Grammy-winning guitarist to perform with Wichita Falls Symphony

• What: Sharon Isbin with the Wichita Falls Symphony Orchestra

• When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday Nov. 5

• Where: Akin Auditorium, Midwestern State University, 3410 Taft Blvd.

• Information and Tickets: www.wfso.org and (940) 723-6202

The Wichita Falls Symphony Orchestra will perform its second program celebrating its 75th Anniversary at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Akin Auditorium at Midwestern State University. The performance will feature world-renowned classical guitarist, Sharon Isbin, a multiple Grammy winner.

Isbin has recorded over 35 albums since 1978 and will perform two concertos with the WFSO composed by Antonio Vivaldi and Joaquin Rodrigo. Isbin founded the guitar department at the Julliard School in 1989 and directs it. She has played with guitarists as disparate as rocker Steve Vai and jazz-player Larry Coryell, but it best known for her classical work.

Fouad Fakhouri, WFSO Musical Director and Conductor, is very pleased to feature her performing with a 40-piece orchestra in Akin Auditorium. “It’s going to be a very nice program,” said Fakhouri. “Akin is a very different experience for this music than Memorial Auditorium, because it’s much more intimate.”

Isbin will be sitting at the edge of the stage, almost right with the audience, he said. “The guitar will be heard so clearly, and I am hoping the balance between the guitar and the orchestra will come off exactly as these pieces were meant to be performed.”

The program will include Gioachino Rossini’s “Overture to Il signor Bruschino” (1813), Jessie Montgomery’s “Starburst” (2012), Vivaldi’s “Guitar Concerto, RV 93, D Major (1716), Rodrigo’s “Concierto de Aranjuez” (1939), and after an intermission, Felix Mendelssohn’s “Symphony No. 1, op. 11, C minor (1824).

Isbin called herself a “bit of an accidental guitarist,” in a podcast with Fakhouri. “When I was 9 years old, our family moved from Minneapolis to Italy for a year,” she said. Her brother wanted guitar lessons and the family found a teacher who had studied with Andres Segovia. When her sibling - who wanted to be the next Elvis Presley found out it was classical guitar - she volunteered to take his place.

Isbin was fortunate to study with Segovia, Oscar Ghiglia, and noted Bach scholar and pianist Rosalyn Turek. Her bachelors and masters degrees are from Yale, and she began touring professionally in Europe at the age of 17.

The guitarist said that she approaches each piece, as in “Every day is a new beginning, as is every concert. I approach it as if it’s the first and last time that I’ll be doing it, and that really gives it a sense of spontaneity and freshness.” She actually came to know Rodrigo in Madrid and got coaching from him for his “Concierto de Aranjuez.”

“I chose her,” Fakhouri said, “because in my estimation, she’s probably, if not the best guitar player today working, she is within the top three to five guitarists worldwide. We are really fortunate to have her. She is at the top of her field.”

Isbin has performed before with the WFSO at Memorial Auditorium. At Akin, she will perform with eight first violins, eight second violins, six cellists, six basses as well as double winds and double brass.

Fakhouri said Vivaldi’s “Guitar Concerto, RV 93” was originally written for lute (the predecessor of the guitar) and strings and has since been adapted for guitar. “Rodrigo’s ‘Concierto de Aranjuez’ is the major concerto for guitar and it’s very famous.” The conductor said listeners will likely recognize the piece.

Fakhouri described the Vivaldi as “very energetic and lively.” It captures the essence of the music of Spain, he said, including flamenco-style strumming.

“Anytime I hear it, it conjures up Spain. The composer wrote it there and was very much trying to capture Spain in that piece,” the conductor said.

The concert will open with Rossini’s “Overture to Il signor Bruschino,” one of Fakhouri’s favorite composers. The composer really knows how to create drama in music and his music should be even more impactful in Akin. “Rossini was such a genuinely creative composer that was always interested in creating novel ideas and implementing new things in his music.”

Montgomery (“Starburst”) is a contemporary New York City composer in her late 30’s/early 40’s.

“Her work is becoming more and more performed, and I thought it would be wonderful to perform a piece by a woman who is alive and working right now. It’s very upbeat and really, really flashy work for the strings,” Fakhouri said.

Fakhouri loves programming music being written today.

“Things that are adventurous and of our time. I love that music, but I always balance that with the desire of our audiences. Many of our loyal supporters like to hear the more traditional works, so I always try to include something new but balance it with works from the main repertoire,” he said.

Following the guitar concertos, there will be an intermission, and the orchestra will perform Mendelssohn’s “Symphony No. 1.” The composer completed the symphony when he was 15, "and it is brilliantly written,” Fakhouri said. “This symphony is not performed as much as his other works, but I wanted something that our audience might not be very well aware of.”

Like with the compositions of Rossini, Fakhouri is also very close to Mendelssohn’s work. “I think he should be heard a lot more, and his music is extremely developed, even at a young age. At 15, you can look at his work and think, this is the work of a master, already.”

The next WFSO concert will be Hometown Holiday Pops at 7:30 p.m. Saturday Dec. 10 at Memorial Auditorium.

This article originally appeared on Wichita Falls Times Record News: Grammy-winning guitarist to perform with Symphony