For the first time together in concert, three virtuoso greats of modern guitar will perform a string of spellbinding performances across Australia.
US guitar legend Ralph Towner, the extraordinary Austrian innovator Wolfgang Muthspiel and Australian wunderkind Slava Grigoryan, will perform solo, duo and trio sets for audiences with pre-composed material, spontaneous composition and improvised mastery.
Not since the ‘Great Guitars’ Australian tour with Slava Grigoryan, Leo Kottke and Paco Pena have we seen such a significant line up of guitar wizardry and expertise. These players are all classically trained and inspired, but each guitarist has a distinctive approach to composition and performance.
With varying geographic and musical backgrounds, Grigoryan, Towner and Muthspiel are all intent on expanding the classical guitar oeuvre, and have led vividly different forays into world, jazz, fusion, folk and modern classical music. Their solo sets are certain to mesmerise Australian audiences. Their sets performing together for the first time are destined to be an experience as astounding as they are unique.
Always looking to expand his own boundaries, the concept for this tour came about when Slava instigated a duo Australian tour with one of his guitar heroes, Ralph Towner. But when an inspired Grigoryan witnessed Wolfgang Muthspiel live on tour, two quickly became three – not surprisingly it turned out Muthspiel has also revered Towner’s playing all his life.
Ralph Towner – “Ralph Towner is a guitarist’s dream, one of the most brilliant lights in the fingerstyle universe.” – Guitar Player Magazine
With a distinguished career that stretches back more than 30 years, Ralph Towner is a recording artist for the legendary jazz label ECM and an internationally acclaimed 12 string and classical guitarist. Best known as the lead composer, guitarist, and keyboardist for the acoustic jazz ensemble “Oregon”, Towner has also had a rich and varied solo career that has seen fruitful and memorable musical collaboration with such great modern musicians as Gary Burton, John Abercrombie, Egberto Gismonti, Larry Coryell, Keith Jarrett, Jan Garbarek, and Gary Peacock. With reference to the great Spanish father of modern classical guitar, Towner is justifiably known as ‘the Segovia of our time’. He was even honoured by Apollo astronauts who carried his music on cassette to the moon, officially naming moon craters after two of his compositions, ‘Icarus’ and ‘Ghost Beads’.
“Towner is one of the few players who can balance a flawless technique with a feeling and spirit that touches the listener on many levels.” – Crusader News
Wolfgang Muthspiel – “Muthspiel combines a flawless technique honed by classical training with a restless musical imagination as likely to derive inspiration from Bach as from the blues or the Beatles.” London Times
European Jazzprize winner for 2003, Wolfgang Muthspiel is one of the most exciting artists on the jazz and classical scene today. An internationally acclaimed guitarist/composer, Muthspiel commands attention worldwide as an artist of deep integrity, intelligence and daring musicality. He takes solo performances to a new level, incorporating sophisticated electronic loops, samples and other sound sources with his instruments. His on stage improvisations are said to be “miracles of intensity.”
Slava Grigoryan is known to Australian audiences as an extraordinary classical guitarist. His performances in Australia include solo, duos and album releases with his brother Leonard, concertos with chamber & symphony orchestras. Slava is also a member of Saffire (The Australian Guitar Quartet). He has, and continues to tour internationally across Europe, North America, Asia, the Middle East, and of course his home continent of Australia.
“Grigoryan’s genius is to transform the guitar into a singing voice …we are taken to the heart of the music.” The Age
With world class instrumentation and music destined to transport listeners to another world, this unique presentation of guitar expertise is not to be missed.
2005 Australian Tour – Ralph Towner, Wolfgang Muthspiel and Slava Grigoryan
September 23 – Wollogong, Illawarra Performing Arts Centre
September 24 – Sydney, Verbrugghen Hall – Sydney Conservatorium of Music
September 25 – Brisbane, Powerhouse
September 26 – Byron Bay, Community Centre
September 28 – Darwin, Darwin Entertainment Centre
September 30 – Melbourne, The National Theatre
October 1 – Hobart, Theatre Royal
October 4-5 – Canberra, Tilleys
October 7 – Perth, Octagon Theatre
October 8 – Adelaide, Elder Hall
