The Atlantic Guitar Quartet, a contemporary music ensemble dedicated to promoting the work of living composers, will present a free concert at Commonwealth University-Bloomsburg's K.S. Gross Auditorium in Carver Hall on Wednesday, Feb. 7, at 7 p.m.
The concert will include music by guitarist-composers Fred Frith, Olga Amelkina-Vera, and Ben Verdery, as well as music inspired by Leonard Cohen and Erik Satie. The quartet will also give a masterclass for Bloomsburg University guitar students at noon on Feb. 7 in the Haas Center for the Arts, room 166. Both of these events are free and open to the public.
Founded in 2010, the Atlantic Guitar Quartet is a contemporary music ensemble dedicated to promoting the music of living composers. Through virtuosic performances, innovative programming, and collaborations with other visual and performing artists, AGQ has broadened the repertoire for – and the definition of – the classical guitar quartet.
Each of the four members, Mark Edwards, James Keretses, Matthew Slotkin, and Zoë Johnstone Stewart, have enjoyed extensive solo and chamber performing careers before joining the ensemble. As a group, AGQ has performed as part of the Baltimore Classical Guitar Society concert series, Ulster Chamber Series, Evolution Contemporary Music series, and at Salisbury University, York College of Pennsylvania, Loyola University, Marshall University, and the Peabody Institute. They have been artists-in-residence at the Engineers Club of the Garret-Jacobs Mansion in Baltimore since 2010 and members of the Maryland State Arts Council Touring Roster since 2017. In addition to their performances, the quartet has also been invited to teach master classes and workshops at the Peabody Summer Guitar Intensive, Salisbury University, Bloomsburg University, and the Mid-Atlantic Guitar Ensemble Festival.
AGQ has been proactive in expanding the repertoire of the classical guitar quartet by commissioning new works. With major institutional support from the Presser Foundation and the Peabody Conservatory, AGQ has premiered pieces by American composers Vid Smooke, Christopher Gainey, and Ronald Pearl. These works, along with music by composer Olivier Bensa and Arvo Pärt, are featured on the quartet’s debut CD (released in November 2013).
The quartet’s other world premieres include performances of works by Joshua Bornfield (written for AGQ and commissioned by the Baltimore Classical Guitar Society), Judah Adashi, Olga Amelkina-Vera, Lewis Krauthamer (in performance with Gene Young and the Peabody Camerata), Julien Xuereb, Alan Thomas, Aaron Silverstein and Jerry Tabor (in a premiere recording).
The event is funded by Arts in Bloom.