Sharing a love of music
<p>Internationally trained guitarist Brad Richter, left, and cellist, Viktor Uzur, will be performing at the JACC Oct. 3. Richter will be spending time sharing lessons and techniques with Post Falls youths the week leading up to the concert. Internationally trained guitarist Brad Richter, left, and cellist, Viktor Uzur, will be performing at the JACC Oct. 3. Richter will be spending time sharing lessons and techniques with Post Falls youths the week leading up to the concert.</p>
POST FALLS - The Jacklin Arts and Cultural Center has a musical treat planned for Post Falls this fall.
Internationally trained musician Brad Richter will be in residency at the JACC for his 10th year during the week of Sept. 29 to Oct. 3.
He will visit Post Falls High School to conduct special workshops with teen guitar students, educating them on the importance of understanding proper techniques and developing good playing habits. He will also give workshops at New Vision, Post Falls' alternative high school, where he has led the Lead Guitar Program for the last two years. He will visit the Boys and Girls Club for a storytelling and guitar-playing afternoon as well as present a guitar workshop for teens from the Crosswalk North Idaho who will visiting the JACC.
On Oct. 10, he will be featured on KPBX's "Guitar Hour" from 11 a.m. to noon for a live, on-air performance. Richter's residency is supported by the Idaho Commission on the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts, Janice Baldwin Merrill Lynch and the Western States Arts Federation.
At the end of his week working with Post Falls youths, Richter will join international musician Viktor Uzur to perform during a concert at the JACC the evening of Oct. 3.
"Viktor and Brad are each classical musicians of the highest caliber with successful international solo careers and intensive training from two of the world's most lauded musical institutions: The Moscow Conservatory and The Royal College of Music, respectively," JACC office manager Helga Wernicke said in a press release.
Uzur and Richter met in 2005 when Richter was commissioned by Weber State University in Ogden, Utah, where Uzur is a cello professor, to write a concert-length chamber piece, "Navigating Lake Bonneville." The piece prominently featured cello and guitar, and as it developed, so too did a close friendship and a deep mutual respect that became the foundation for this collaboration.
Since October 2008, the Richter Uzur Duo has appeared regularly on National Public Radio broadcasts of "American Public Media's Performance Today" as well as NPR's "Classical Guitar Alive."
"The Richter Uzur Duo may be unique in their fusion of classical, rock, folk music and themes into truly original new compositions - as well as in the way they collaborate," Wernicke said. "Because they live almost 1,000 miles apart, they do a great deal of composing over phone and Internet. They will write parts separately, then combine and re-develop them while on concert tours together. It is rare that two successful classical composers come together to co-write music of such distinction. The fun and friendship Viktor and Brad share in this partnership are obvious on stage and in their music."
Richter began teaching himself to play guitar and compose at age 12. At 19, having had no formal musical training, he was awarded the Presidential Scholarship to the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago where he studied with guitarist Paul Henry and began performing, composing and eventually teaching professionally. After completing his undergraduate degrees in performance and composition, Richter accepted a scholarship to the Royal College of Music in London where he studied with Carlos Bonell. He became the first guitarist in the college's history to win the coveted Thomas Morherr Prize for voice accompaniment and went on to win the Royal College of Music's guitar competition before completing his master's degree and returning to the U.S. to continue his concert career.
Richter has performed around the globe as a soloist, with renowned chamber ensembles, and in duos with artists such as David Finckel, cellist of the Grammy-winning Emerson String Quartet and director of chamber music at Lincoln Center. Festival appearances include The World Youth Guitar Festival, The Guitar Festival of Great Britain, The London International Guitar Festival (where he was a co-headliner with Carlos Bonell, Alirio Diaz and John Williams), The Aspen Music Festival, Festival Dr. Alfonso Ortiz Tirado (Mexico) and the Walnut Valley Festival, where he won the National Finger-picking Championship in 1999, a competition that features some of the world's finest guitarists from all genres.
See the Richter Uzur Duo perform in a classical guitar and cello concert at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 3 at the JACC. Tickets are $25, $20 for students.
Info: email art@thejacklincenter.org or call 457-8950