|
|
 |
Donald E. Osborne, Director California Artists Management 564 Market Street, Suite 420, San Francisco, CA 94104-5412 415 362-2787 / fax: 415 362-2838 / Skype: calartistsdon / Email |
Susan Endrizzi Morris, Director California Artists Management P.O. Box 2479, Mendocino, CA 95460-2479 707-937-4787 / cell: 415-302-1083 / Skype: sueendrizzi / Email |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 Download Bio Listen Website |
David Tanenbaum
Guitar
(updated July 2010-– please discard any previous version) |
Internationally renowned
guitarist David Tanenbaum has become one of the most sought after and highly
esteemed guitarists of his generation. An outstanding artist and charismatic
teacher, he has performed throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe,
Australia, Russia and Asia. He was the first American to be invited by the
Chinese Government to perform in China.
He has been soloist with prominent orchestras around the world, including
the Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra,
Oakland Symphony, London Sinfonietta and Vienna’s ORF orchestra, performing with
such eminent conductors as Esa-Pekka Salonen, Kent Nagano and John Adams.
He has been featured at many leading international festivals, including
those of Vienna, Frankfurt, Barcelona and Bath, as well as numerous guitar
festivals.
While David Tanenbaum’s
repertoire encompasses a wide diversity of musical styles, he is recognized as
one of the most eloquent proponents of contemporary guitar repertoire. In 1989,
as President of the Second American Classical Guitar Congress, he commissioned
five new works, including Rosewood by
Henry Brant for guitar orchestra, which he has conducted more than a dozen times
in Europe and Australia. Among the many works composed for him are Hans Werner
Henze’s guitar concerto: An Eine Äolsharfe,
which he premiered at the Lucerne Festival, performed throughout Europe and
recorded with the composer conducting; four works by Pulitzer Prize winner Aaron
Jay Kernis; two pieces by Roberto Sierra; and a suite by Lou Harrison. Terry
Riley composed his first two guitar pieces for David Tanenbaum, and they are
currently working on a series of 24 new works for guitar.
He has toured extensively with Steve Reich and Musicians and performed in
Japan in 1991 at the invitation of Toru Takemitsu.
He has had a long association with the Ensemble Modern and is currently a
member of the World Guitar Ensemble. As a chamber musician, he has collaborated
with the Kronos, Shanghai, Alexander, Chester, and New Zealand String Quartets,
and with the Cuarteto Latinoamericano and guitarist Manuel Barrueco.
In August 2008, he served as
Artistic Director of the Guitar Foundation of America festival, where he
performed with long-time colleagues Terry Riley and Aaron Jay Kernis. In 2009 he
gave the world premiere of Repentance
by Sofia Gubaidulina at Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco. That season also
brought an appearance with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and a tour to New
Zealand. Highlights of other recent
seasons include performances of John Adams’
Naïve and Sentimental Music with the
San Francisco Symphony, Aaron Jay Kernis’
Concierto de Dance Hits, with the composer conducting San Francisco’s New
Century Chamber Orchestra; playing Astor Piazzolla’s
Double Concerto for Guitar, Bandoneon and
Strings with Jorge Trivisann; a tour with the World Guitar Ensemble; and
performances as far-ranging as Santa Fe, New York City and Cologne.
David Tanenbaum can be heard on
some thirty recordings on EMI, New Albion, Ars Musici, Rhino, GSP, Albany,
Audiofon, Bayer and Acoustic Music Records, among other labels. His Nonesuch
recording of John Adams’ Naive and
Sentimental Music with Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Los Angeles Philharmonic
was nominated for a 2002 Grammy for “Best New Composition.”
Mr. Tanenbaum is Chair of the
Guitar Department at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. He has written
three books, The Essential Studies,
which analyze the etudes of Sor, Carcassi and Brouwer and complement his
recordings of those works on GSP. His chapter on the Revival of the Classical
Guitar in the 20th Century appears in the Cambridge Companion to the Guitar.
Critical acclaim:
“Ronald Bruce Smith’s
Five Pieces for Guitar and Live Electronics (2007) is a kind of duet, in which
the electronics amplify and react to whatever the guitar is playing, creating
new material in the process. This partnership was most evident in the
thoughtful, final piece, Stelé, where both elements seemed to shape the music in
tandem, with guitar and electronics behaving almost as equals. Echoes, the first
piece, is a brilliant toccata-like movement, while the other three pieces evoke
flamenco, Brazilian, and middle-Eastern idioms. Guitarist David Tanenbaum gave
the work a vivid, thoroughly masterful performance.”
SFCV.org – November 5, 2009
“The San Francisco Chamber Players feast on the
very modern, the post-2000 music of the wet-ink variety. But the “Five Pieces”
for solo guitar and electronics heard Nov. 2 was a more traditional
new-millennium work than the others. Ronald Bruce Smith’s opus, performed by the
well-known local artist David Tanenbaum, became a sort of rhapsody for guitar
and ensemble, the ensemble effect coming from the electronics controlled by a
foot pedal, often echoing the solo guitar itself. The predominant effect was of
rich harmonies, sensuous sounds, and generous reverberation, well beyond the
output of the solo (amplified) classical guitar. Tanenbaum conveyed this very
effectively through animated strumming and string-picking. The contrasting
sections spread over the varied personae of the solo instrument, sometimes
Javanese, sometimes Brazilian. I especially relished the latter’s “Saudade”
(nostalgic yearning), an emotional trip not quickly forgotten.”
artssf.com – November 4, 2009
“Five Pieces for Guitar and Electronics is a suite of short pieces, two of which, “Lachrymal” and “Saudade,”
reflected on past traditions of music for the guitar and its ancestors. Most
important was the smooth integration of the guitar with the digital equipment
responsible for both sampling and transforming sounds from Tanenbaum’s
performance. The work constituted a perfect example of why the "marriage"
of art and technology does not have to be dominated by the technology.”
examiner.com - November 3, 2009
Performance at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music:
“Tanenbaum presented an excellent recital in a variety of chamber music
settings, along with one spellbinding solo work. The high point was Tanenbaum’s
moving rendition of Riley’s ‘Quando Cosas Malas Caen del Cielo,’ performing it
on a National Steel Guitar fretted in just intonation. Tanenbaum is without peer
in this music. He captured every mood to perfection - ebullient opening,
mournful solo, building determination, and painful conclusion - with an amazing
command of color, time, and empathy. While it would seem to be difficult to
follow such powerful music, Tanenbaum and violinist Axel Strauss took
Conservatory Concert Hall by storm in Astor Piazzolla’s Histoire du Tango. This
is a stylistic tour de force that asks a great deal of performers but offers
even more to audiences. I have heard many performances, but until Saturday night
none had matched the power of a recording by violinist Fernando Suarez Paz and
the Brazilian guitarist Odair Assad. Strauss and Tanenbaum accomplished that
feat, getting right every stylistic nuance and bringing down the house. I hope
they are considering a recording.”
SFCV.org - October 11, 2008
Contemporary “San Francisco” concert, Guitar Foundation of America:
“David Tanenbaum deserves immense credit for creating a spellbinding evening of
ensemble music, all written in the last few years for an instrument known for
its conservative solo literature. Terry Riley and David Tanenbaum rocked the
house with Riley’s Moonshine Sonata written for Just Intonation National Steel
Guitar, an instrument invented by Lou Harrison, and keyboards. I found it an
exciting contribution to the classical guitar world reminiscent of the best work
of the new music group called Bang on a Can All-Stars. The most ambitious and
deeply affecting work on the program was Aaron Jay Kernis’ Two Awakenings and a
Double Lullaby, a song cycle for soprano, violin, guitar obbligato, and piano.
Tanenbaum and Kernis always played with an exquisite sense of timing.”
SFCV.org - August 11, 2008
In recital at the University of New
Orleans:
“Tanenbaum’s gift for conjuring unique
sounds was equally evident.”
Times Picayune - April 12, 2008
Julian Bream tribute concert - 92nd Street Y:
“David Tanenbaum and Benjamin Verdery devoted
their sections of the program to works Mr. Bream commissioned. Mr. Tanenbaum’s
fluent, warm-toned performance of Takemitsu’s “All in Twilight” (1987) brought
out the gentle dissonances and carefully etched themes that make this composer’s
atmospheric late works so appealing.”
New York Times - March 3, 2008
Festival of New American Music:
“This San Francisco-based classical guitarist
made the case that the classical guitar repertoire is no longer the feel-good
provenance of the Iberian peninsula. He did it by combining stellar playing with
an intelligent mix of contemporary works for guitar by the likes of Steve Reich,
Terry Riley and Lou Harrison. Tanenbaum’s playing was clear and spiked with
feverish intensity. Most refreshing was the fact this guitar music carried a
strong political message. In a span of two hours, Tanenbaum gave his audience a
taste of what’s in store for the 21st century classical guitar.”
Sacramento Bee - December 30, 2007
Jorge Liderman birthday concert:
“The premiere of the buoyant
Aged Tunes found the
enterprising Cuarteto Latinoamericano and the superb guitarist, David Tanenbaum,
bonding in a propulsive colloquy so astutely balanced that guitar and viola
seemed to attack and soar with one voice. The piece is anchored by a striking
tune, which, after an eventful quarter-hour, emerges transformed but triumphant.
”
Financial Times - November 21, 2007
Lou Harrison’s “Scenes from
Nek Chand”:
“Tanenbaum performed Lou
Harrison’s ‘Scenes from Nek Chand,’ a deliciously sweet score composed for a
National steel guitar specifically built with frets that accommodate an
alternative system. The combination of bluesy bottleneck slides and Harrison’s
distinctly long-limbed melodies was intoxicating, and Tanenbaum (who pointed
out, referring to his black-tie getup, that it may have been ‘the first time a
guitar like this was played by someone dressed like this’) played it superbly.”
San Francisco Chronicle – October 5, 2006
Recording, Hans Werner Henze:
Royal Winter Music, on the Stradivarius Label:
A Breath of Shakespeare:
Interpretation: 5 stars, Sound Quality: 4 stars
“Hans Werner Henze’s two big
sonatas after Shakespearean characters for solo guitar are played in this
recording by David Tanenbaum, who Henze himself considers best able to
comprehend the essence of his music and convey this to the listener. Even though
the Royal Winter Music was originally written for another Julian Bream,
Tanenbaum enjoys the composer’s quasi benediction for the performance and the
understanding of the Sonata. What interpretation could be better than one which
by all accounts meets the intentions of the composer? These Sonatas are not
atonal or “difficult” pieces, as many people presume. For this we have to thank
David Tanenbaum who in his performances makes the movements understandable. His
playing is always clear and he clearly reveres he characters and the atmosphere
represented. His playing responds to, as one would say, a common sense of the
feelings. For example: perhaps we would have characterized Ophelia differently
from Henze, but thanks to Tanenbaum we understand in every moment how Henze
wants to characterize her and as a result, this interpretation is fun to hear.
Not because Tanenbaum plays like Henze told him. This interpretation is so
successful because he plays it in such a way that we can understand Henze’s
music. The fact that he is in contact with the composer gives this
interpretation a special importance, but it should not diminish praise for the
interpeter; it’s his virtuosity and his facility that make Henze’s Shakespeare a
true joy.”
www.klassik.com - December 16, 2005
John Adams’
Naive and Sentimental Music, San
Francisco Symphony, Alan Gilbert:
“The frighteningly beautiful
slow-movement unfolds in lush, flowing harmonies, like the pasacaglia at the
center of Adams' Violin Concerto; a steel-stringed guitar, played with gently
incisive phrasing by David Tanenbaum, offers a bright solo line.”
San Francisco Chronicle - October 22, 2004
Solo recital, Portland Guitar
Festival, Portland, OR:
“This year’s festival opened with
a concert by the phenomenal David Tanenbaum.
Tanenbaum gave a quietly mind-blowing performance.
To call him a master of the instrument seems like faint praise – he’s
among the finest musicians on any instrument you’ll ever hear, one of those rare
players whose technical and interpretive skills are both of the highest order.
As a demonstration of both his head and his hands, the program was
brilliantly chosen. His counterpoint
was lucid and his ornaments were clean; he took rhythms graciously while
savoring the music’s abundant dissonances. Pieces by three 20th-century
composers offered a demonstration of just how deft Tanenbaum is.
Tanenbaum tamed even the obvious challenges of the Henze with fluid
finger-work hat elicited every possible color from the guitar, and gave vibrant
life to the angular, expressive portraits.”
Portland Oregonian – March 10, 2004