November 03, 2014

Inaugural SIU Guitar Festival is Friday, Saturday

by Andrea Hahn

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- The inaugural SIU Guitar Festival brings two days of world guitar music to Southern Illinois University Carbondale on Friday and Saturday, Nov. 7-8. 

Isaac Lausell, artistic director of the festival and assistant professor of guitar in the SIU School of Music, described the event as “a two-day immersion into the guitar and its traditions from around the world.” 

The featured guest artist is Armando Nuñez-Portillo from the Universidad Autónoma de Chihuahua, Mexico. Nuñez-Portillo is an advocate for jazz guitar. He launched a jazz program at his university that emphasizes jazz improvisation, jazz theory, jazz composing and arranging and jazz history. 

Other featured musicians are SIU students, and former faculty member and alumnus Joseph Palermo, currently an instructor at John A. Logan College and Rend Lake College. The students are: Ali Behfatian Esfahani, a doctoral student from Iran in the engineering science program, playing Persian setar; Jose Guzman, a graduate student from Puerto Rico in the music program, playing jazz guitar; and Marcus de Jesus, a graduate student from Brazil in the music program, playing Brazilian guitar. 

For the general public, tickets for any single event – a concert, recital, lecture, or master class are $12. 

Admission to all other festival events is free for SIU School of Music students, faculty and staff. Others may attend by purchasing a two-day pass for $50 or a one-day pass for $25. 

All events take place in the Old Baptist Foundation Recital Hall (OBF) and Altgeld Hall. Here’s a schedule: 

Friday, Nov. 7

Noon -- Check-in (OBF).

12:45 p.m. – Orientation with Isaac Lausell (OBF).

1 p.m. – Jose Guzman’s Jazz Trio recital (OBF).

2 p.m. -- Brazilian guitar fundamentals with Marcus de Jesus (OBF).

3 p.m. -- Jazz guitar chords with Jose Guzman (OBF).

7:30 p.m. -- Flute and guitar recital with Douglas Worthen and Isaac Lausell (OBF).  Worthen is assistant professor of flute and assistant director of the School of Music. 

Saturday, Nov. 8

9 a.m. -- Overview of the Persian setar with Ali Behjatian (Altgeld Hall, Room 110)

10 a.m. -- Classical guitar master class with Joseph Palermo (Altgeld Hall, Room 110)

Noon – Lunch break.

1 p.m. -- Jazz guitar master class with Armando Nuñez-Portillo (Altgeld Hall, Room 112)

3:15 p.m. -- SIU Guitar Ensembles Concert (Altgeld Hall, Room 110)

7:30 p.m. -- Armando Nuñez-Portillo Concert (Altgeld Hall, Room 112)