Don’t forget about my performance at the Petaluma Arts Center this evening! I am gearing up by listening to Earth, Wind & Fire as well as to Hopkinson Smith. Quite the contrast, but quite the combination! Take care.
Just a quick reminder that I will be performing tomorrow at the Petaluma Arts Center. I plan to share some original stylings based on traditional Spanish guitar forms from the Renaissance and Baroque periods. See the Performance Schedule section of this site for more information. Thanks!!! #casamontalvoguitars
#thomastikinfeldstrings
#textualchordophonics
I will be playing solo seven-string guitar at the Petaluma Arts Center for a fundraising event this Sunday, September 22, 2019. Please come support an important local arts foundation!
Also, I will be releasing some new material influenced by hip-hop styles. Percussionist Alex Shapiro-Romano will be doing most of the production work with samples of my music. For now, please enjoy an audio sample of some music by me, Alex, and the inimitable Smars of San Francisco Bay Area renown. Let it be known that any similarity to the recent hit “Havana” is purely coincidental! We recorded this some five years ago . . .
Summer is all but behind us now, and I am glad to say I made the most of it. The Ali Akbar College of Music (AACM) in San Rafael, CA, USA awarded me a scholarship to attend a weekly class with sarod player Alam Khan. Many thanks to the wonderful people at AACM for this chance at professional development and enrichment.
Practicing Indian raga is beginning to inform my playing on Western-derived guitars. My upcoming performance at the Petaluma Arts Center’s September-22 fundraising event will undoubtedly showcase some of the ways in which raga is becoming part of the natural growth of my music. The link to tickets for this event can be found in the Performance Schedule section of my website.
On the research front, I am forming ideas on how to revise the history(ies) of the guitar that relies on the arrival of the oval-bodied lute in Spain and subsequent formation of the figure-eight–shaped body of the guitar. It is important to note two recent additions to my bookshelf: The Guitar: In History and Performance Practice by Anthony LeRoy Glise and Manual of Guitar Technology: The History and Technology of Plucked String Instruments by Franz Jahnel. The former, published in 2016, is intended to be used as a university textbook. The latter is an almost impossible-to-acquire treasure trove of information on instrument building both ancient and modern. The contentions that arise from these two tomes are at the heart of my latest research. I hope to share more on this soon!