The guitar Duo Santorsa – Moy began as a collaboration with the composer Helmut Lachenmann for the 900presente contemporary concert series in Lugano, Switzerland. They have held concerts in Switzerland and Germany in the Stelio Molo RSI Auditorium and the Darmstadt Ferienkurse 2016. This concert will feature contemporary music for guitar duo and takes its title from its central piece. Salut für Caudwell (1977) is a milestone not only in the guitar repertoire but also in the history of contemporary music as a whole. The piece, extremely long (25 minutes) and demanding, explores non traditional methods of playing the guitar, featuring a high pitched texture played beyond the fretboard and the use of a plectrum and metal slide. The musicians are also given a text to recite rhythmically and syllabically while simultaneously playing the guitar. Ruben Mattia Santorsa and Christopher Moy have had the opportunity to work on the piece with the composer himself, Helmut Lachenmann. The three short pieces for two guitars by Hans Werner Henze come from the composer’s vast theatrical works. The Pastorale, Arietta, and Notturno are arrangements from his opera Pollicino. The pieces were transcribed by guitarists Jürgen Ruck and Elena Càsoli with the permission of the composer. Nagoya Guitars is a transcription by David Tannenbaum (with the approval of the composer) of Nagoya Mar. In addition to the three listed pieces in duo, Christopher Moy will play music for solo guitar by Hans Werner Henze while Ruben Mattia Santorsa will present the premier of a piece by the young composer Nemanja Radivojevic.
The Program
Thérèse Brenet (*1935)
Torsades Volutes
Nemanja Radivojevic (*1981)
Courants V pour guitare seule – World Premiere
Guitar solo: Ruben Mattia Santorsa
Hans Werner Henze (1926-2016)
Royal Winter Music, first sonata on Shakespearean characters: I. Gloucester
Guitar solo: Christoper Moy
Hans Werner Henze (1926-2016)
Pastorale – Arietta – Notturno
Steve Reich (*1936)
Nagoya Guitars
Helmut Lachenmann (*1935)
Salut für Caudwell
The Musicians
Christopher Moy (b. 1990) is an American classical and electric guitarist. Christopher earned his Master of Arts in Music Performance and his Master of Advanced Studies in Contemporary Music Performance and Interpretation with the honor “con lode,” studying with professor Lorenzo Micheli at the Conservatorio della Svizzera Italiana in Lugano, Switzerland. He began his musical studies at the age of four with the violin at the Peabody Preparatory in Baltimore, Maryland. He received his classical guitar training from Franco Platino at the Levine School of Music in Washington DC and from professor Julian Gray at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, where he earned a scholarship to complete his Bachelor of Music with the highest grade. He is currently pursuing a Master of Arts in Specialized Music Performance in Contemporary Music at the Hochschule für Musik in Basel, Switzerland, where he studies with professor Michael Svoboda. Christopher has performed concerts in the US, Switzerland, Germany, and Italy. In 2010 he took part in a guitar orchestra performance of Shingo Fuji’s “Concierto de Los Angeles” under the direction of Julian Gray and with William Kanengiser as a soloist in Bethesda, Maryland. In 2013 he performed the guitar quartet “Canciones Remotas” by Leo Brouwer at the Künstlerhaus Boswil and in the same year held concerts in Boswil, Lugano, Basel, and Ftan as the electric guitarist with the Boswil contemporary music ensemble. Also in 2013 he performed the piece “Quartett für vier Gitarren” by Georg Friedrich Haas for the ‘900presente contemporary concert series in Lugano, and in 2014 performed “Serenata per un satellite” by Bruno Maderna in ensemble for the Suoni Riflessi concert series in Florence. In 2015 he was invited as a jazz guitarist to perform with orchestra at the Camerata dei Castelli series in Bellinzona. In 2016 he collaborated with guitarist Ruben Mattia Santorsa to perform the guitar duo “Salut für Caudwell” by Helmut Lachenmann on two separate occasions; in the Stelio Molo RSI Auditorium in Lugano for the ‘900presente concert series and at the Darmstadt Ferienkurse 2016, the former under the direction of Helmut Lachenmann himself. Christopher won first prize in the instrumental division of the Marlin-Engel Music Competition in 2007 and grand prize in the John and Susie Beatty Classical Gutiar Competition in 2008, both in Washington DC. He studied jazz at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore with guitarist Paul Bollenback and saxophonist Gary Thomas, and was the guitarist in the Maryland All-State Jazz Band in 2008. He currently plays in the jazz/rock quintet Sharp Shock, based in Lugano.
Ruben Mattia Santorsa was born in 1992. He is an Italian classical and electric guitarist. He graduated the Master of Performance at the Hochschule of Bern with the teacher Elena Càsoli with “Auszeichnung”. He is attending the Master Specialized in Soloist (Solistendiplom) and won the scholarship Swiss Government Excellence for the years 2013-2015, which was conferred to the best students who have been admitted to a Swiss university. In October 2011 he graduated with the maximum note at the conservatory of Verona and with the maximum note and lode at the Biennio sperimentale of guitar with Walter Zanetti at the conservatory of Bologna. He also studied composition with Paolo Aralla and Federico Zandona’. He has given several solo recitals in Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Hungary, Germany, Colombia and Bosnia and Herzegovina: Munich (Münchener Biennale), Wien (Istituto Italiano di Cultura), Budapest (Pestszentimrei Evangélikus Gyülekeze), Lugano (Auditorium Stelio Moro), Bogotà (Universidad de los Andes), Bern (Grosser KonzertaSaal), Zurich (Literaturhaus), Biel (Maison du Peuple), Geneva (Église Luthérienne), Darmstadt (Grosser Konzertsaal, Centralstation Halle), Sarajevo (Army Hall), Milan (Auditorium Martinitt e Stelline, Auditorium Arzaga), Venice (Villa Groggia, Scolèta dei Calegheri), Noto (Sala degli Specchi), Verona (Sala Maffeiana, San Pietro in Martire), Bologna (Cappella Farnese, Museo della Musica) Pordenone (Convento di S. Francesco). He played as a soloist with the Orchestra of the Conservatory of Bologna and with the Schweizer Opernstudio. He is specializing in contemporary music, and he met and collaborated with composers like Helmut Lachenmann, Helmut Oehring, Salvatore Sciarrino, Giacomo Manzoni, Sylvano Bussotti, Maurizio Pisati, Catalina Peralta, Daniel Weissberg. He played the premieres of pieces of young composers such asRosalba Quindici, Maurizio Azzan, Yesid Fonseca, Rocco De Cia,Michele Foresi, Karim Younis. He attended the Chigiana Summer Academy 2015 with Oscar Ghiglia (with Diploma di Merito), the Internationales Musikinstitut Darmstadt 2014 with Tom Pauwels and the Akademie für Zeitgenössische Musik in Luzern 2015 with Mats Scheidegger.