at the Royal Conservatory of Music and Queen’s University. While completing graduate studies, he taught at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York as an assistant to the guitar department. Thachuk also serves on juries for many major international guitar competitions.
Steven Thachuk’s studies began when he was eight years old. He pursued his undergraduate degree at the University of Toronto, and continued his studies in Germany and at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, where he completed his doctorate degree in 1998.
Recent highlights of his performance career include solo appearances with the Toronto Sinfonietta, Quinte Symphony, Prince George Symphony Orchestra,and the Toronto Philharmonia, as well as concerts and masterclasses in Toronto, Nova Scotia, Kentucky, Los Angeles, England and Germany. Thachuk has recorded one CD, Evocacion, with the Meyer/Thachuk Guitar Duo, and is currently completing a solo recital CD of 20th century guitar works.
Thachuk engages in various musical activities outside of performing and teaching. He has served on the artistic board for the Toronto Guitar Society, and is organizer and co-director of the highly successful Eastman Summer GuitarFest in Rochester, New York, an annual week-long event. He was producer of the recording 20th Century Music for Flute and Guitar for Albany Records. The CD is performed by the Boyd/Goluses Duo and features the world premiere of a concerto by Augusta Read Thomas. Most recently, Thachuk mastered and mixed the debut CD of Germany’s Fenix International Guitar Quartet.
Steven Thachuk currently lives in Toronto and Los Angeles.
Programme (Saturday March 28th., 2009 at 7:30 p.m.)
Let Down ............................................................. Radiohead (arr. Thachuk)
Sonata (2006) ...................................................... Stephen Goss
IFrom Kakadu (1993) ........................................... Peter Sculthorpe
Interval
Leyenda ............................................................... Isaac Albeniz
Cordoba
Room 249 ............................................................ Steven Thachuk
Across the Universe .............................................. Lennon/McCartney (arr. Thachuk)
Hoedown from Rodeo .......................................... Aaron Copland (arr. Thachuk)
Programme (Saturday October 23rd., 2005 at 7:30 p.m.)
Tonadilla
sur le nom de Andres Segovia ................ Mario
Castenuovo-Tedesco
Estudio sin luz
....................................................... Andres
Segovia
Scherzo-Vals
........................................................ Miguel
Llobet
Invierno Porteno
................................................... Astor Piazzolla
(arr. Sergio Assad)
Capriccio Diabolico
.............................................. Mario
Castelnuovo-Tedesco
Interval
Prelude, Fugue, Allegro
BWV 998 ......................... J.S. Bach
Hika
......................................................................
Leo Brouwer
Cowboy Waltz
...................................................... Michael
Chapdelaine
Room 249
............................................................. Steven
Thachuk
Two Danse Episodes from Rodeo .........................
Aaron Copland (arr. Steven Thachuk)
Saturday
Night Waltz
Hoe-down
Programme (Saturday April 17th., 2004 at 7:30 p.m.)
God of the Northern Forest
................................... Phillip Houghton
Currents
II ............................................................ Shawn
Bell
Prelude, Fugue, and Allegro BWV 998 ..................
J.S. Bach
Sevillanas
..............................................................
Joaquin Turina
Interval
Hommage a Tarrega
.............................................. Joaquin Turina
Garrotin
Soleares
Land of
Enchantment ............................................. Michael
Chapdelaine
Cowboy Waltz
Sonata
...................................................................
Leo Brouwer