Fine Classical, Instrumental, and Specialty Recordings
Label: Productions d'Oz Item Number: DZ3265 Format: Download Year Recorded: 2018 13 Ways of Looking at 12 Strings The Duo Michael Kudirka - Guitar Eric Benzant-Feldra - Guitar
The Duo Formed in 1998, Eric Benzant-Feldra and Michael Kudirka began performing together as The Duo while studying with William Kanengiser at the University of Southern California. They have since performed across United States, Canada, Mexico, and Japan. Their repertoire spans a wide array of styles from arrangements of Jean-Philippe Rameau’s Pièces de Clavecin to neo-Moderinist microtonal masterworks. They have had many new works dedicated to them by composers Jeffrey Holmes, Veronika Krausas, Bryan Johanson, Naomi Sekiya, and Dusan Bogdanovic. Both Eric and Michael received their Master of Fine Arts degrees from the California Institute of the Arts studying with Miroslav Tadić. Currently Eric Benzant-Feldra is serving as a Musician in the United States Army. Michael Kudirka is on the music faculty at Arkansas State University. Michael Kudirka is a classical guitarist with many interests including collaborations with living composers, chamber music with guitar, and historical performance practice on lute and theorbo. Performing internationally throughout Europe, Asia, and North America he has appeared in many notable concert series, including Other Minds 8, the 43rd Darmstadt Ferienkurse für Neue Musik, Montreal's "Musique Contemporaine", Portland Guitar Festival, Guitar Foundation of America 2011 International Convention, Jacaranda "Music at the Edge", and the L.A. Philharmonic's "Minimalist Jukebox", among many others. He has won first prize at several major guitar competitions including the 2000 Portland International Guitar Competition, the American String Teachers Association Competition, the Pacific Guitar Competition, and the University of Southern California Concerto Competition. He has won grants from the Theodor Presser Foundation, the California Arts Council, and the American Composer's Forum and has held faculty positions at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, Interlochen Arts Academy, University of Southern California, and Idyllwild Arts Academy. Eric Benzant-Feldra has been a Musician and Soldier in the U.S. Army since 2012. In the Army, Eric has executed hundreds of musical missions performing for top Generals and Officers of the United States, Australia and Japan as well as international morale support for Soldiers and civilians alike. He has served as a Classical, Rock and Jazz guitarist at the famed 25th Infantry Division in Hawaii, the Army's I Corps Band in Washington and is currently stationed at the U.S. Army School of Music in Virginia. In the Rock field Eric recorded Pity Girl, and R.I.P. with independent Rap/Metal artist Mary Magdalan. Eric's electrifying performance style supported the singer on several national tours from 2007-2011. Eric Studied Classical Guitar Performance at the University of Southern California and the California Institute of the Arts under William Kanengiser and Miroslav Tadic. It is during this time that Eric earned his BM and MFA and first formed "The Duo" with Michael Kudirka and performed several international tours across the U.S. Canada, Mexico and Japan. The Duo's release of "13 Ways of Looking at 12 Strings" by Bryan Johanson was commissioned for The Duo and released in early 2019. Michael Kudirka - Guitar  Hailed by the Los Angeles Times as “the excellent guitarist in Henze’s unsettled score”, Michael Kudirka is among the most committed, daring, and diversely talented of the current generation of virtuoso guitarists. An avid and long-time advocate of cutting-edge new music, Kudirka has maintained a close collaboration with Los Angeles-based composer Jeffrey Holmes since 2002, and a retrospective album of Holmes’s microtonal guitar works will be released by MicroFest Records in January 2019. In November, 2017 Michael Kudirka completed his third production run of Thomas Adès's “The Exterminating Angel” at The Metropolitan Opera of New York, following runs at the Salzburger Festspiele (Austria) and The Royal Opera House (UK). Kudirka worked personally with Adès on the composer’s first-ever music written for guitar, and a DVD of The Met's Fall 2017 production will be released by Deutsche Grammophon. Kudirka has also collaborated with 2017 MacArthur Foundation ‘Genius’ Award Winner Yuval Sharon in his production of Veronika Krausas’s chamber opera “The Mortal Thoughts of Lady Macbeth”. Michael Kudirka performs around the globe as a recitalist and chamber musician, and has appeared at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music (China), Darmstadt Ferienkurse Fur Neue Musik (Germany), Le Chappelle Historique du Bon Pasteur (Montreal), Royal Conservatory of Music (Toronto), Conservatorio de Las Rosas (Mexico), Ono Guitar School (Japan), Palace of Fine Arts (San Francisco), Walt Disney Concert Hall (Los Angeles), Zipper Recital Hall (Los Angeles), REDCAT (Los Angeles), Flatfile Galleries (Chicago), Lincoln Recital Hall (Portland), and many others. He has performed at numerous festivals and guitar societies including the 2011 Guitar Foundation of America Convention, Baldwin-Wallace International Guitar Festival, Portland Guitar Festival, American Guitar Society, Jacaranda – Music at the Edge, Pacific Standard Time’s Stravinsky Retrospective, Austin Classical Guitar Society, New Mexico Guitar Festival, Grand Canyon Guitar Society, Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s “Sunday’s Live”, American Composers Forum, MicroFest, Seattle Classical Guitar Society, Northwest Guitar Society, Other Minds 8, and Music of Changes. Michael Kudirka's primary chamber ensemble is Duo Amantis, with flutist Tara Schwab. Their debut album, featuring 21st-century music for flute and guitar by Bogdanovic, Holmes, Tadic, and Ourkouzounov will be released by Les Éditions Doberman-Yppan in 2018. Dr. Kudirka received his BM and DMA from the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music where he studied with William Kanengiser, James Smith, and Brian Head, and his MFA from the California Institute of the Arts where he studied with Miroslav Tadic. He has taught at the Idyllwild Arts Academy, California Institute of the Arts, University of Southern California, Interlochen Arts Academy, Interlochen Summer Arts Camp, and the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. He is currently a faculty member at Arkansas State University. Eric Benzant-Feldra - Guitar  Eric Benzant-Feldra is an Army Musician (Soldier), currently serving as Supply NCO at the Army School of Music. Eric has worked at America's First Corps Band and the 25th Infantry Division Band. He also has taught guitar at Pomona College, and studied 20th-century classical music at California Institute of the Arts, and Classical Guitar Performance at University of Southern California. Eric lives in Virginia Beach, Virginia. "13 Ways of Looking at 12 Strings" was composed in 2002 by Bryan Johanson for The Duo (Eric Benzant-Feldra and Michael Kudirka). Commissioned by Rick and Ginny Tinling, it was premiered by The Duo at the 2003 Portland Guitar Festival. The work’s thirteen movements are divided into three parts: Part I: Cool Cubed (four short guitar duos), Part II: Pentadigitopia (a guitar solo, three duos using unusual timbres, then a second guitar solo), and Part III: Cube Squared (four larger guitar duos). 1. Toccataesque: a short, bravura work introducing the overall vibe of the album: upbeat, virtuosic, funky, and thrilling. 2. Bad Egg Cafe: The letters of the title constitute the opening melody of this, the only truly “slow” movement in 13 Ways of Looking at 12 Stings. Guitar I plays: B, A, D, E, G, G, and Guitar II responds with: C, A, F, E. 3. Mr. Owl Ate My Metal Worm: Like the title, this movement is a palindrome. The music turns back on itself in the exact center as every pitch and rhythm is played in reverse order. 4. Le Petit Groove Royale: After a short introduction referencing J.S. Bach’s “Royal Theme” from Das Musikalische Opfer, a hard-swinging jazz groove section brings Part I to its conclusion. 5. A Philosopher’s Song: The first of two solos, A Philosopher's Song reenacts the moment in which a bedridden René Descartes creates his eponymous coordinate system to track the random motion of a fly on the ceiling. 6. Strings Etouffee: This play on words reimagines the traditional Creole cooking technique étouffée (smothering) by dampening the guitar strings with soft foam mutes. 7. Slide Rule: Guitars held in the performer’s laps, this movement is played entirely with glass slides in the right hand and light percussive effects in the left hand. Improvisational sections mimic a turntablist’s scratching skills. 8. Steel Pans: Metal paper clips woven between the strings near the bridge of each guitar emulate the astonishing timbral characteristics of Caribbean steel pan music, with unexpected overtones and the delightfully “out of tune” quality of each pitch. 9. From the Diary of a Fly: The second guitar solo, this movement revisits Descartes in his sickbed, but now from the perspective of the fly buzzing around the room. It doesn’t end well for the fly… 10. EGAD!: The first movement of Part III, EGAD! engages in an almost ludicrously long canon at the unison, with Guitar II exactly repeating what Guitar I plays one measure behind. After a meditative central portion, the two guitar’s roles are reversed. 11. Give the Strummer Some: This movement is in two main sections. The first pits Guitar II, (with its unflappably calm rolled chords) against the passionate exhortations of Guitar I. The second half brings Guitar II into the spotlight with hard-driving surf-guitar inspired strumming. 12. Fuguetude: An étude focused on a right-hand triplet technique (p, a, i) molded into a large-scale fugue, complete with an exposition, episodes, middle-entries, and occasional stretto. 13. Jammus Vulgaris: This “vulgar jam” is in the form of 12-bar blues. Semi-improvised sections are followed by almost heavy-metal inspired riffs in perfect 5ths. The work concludes with a flashy piu mosso coda containing some of the most virtuosic fingerwork of the entire piece.
Label: Productions d'Oz Item Number: DZ3265 Format: Download Year Recorded: 2018 Recording Engineer: Scott Fraser Epic album-length composition by Bryan Johanson, composed for and dedicated to The Duo (Eric Benzant-Feldra and Michael Kudirka, guitars). World premiere recording of all thirteen movements in three parts: Cool Cubed, Pentadigitopia, and Cube Squared. Not Available | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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