Guitar virtuoso Jason Vieaux has won the 2015 Grammy Award for Best Classical Instrumental Solo for his album Play. This is Vieaux's first Grammy nomination and win. Released on Azica Records in January 2014, the album celebrates Jason Vieaux’s 20th anniversary as a performer by featuring the Spanish, Mexican, South American, Cuban, French, and American classics that Vieaux has found to be universal audience favorites over the past two decades. The music includes showpieces by Barrios, Sagreras, Bustamante, and Sainz De La Maza, Tárrega’s classics Recuerdos de la Alhambra and Capricho Arabe, Vieaux’s own in-demand arrangement of Duke Ellington’s In A Sentimental Mood, and Andrew York’s popular Sunburst.
NPR describes Vieaux as, “perhaps the most precise and soulful classical guitarist of his generation,” and Gramophone magazine puts him “among the elite of today's classical guitarists.” Of Play, Soundboard Magazine wrote, “If you ever want to give a friend a disc that will cement his or her love for the guitar, this is a perfect candidate,” while Premier Guitar raved, “You’d be hard pressed to find versions performed with more confidence, better tone, and a more complete understanding of the material.” The Huffington Post declared that Play is “part of the revitalized interest in the classical guitar.” NPR Music listed “Zapateado” by Sainz de la Maza among its “50 Favorite Songs of 2014 (So Far),” in June 2014.
Jason Vieaux’s next appearances include concerts in Oberlin, OH (February 11); Akron, OH (Akron Symphony, February 14); Miami, FL (Florida Guitar Foundation, February 21); New York, NY (92Y, February 28); Oak Ridge, TN (Oak Ridge Symphony, March 7); Brookville, NY (Long Island Guitar Festival, April 26); Philadelphia, PA (World Café Live, May 7); New York, NY (Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, May 15); Boston, MA (Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, May 17), and Cleveland, OH (Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival, May 28). For details: http://www.jasonvieaux.com/schedule.htm
Vieaux’s latest album is Together, with harpist Yolanda Kondonassis (released January 2015, review copies available). Together features original works for harp and guitar including Alan Hovhaness’ Spirit of Trees, Xavier Montsalvatge’s Fantasia, Máximo Diego Pujol’s Suite Magica, and two world premiere recordings of works commissioned by the duo: Knock on Wood (2012) by Keith Fitch and Hypnotized (2013) by Gary Schocker. Sample Together: http://bit.ly/PreviewTogether
Jason Vieaux has earned a reputation for putting his expressiveness and virtuosity at the service of a remarkably wide range of music, and his schedule of performing, teaching, and recording commitments is distinguished throughout the U.S. and abroad. His solo recitals have been a feature at every major guitar series in North America and at many of the important guitar festivals in Asia, Australia, Europe, and Mexico. Recent and future highlights include returns to the Caramoor Festival, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, and New York's 92nd Street Y, as well as performances at Argentina’s Teatro Colon and Oslo, Norway’s Classical Music Fest. Vieaux’s appearances for Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Music@Menlo, Strings Music Festival, Grand Teton, and many others have forged his reputation as a first-rate chamber musician and programmer. He collaborates in recitals this season with Escher Quartet, acclaimed harpist Yolanda Kondonassis, and accordion/bandoneón virtuoso Julien Labro. Vieaux’s passion for new music has fostered premieres of works by Dan Visconti, David Ludwig, Jerod Tate, Eric Sessler, José Luis Merlin and Gary Schocker.
Jason Vieaux has performed as concerto soloist with nearly 100 orchestras, including Cleveland, Houston, Toronto, San Diego, Ft. Worth, Santa Fe, Charlotte, Buffalo, Grand Rapids, Kitchener-Waterloo, Richmond, Edmonton, IRIS Chamber, Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Chautauqua Festival, and New Hampshire Music Festival. Some of the conductors he has worked with include David Robertson, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Jahja Ling, Stefan Sanderling, Michael Stern, David Lockington, Steven Smith, and Edwin Outwater.
Vieaux’s previous eleven albums include a recording of Astor Piazzolla’s music with Julien Labro and A Far Cry Chamber Orchestra; Bach: Works for Lute, Vol. 1, which hit No. 13 on Billboard’s Classical Chart after its first week and received rave reviews by Gramophone, The Absolute Sound, and Soundboard; Images of Metheny, featuring music by American jazz legend Pat Metheny (who after hearing this landmark recording declared: “I am flattered to be included in Jason's musical world”); and Sevilla: The Music of Isaac Albeniz, which made several Top Ten lists the year of its release. Vieaux’s albums and live performances are regularly heard on radio and internet around the world, and his work is the subject of feature articles in print and online around the world, including such magazines as Acoustic Guitar, MUSO, Gramophone, and on NPR’s “Deceptive Cadence.” Vieaux was the first classical musician to be featured on NPR’s popular “Tiny Desk” series.
In 2012, the Jason Vieaux School of Classical Guitar was launched with ArtistWorks Inc., an unprecedented technological interface that provides one-on-one online study with Vieaux for guitar students around the world. In 2011, he co-founded the guitar department at The Curtis Institute of Music, and he has taught at the Cleveland Institute of Music since 1997, heading the guitar department since 2001.
Vieaux is a member of the Advisory Board of the Guitar Foundation of America, and is affiliated with Philadelphia’s Astral Artists. His primary teachers were Jeremy Sparks and John Holmquist. In 1992 he was awarded the prestigious GFA International Guitar Competition First Prize, the event’s youngest winner ever. He is also honored with a Naumburg Foundation top prize, a Cleveland Institute of Music Alumni Achievement Award, and a Salon di Virtuosi Career Grant. In 1995, Vieaux was an Artistic Ambassador of the U.S. to Southeast Asia. Jason Vieaux is represented by Jonathan Wentworth Associates, Ltd. For more information, visit www.jasonvieaux.com; Jason is tweeting @JasonVieaux, and his Facebook fan page is www.facebook.com/jasonvieaux.
Album Information
Jason Vieaux: Play
Alan Bise, Producer and Digital Editor | Bruce Egre, Recording Engineer
Azica Records
Tracks:
1. Jongo by Paulo Bellinati (Brazil)
2. El Colibri by Julio Sagreras (Argentina)
3. A Felicidade by Antônio Carlos Jobim (Brazil) arr. Roland Dyens (France)
4. Cavatina from The Deer Hunter by Stanley Myers (UK)
5. Capricho Arabe by Francisco Tárrega (Spain)
6. Sunburst by Andrew York (US)
7. Danza Caracteristica by Leo Brouwer (Cuba)
8. Tango en Skai by Roland Dyens (France)
9. Recuerdos de la Alhambra by Francisco Tárrega (Spain)
10. Las Abejas by Agustin Barrios (Paraguay)
11. Estudio Sin Luz by Andrés Segovia (Spain)
12. Vals Venozolano No. 3 by Antonio Lauro (Venezuela)
13. Misionera by Fernando Bustamante (Argentina) arr. Jorge Morel (Argentina)
14. Por Ti Mi Corazon, Trad. Mexican Folk Song arr. Manuel Ponce (Mexico)
15. Zapateado by Regino Sainz de la Maza (Spain)
16. Vals, Op. 8, No. 4 by Agustin Barrios (Paraguay)
17. In A Sentimental Mood by Duke Ellington (US) arr. Jason Vieaux (US)