“I’m very thankful that being a guitarist has meant everything from amateur playing to serious academic study to professional work—all of it has contributed to a rich and varied life as a musician.”
How did Bellingham become your home?
I was born and raised in Bellingham until I moved to Bloomington, Indiana in 2013. I lived in Indiana from 2013-2021, studying at the Jacobs School of Music and working as a private teacher. My wife Eleanor and I moved back to Bellingham in the fall of 2021 when I began teaching at Western Washington University. I never thought it would be possible to move back, but I’m thrilled it worked out!
Tell us about your journey to the guitar as your instrument of choice?
My family is musical (as are many of our friends), so I remember guitar playing coming into my life first as a natural way of participating in amateur music-making. Like many other guitarists, I was a relative latecomer to classical technique and repertoire, playing lots of folk, blues, and rock and roll before becoming acquainted with some classic recordings of Segovia and John Williams in the middle of high school. A big turning point came when I participated in the WMEA Solo and Ensemble competition in my sophomore year of high school—my very first adventure in playing classical music. The session with the adjudicator (then an undergraduate guitar student at Western, where I now teach!) made a profound impact on me: his musical sensitivity, imagination, and methodical attention to detail appealed to me so much that I remember telling my parents afterward that that was what I wanted to do with my life. I’m very thankful that so many factors have come together to make that dream a reality. I’m also very thankful that being a guitarist has meant everything from amateur playing to serious academic study to professional work—all of it has contributed to a rich and varied life as a musician.
How was it to study with Ernesto Bitetti? He is something of a legend in the guitar world, correct?
Studying with Maestro Bitetti for five years was a singular privilege! His influence on me was formative in so many crucial ways—his patient mentorship, deep artistic wisdom, and his faith in me all caused me to grow in ways I wouldn’t have thought possible without his inspiration and support. I will always remember his care, grace, and brilliance as a teacher, and the privilege of closely witnessing him bring those same qualities to bear on every aspect of his consummate professionalism. I’m sure I will aspire to that example all my life, and I hope to pay forward to my students and my colleagues something of what he gave me.
Bitetti certainly is a living legend. He enjoyed a prestigious international concert career, playing as a soloist and collaborator with the greatest orchestras in the greatest halls in the world, premiering works written for him by towering figures of the repertoire (Rodrigo, Piazzolla, Torroba, and Abril among others) and making records for several major classical music labels. He also founded the guitar department at the Jacobs School of Music where he taught there for 30 years and built the IU program into one of the finest in the world.
His influence is remembered in his students’ activities all over the world. His contributions to the
profession are too many to name, and all are a testament to the beauty of a life lived for music.
Share some of the musical moments that have most inspired you? Performances you’ve watched or been involved in or both.
There have been many! Here are a few that come to mind:
This year I had the honor of organizing and hosting the Northwest Guitar Festival. We were privileged with an appearance from the fantastic Duo Noire, whose concert I found tremendously inspiring for its interpretive depth and innovative concept of what the guitar can do in contemporary classical music.
This spring, I heard the bluegrass band Mighty Poplar play in Seattle. It featured some of the tightest, most inventive, seemingly effortless ensemble playing I’ve ever heard in any genre. When I was a student at Jacobs, I heard NOTUS (the school choral group specializing in new music) perform Steve Reich’s The Desert Music in a concert I’ll never forget. The same year, I heard the legendary guitarist Alvaro Pierri present a recital at Jacobs. It was an astonishing display of virtuosity and truly original interpretation the like of which I hadn’t heard before and haven’t heard since.
Just this week, I had the privilege of attending two events at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church here in Bellingham featuring master organist Dr. John Schwandt and the St. Paul’s choir under the direction of my dear friend Dr. Dongho Lee. These were a silent film accompanied by Dr. Schwandt’s improvisations on the organ and a performance of the Maurice Duruflé Requiem —I found these extremely moving for their emotional and artistic range and the way they embodied the commitment and hard work of a thriving musical community.
What are your (current) favorite classical pieces with and/or without guitar?
Again, there are many! I adore Steve Reich’s Tehillim; Caroline Shaw’s Partita for Eight Voices is another favorite. I’ve recently especially loved L’Album des Six—a collection of short solo piano works by Milhaud, Tailleferre, Auric, Duray, Poulenc, and Honegger.
Manuel Ponce’s 24 Preludios are current favorites in the solo guitar repertoire.
Hear Eli perfrorm De Falla and Kruisbrink on November 12th, 2023 at 3pm, Hotel Leo Crystal Ballroom.