Global Kick off Concert 7:00PM
@ MoCA Westport
Daniel Lippel - contemporary
Djani Sehu - classical
David Steinhardt - classical
The Quarantened Quartet - Flamenco
A feat of styles and artists kick off the 2024 festival in the beautiful gallery of MoCA Westport.
Daniel Lippel,
Guitarist Daniel Lippel, called an “exciting soloist” (New York Times) has a multi-faceted
career as a soloist, chamber musician, collaborator, and recording artist. Recent recital
highlights include Cleveland International Guitar Festival, Le Poisson Rouge (NYC),
Sinus Ton Festival (Germany), the National University of Colombia in Bogota, and the
Triangle and New York Classical Guitar Societies. As a contemporary chamber
musician, he has been a member of the International Contemporary Ensemble since
2005 and counter)induction since 2019, and played as a guest with many other
ensembles, including St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, New York City Ballet, New York New
Music Ensemble, Wet Ink Ensemble, Talea Ensemble, and Ensemble Dal Niente,
performing at such venues as the Dutch National Opera, Ultima Festival at the Oslo
Opera House (Norway), Guitar Foundation of America Convention (Manhattan School of
Music), Macau Festival (China), and Kunst Universitaet Graz (Austria), Mostly Mozart
Festival, Ojai Festival, and Ottawa Chamber Festival (Canada). He has worked closely
with many composers including Mario Davidovsky, Nils Vigeland, Charles Wuorinen,
Ken Ueno, Dai Fujikura, Tyshawn Sorey, Wang Lu, Reiko Fueting, Du Yun, Douglas
Boyce, Kyle Bartlett, Mikel Kuehn, and John Link. Lippel has also been active in various
creative improvised contexts in performance and on recording, including on projects
with Cory Smythe, Will Mason’s Happy Place, Alejandro Florez, Dan Bruce, and Aidan
Plank. As longtime guitarist with eclectic indie group Mice Parade he performed on
several international tours and albums. He is the co-founder, owner, and director of New
Focus Recordings, performing and producing on several of its albums, as well as
appearing on recordings on other labels including Kairos, Sony Classical Japan, Bridge,
Tzadik, Wergo, and New World. Australia’s Limelight magazine called his recent
recording of Bach works on a re-fretted Well-Tempered guitar “a watershed in Lippel’s
ability to bring together novel musicological and philosophical strands in the service of
pure pleasure.”
Djani Sehu
As a soloist and chamber musician, Šehu has performed throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia, Austria, France, Sweden, Italy and Germany. He has performed as a soloist with the Sarajevo Philharmonic Orchestra (Bosnia and Herzegovina), the Tonart Simfonietta (Austria), and the Dubrovnik string quartet (Croatia). Since 2006 he is teaching at the Music Academy of University of Sarajevo. His students have gained worldwide attention with their successes at international competitions and concerts throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina and abroad. In addition to his active concert schedule, he is a guest of many festivals internationally as a master class clinician and serving as a member of the juries. He is a founder and director of the Sarajevo International Guitar Festival and International “SIGF
Summer School”.
David Steinhardt
Winning over 10 competitions, David is the youngest guitarist to place first at the Hamilton International and Great Lakes Collegiate Guitar Competition. A sought after performer, David has concertized across the US, Canada, and Europe in venues including Carnegie/Wigmore Hall and festivals including Hamilton, Montreal, and Ullapool International Guitar Festivals. Concerto highlights include his debut with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra at the age of 17 and the Los Angeles debut of Steve Goss’ Concerto of Colours with the USC Wind Ensemble. On the radio, David has performed for NPR’s From the Top, WXXI’s Backstage Pass, and Classical KUSC’s Sunday’s Live. Through online platforms, he has been featured by Guitar Salon International and Guy Traviss.
As a podcaster, David was host and producer of The Tonebase Classical Guitar Podcast. Through the show, David interviewed guitarists of well renown including Pepe Romero, Judicaël Perroy, Scott Tennant, Eliot Fisk, and Gabriel Bianco. The podcast focused on insightful topics ranging from pedagogical approaches to recording techniques with listeners across 20+ countries.
A passionate educator, David has taught masterclasses/workshops for Guitar Hamilton, Guitar San Antonio, and the Interlochen Arts Academy. He is on faculty at Levine Music and holds a virtual private studio. David currently plays a Paco Santiago Marin guitar.
The Quarantined Quartet
Elysa and Jason are also the founders of the New York Guitar Academy. Their academy offers classes and lessons for children to adults in all styles and levels of guitar and they had to closed thier Manhattan studio in 2020 and transfer everything to remote learning. New York Guitar Academy was rated the number 1 school to learn guitar in TimeOut New York Kids. They released 3 books with Classical & Flamenco Guitar Solos & Etudes that features over 65 original etudes and songs for classical and flamenco guitar students.. Their family project unexpectedly lifted their academy online classes to new heights.
Jay & Lee Rumba Flamenca is Jason (Jay) and Elysa’s (Lee) highly acclaimed guitar duo that performs Rumba Flamenca and Spanish Classical Guitar in New York metropolitan area. They’ve had tons of notable performances including performances at Lincoln Center, US Open Finals Pre-Game Shows and many more events for widely recognized organizations, businesses, celebrities and museums. They released 2 albums under their guitar duo name “Jay & Lee.” These albums are titled “Strums of Brooklyn” and “Guitar Duets.”
TICKETS $50 adults $35 senior & students
