Italians, The Guitar, and Memory: Thoughts from Washington DC

After work on Friday evening, I gave my wife a kiss and hopped in the car driving 8 hours to Washington DC to meet with my clients from Italy, SoloDuo (Guitarists Lorenzo Micheli and Matteo Mela). As featured performers at the Alexandria, VA Guitar Festival Saturday night, they dazzled a packed house at the George Washington Masonic Memorial Theater. After the performance, which featured the works of Antoine de Lhoyer, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Ferdinand Rebay, and Mauro Giuliani, I finally met Stephen Brookes, the arts critic for the Washington Post who had given SoloDuo rave reviews we used on our Solaria CD. He just came back from Cambodia last night and was able to catch the concert. He wrote a piece about the Guitar Festival on his blog, "Most of the She-Bang" explaining the unique place of the classical guitar in the music landscape. If you get a chance to read Stephen's other works on the blog, I think you will find it quite diverse and enlightening culturally.

The good news on the Pomegranate front is that SoloDuo's new album "Solaria" is getting great reviews, and enthusiastic receptions from the guitar community. As a result, negotiations are under way to sign SoloDuo to a three CD recording deal, plus a DVD project. Interesting enough, the DVD project may be recorded in Armenia during a potential Armenia tour in 2008 that is still being worked on. A planned trip to Italy to supervise the Arsineh Khachikian photo shoot of Lorenzo and Matteo is imminent. The next album will feature Italian composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, with a guest appearance by the Torino Symphony Orchestra. The 40'th anniversary of Castelnuovo-Tedesco's death will be celebrated in Italy and thus plans for the album's release is underway.

On another note, Florence Chakerian, the matriarch of the New Mexico Armenian community passed away a few weeks ago. An extended appreciation was written about her and another member of the New Mexico Armenian community in a groong piece HERE. As I mentioned back in 2006 on this blog, Florence was my initial contact to the Armenian community for the YerazArt concerts we presented in Albuquerque in April 2007. I was amazed by her spirit and wits at the age of 91 years old. I finally had a chance to meet her for the first time after months of corresponding with her on April 29, 2007. The groong piece is an interesting one, and from all of us at YerazArt, we will truly miss her.

Photo Credit: Arsineh Khachikian (SoloDuo in Aosta, Italy)- Copyright Pomegranate Music