Conveniently located next to St. Andrew’s subway station. Use main doors on King St. Opposite Roy Thomson Hall in the Entertainment District.
Advance Tickets: $35 General | $30 Seniors | $15 Students
Subscription: $150 Members | $180 Non-members | $85 Students | $75 Student Members
At the door: $40 | $35 | $20

Advance Tickets available through Eventbrite at above link. Tickets cannot be exchanged or refunded after purchase unless the event is cancelled. In that case, a refund will be issued within 60 days.

We are proud to launch our 2022-23 season with a showcase of commissioned works – including two world premieres!  

Commissioning music offers a unique platform for composers and performers to partner, exploring their artistic visions and testing the creative possibilities of the guitar. The Guitar Society has a long and proud history of commissioning more than 70 new works for guitar, including several pieces on this program.

The following will be performed by ChromaDuo:

Leo Brouwer, The Circle Game, after Margaret Atwood (2021) World premiere

The Circle Game features Brouwer’s masterful manipulation of Afro-Cuban cells combined with a colourful post-minimalist form. The result is a romp through the guitar’s range, reflecting at different times both the playfulness and darkness of Atwood’s poem. 

Amy Brandon – plesiosynchronous (2022) World premiere 

plesiosynchronous is a play on words – as a plesiochronous telecommunications system is one where different parts of the system are almost, but not quite, perfectly synchronized. In this piece the two guitars begin playing similar parts, but gradually enough difference emerges so that they begin to occupy a strange liminal space – in between solo and duet.

Sergio Assad – Dyens en trois temps (2021) North American premiere

Our mutual connection to French musician Roland Dyens provided the basis for an homage to commemorate the five-year anniversary of Dyens’s passing. The three movements reflect different aspects of Dyens. The first movement is angular, with fragments of different jazz standards he loved and arranged. The second plays with the idea of French Chanson through time. Its centrepiece is the lush theme from the chanson Hymne l’Amour made famous by Edith Piaf. The final movement is a whirlwind in the style of Argentine Tango mixed with MPB (musique populaire Brasilienne). Full of Dyens’s sparkle and humour, it completes a beautiful portrait of the French master that only Sergio Assad could create.

One of North America’s leading guitar duos, ChromaDuo is constantly on the search for uncommonly beautiful and arresting music to bring to audiences throughout the world. Many composers have dedicated works to the duo, including the French classical-jazz virtuoso Roland Dyens, British iconoclast Stephen Goss, and the outstanding Canadian guitarist Dale Kavanagh. Their own arrangements of French Impressionist piano works are captured in their celebrated recording Ravel and Debussy, Music for Two Guitars.

For the past fifteen years, ChromaDuo has performed in their native Canada, the United States, Mexico, England, and Germany. As passionate advocates for their art form, their musical connection allows audiences to also delve more deeply into the experience. From the critic who stated, “The restraint of the performance makes you want to lean in closer to hear the expression on every note,” (Garrett Schumann) to the elementary-school student who revealed, “The music made me se(e) Paris in a way,”(Dawson), the duo aims to provide a sincere, timeless experience for each listener, a respite from the everyday.

Brent Crawford will perform Harry Somers‘ Sonata for Guitar (1959).  Premiered in 1964 by Peter Acker, Sonata for Guitar was the Guitar Society of Toronto’s first commission.  Harry Somers was one of Canada’s most prolific, original and important composers. Incredibly versatile, he produced major scores for stage, concert hall, film, radio and television, and employed voices, instruments and synthetic sounds in a wide variety of forms, traditional and contemporary. Always associated with intense feeling, his work is simple, eloquent and forceful, often using a juxtaposition of styles, dramatic silences and sharp fluctuations in volume, which he called “dynamic unrest.” His music is internationally respected and performed throughout the Western world. He was the first Canadian composer to be made a Companion of the Order of Canada. 

As a performer and multiple award winner, Brent Crawford has won praise from both audiences and adjudicators alike. His first full-length album was released in the winter of 2020, and recent performances include a live broadcast at 96.3FM’s Zoomer Hall, at the Mediterranean Guitar Festival in Cervo, Italy, the Sauble Beach Guitar Festival, the TEDx talk in Algonquin Park, and an on-stage role in the UTSO’s production of the Donizetti opera Don Pasquale.

Brent is a graduate of the Doctor of Musical Arts program at the University of Toronto. His doctoral research focused on adopting methods and techniques from athletics to performance preparation for guitarists. The published document, “In Pursuit of Guitar Excellence: The Effects of a Multifaceted Approach to Performance Training” is available online. Brent maintains a busy teaching schedule, is active as both a soloist and a chamber musician, and also finds opportunity for community outreach in the Greater Toronto Area.

Tariq Harb will perform Leo Brouwer’s Concerto de Toronto.  This concerto was commissioned by the Guitar Society of Toronto and premiered at the 1987 International Guitar Festival, with John Williams as soloist and Leo Brouwer conducting.  

Legendary composer, guitarist and music director Leo Brouwer was born in Havana, Cuba in 1939. He studied with Isaac Nicola, Pujol’s pupil and completed his studies at the Juilliard School of Music and at Hartt College of Music. In 1987 Brouwer was named an honorary member of UNESCO in recognition for his music career – an honour that he shares with Menuhin, Shankar, Karajan, Sutherland and other musical luminaries.

Winner of numerous international competitions, Tariq Harb has become  one of today’s  leading classical guitarists. His playing demonstrates “not just his flawless technique but also his refined taste and a great, innate sense for truly beautiful interpretation.” (The Jordan Times) Chosen as CBC Radio’s NEXT! guitarist in 2013, he was celebrated as “Canada’s next classical guitar superstar” and was showcased performing at the Glenn Gould studios in Canada, which helped advance his career worldwide.  

Harb has performed in prestigious halls such as the 2000-year-old Roman Amphitheatre in Jordan, the Bunka Kaikan concert hall in Tokyo, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Edinburgh’s International Conference Centre for TEDGlobal,  and the Cairo Opera House.  He has six solo albums in his name as well as educational DVDs and publications.  Spirit, his five-movement suite for guitar, was recently published by Les Productions d’Oz. 

Composed by Daniel Mehdizadeh for Daniel Ramjattan and Naoko Tsujita in 2022 as a commission by the Guitar Society of Toronto, Lothariis depicts a fantastical fictional world of the composer’s creation. From a contemplative beginning, Lothariis transitions into a rhythmic and chaotic dance, followed by a profound cantabile section and a return to contemplation.

Daniel Mehdizadeh is Composer-in-Residence for the Scarborough Philharmonic Orchestra and the founder and artistic director of East Chamber Music, an international festival focusing on mentorship and writing skills for early and mid-career composers. He has been featured as a guest composer on CBC Radio and his compositions have been broadcast and performed worldwide. 

Multiple award-winning classical guitarist Daniel Ramjattan has given concerts in Canada, the US, Japan, Austria, and Italy and recently released his debut album Inspirations: New Works for Solo Guitar in 2022. He teaches in the classical guitar studio at Wilfrid Laurier University’s Faculty of Music. His doctoral dissertation explores music performance anxiety in guitarists, and he works actively as a soloist and chamber musician.

Naoko Tsujita is a performer-composer whose diverse career includes performances in Canada, the US, Europe, and Japan. As a marimba soloist, she has won top prizes in several competitions, including the University of Toronto Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition and the South Japan Music Competition. She is also a noted percussionist and an award-winning composer for carillon.  

Conveniently located next to St. Andrew’s subway station. Use main doors on King St. Opposite Roy Thomson Hall in the Entertainment District.
Advance Tickets: $35 General | $30 Seniors | $15 Students
Subscription: $150 Members | $180 Non-members | $85 Students | $75 Student Members
At the door: $40 | $35 | $20

Advance Tickets available through Eventbrite at above link. Tickets cannot be exchanged or refunded after purchase unless the event is cancelled. In that case, a refund will be issued within 60 days.

Iliana Matos has an extraordinary career spanning more than three decades that has earned her a place among the world’s pre-eminent guitarists. She has performed extensively throughout North and South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia. 

As part of her tour celebrating thirty years of performing, which she began in 2016, Matos performed in nineteen cities in China, including a concert at the Shenyang International Guitar Festival. The tour also featured concerts in twenty-three North American cities and a seven-city tour in Mexico. Among the highlights were recitals for the International Guitar Festival of San Sebastián in Puerto Rico, the Texas A&M International Guitar Symposium, and the New Orleans International Guitar Festival.  The 2022-23 season will see Matos performing for guitar events including the University of Rhode Island Guitar Festival and the Madrid International Guitar Festival and touring Canada. 

Cuban-born Iliana Matos has lived in Canada since 2013 and has become a favourite in the Canadian guitar scene. Her numerous Canadian appearances include the Montreal Guitar Society, the Sauble Beach Guitar Festival, the Toronto Guitar Society, GuitarFest West in Calgary, and the Vancouver Classic Guitar Society.  

In 2006 Matos released her acclaimed CD Angels in the Street, “a match-made-in-heaven recording that is about as perfect as guitar records get… she simply, radiantly shines, a virtuoso in service to the music” (American Record Guide). This album found a place in the book Guitar’s Top 100 by musicologist Enrique Robichaud. “It’s impossible while listening to ‘Angels’ to believe that her name will not someday ring the same peal of recognition as does Bream and Williams” (Minor7th.com).

Her ensemble recordings include the 2020 Sandunga with the Cuban Guitar Quartet and the James Lentini Concerto for Guitar and Strings recorded with the Zagreb Festival Orchestra. In 2019 she was featured playing Sonata Clásica on the album Manuel Ponce: The Legend by the Legends.  

With her love of contemporary music and desire to develop the guitar repertoire, Iliana Matos has premiered works by numerous composers, including Eduardo Morales, Tomás Marco, Zulema de la Cruz, Gabriel Estarellas, Flores Chaviano, Ileana Pérez, Madays Andino, Ñico Rojas, Yalil Guerra, Luis Mario Ochoa and Eduardo Martín.

Matos made history as the first woman to win the prestigious S.A.R. La Infanta Doña Cristina International Guitar Competition, and as the only person to win the special prize for Best Interpretation of Spanish Music in two consecutive years, 1995 and 1996. She was a prize-winner at eleven major international competitions, including first prizes at the Andrés Segovia, Luys Milán, and Manuel Ponce international guitar competitions. Of her talent, the legendary guitarist Maria Luisa Anido said: I am impressed by your wonderful guitarristic art, and I am proud to know that a woman (and a Cuban woman!) came to such a degree of artistic perfection.”  

As a dedicated educator Iliana Matos is in-demand as a guest lecturer. Recent engagements include masterclasses at the National Music Conservatories in Ecuador and Mexico, Soochow University in Taiwan, and the University of Minnesota.  Since 2017 Matos has been the studio guitar instructor at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta where she founded and developed the graduate program for guitar performance. She is the President and Artistic Director of the newly formed Lethbridge Classical Guitar Society. From 1995-2013 Matos was based in Spain where she was active in developing the next generation of guitarists through her work teaching at the Conservatory of the Balearics, the Conservatory of Salamanca, and the Royal Music Conservatory of Madrid. 

Iliana Matos graduated from the National School of Art in Havana where she studied with José Angel Pérez Puente. She earned a Bachelor of Music (Classical Guitar Performance) from the Superior Institute of Havana (where her teachers included Rey Guerra, Miguel Bonachea and Jesús Ortega), and received a Special Diploma given to the most outstanding graduate for her artistic creative work. She continued her studies with Gabriel Estarellas at the Royal Music Conservatory of Madrid and graduated with a Master of Music Degree from de Extremadura University under Ricardo Gallén.

Conveniently located next to St. Andrew’s subway station. Use main doors on King St. Opposite Roy Thomson Hall in the Entertainment District.
Advance Tickets: $35 General | $30 Seniors | $15 Students
At the door: $40 | $35 | $20

Advance Tickets available through Eventbrite at above link. Tickets cannot be exchanged or refunded after purchase unless the event is cancelled. In that case, a refund will be issued within 60 days.

Praised by Classical Guitar Magazine as “confident and quite extraordinary,” Korean guitarist Bokyung Byun​ enjoys a reputation as one of the most sought-after guitarists of her generation. Byun is the first female winner of the prestigious JoAnn Falletta International Guitar Concerto Competition:  Falletta herself described  Byun’s performance as “stunning, showcasing her gorgeous tone, immaculate technique, and sophisticated musicianship.” This is one of Byun’s many wins on the competitive circuit: most recently, she won the 2021 grand prize at the Guitar Foundation of America International Concert Artist Competition, known as the most prestigious guitar competition in the world.

A bevy of orchestras, festivals, workshops, and guitar societies look to Byun for solo performances and masterclasses. In recent seasons, Byun has performed as a soloist with orchestras, including the Buffalo Philharmonic, the Utah Symphony, West Los Angeles Symphony, New Juilliard Ensemble, the Aspen Music Festival Orchestra, among others. Her solo recital highlights include performances at the Kumho Young Artist Series, Philadelphia Guitar Festival, Aspen-Salida Concert Series, Toronto Guitar Weekend, Guitar Montréal, Ellnora | The Guitar Festival, and San Diego Guitar Festival. She was acclaimed for performing “eloquently through a diverse and challenging program,” by Michelle Fratus, president of the board of the Knoxville Guitar Society, and having “confidence, passion, excellent projection and great dynamic contrast” by Heather Morand Clark, president of the Guitar Society of Toronto.

Committed to expanding the role of a 21st-century musician, Byun’s concert program often features contemporary music alongside traditional repertoire. As Byun says, “it’s vital and exciting to audiences for concerts to join the new with the old. For guitar music to continue to grow, I believe that new works must actively be cultivated in programming, and it is my hope that audiences leave my performances with new experiences.” This skill at navigating both classic repertoire and fresh work has led her to co-found Sounding Board: The New Music Initiative for Guitarists and Composers. The project focuses on promoting collaborative relationships between composers and performers to create new works for guitar, and its inaugural festival in Besançon, France in 2019 has been praised as “extraordinary, in the strict sense of the word,” by La Presse de Gray in France. 

Byun’s debut recording in 2020 has been praised by Soundboard Magazine as “a very beautiful disc. From the first notes of the “Gallarda” from Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s Escarraman, we are treated to extraordinary musicianship, technical assurance, and beauty of sound.” American Record Guide says “Byun’s interpretation enlivens them with creative phrasings, articulations, spacing, and dynamics, which take the listener beyond most performances I have heard.”

Born in Seoul, Korea, Byun began playing guitar at the age of six. At eleven, she took the stage for her first solo recital, leading to an early start in her teen years performing numerous concert tours around Korea, to enthusiastic response, including millions of views on YouTube. By her teen years, she had gained national attention for first-prize finishes in three renowned competitions: the Korea Guitar Association, the Music Association of Korea, and the Guitar Foundation of America International Youth Competition.

Byun soon moved to the United States, entering The Juilliard School at the age of sixteen. She holds Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from The Juilliard School and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Southern California. She is grateful to the masterful instruction of her pedagogues, who include Scott Tennant, William Kanengiser, Chen Zhi, Tae-soo Kim, and Sharon Isbin. 

In 2020, Byun co-founded Guitarlab, which has provided an innovative online learning platform offering cutting-edge classes designed for young professionals around the world. Byun is currently on the guitar faculty of California State University Fullerton. She is sponsored by Augustine Strings and plays a guitar by Dieter Mueller (2019). Please visit www.bokyungbyun.com for more information.​ 

“…extraordinary musicianship, technical assurance, and beauty of sound”  (Al Kunze, Soundboard Magazine, 2020)

“She showed off a thorough expressivity and impressive technical agility…Byun went on to capture something supremely blissful, beautiful, and meaningful in this music.”  (Jarrett Hoffman, ClevelandClassical.com)“Bokyung’s artistry and technique break the limits of conventional classical guitar.” (San Diego Guitar Festival)

Conveniently located next to St. Andrew’s subway station. Use Simcoe St. doors opposite Roy Thomson Hall in the Entertainment District.
Advance Tickets Only: $35 General | $30 Seniors | $15 Students
At the door: $40 | $35 | $20

Advance Tickets available through Eventbrite at above link. Tickets cannot be exchanged or refunded after purchase unless the event is cancelled. In that case, a refund will be issued within 60 days.

Widely acclaimed for the rare beauty of her sound and her enchanting presence on stage, Irina Kulikova has established herself as one of today’s leading guitarists. She tours far afield, with appearances at major festivals in Europe, North America and Asia and in concert halls such as the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow, the Palau de la Musica in Valencia, the Musashino Hall in Tokyo and the Oriental Arts Center in Shanghai.

Irina Kulikova started playing guitar and piano at five. The daughter of a cellist and distinguished pedagogue, she was educated in the Russian tradition of classical music. At eight she gave her first public performances. By the time she was twelve, she was a child star playing all across Russia and at festivals in Europe. At seventeen, Irina Kulikova moved to Moscow to continue her studies at the Gnessins Academy. Later she graduated with distinction from the Mozarteum University in Salzburg and the Conservatoire of Maastricht in The Netherlands.

Performing with outstanding violinists, cellists and pianists, she developed her passion for chamber music. She joined the ‘Salzburger Solisten’ and ensemble-chef Luz Leskowitz with his Stradivarius for numerous concerts in Austria and Germany: “She played for various members of the royal and aristocratic families of Germany and Denmark.

Irina Kulikova has received over 30 awards for her artistry, including 1st prizes at the highly prestigious competitions of Michele Pittaluga in Italy, Guitarra Alhambra in Spain, Forum Gitarre Wien in Austria and Iserlohn in Germany. 

She has recorded six albums, five of which in cooperation with Grammy-Award winning producer Norbert Kraft. “Some of the most sheerly beautiful playing I have ever heard”, Soundboard Magazine reviewed.

The beauty of Ms Kulikova’s playing has become iconic for guitarists around the world. She is a much appreciated mentor for conservatorium students and fellow professionals and shares her profound understanding of music in master classes brimming with imagery and humour.

She is founder and director of the online ClassicalGuitar.Academy and of the The Hague – Altamira Guitar Competition. Her personal motto, in life and music: It’s about the touch.

Irina Kulikova plays Simon Marty guitars (spruce top, cedar top) with Savarez strings.

Conveniently located next to St. Andrew’s subway station. Use Simcoe St. doors opposite Roy Thomson Hall in the Entertainment District.
Advance Tickets Only: $35 General | $30 Seniors | $15 Students
At the door: $40 | $35 | $20

Advance Tickets available through Eventbrite at above link. Tickets cannot be exchanged or refunded after purchase unless the event is cancelled. In that case, a refund will be issued within 60 days.

Adam Cicchillitti and Steve Cowan have set a benchmark in the world of classical guitar with their award-winning recordings, commissions of major orchestral works, and competition performances. On their debut release, Focus, Tracy Anne Smith (American Record Guide) states that “with sensitive, authoritative, au courant playing, Adam Cicchillitti and Steve Cowan retain their individuality while communicating like old friends.” FOCUS was awarded Classical Recording of the Year at the East Coast Music Awards in 2021.

Also in 2021, the duo released its third album with Analekta Records, Intimate Impressions, featuring original arrangements of piano, harp, and guitar music written in 20th century Paris. The album has been streamed over 2 million times worldwide. Cowan and Cicchillitti toured Canada under the auspices of Prairie Debut in 2020-2022 and with Debut Atlantic in 2018. They were awarded third prize at the 2021 international ensemble competition of the Guitar Foundation of America, arguably the most prestigious guitar ensemble competition in the world.

The duo has established its identity at the forefront of new music for guitar. At the inaugural 21st Century Guitar Conference in Ottawa, Steve and Adam commissioned and premiered nine new electroacoustic works by the New York-based composer collective, ICEBERG New Music. In 2022-2023, the duo undertakes their most ambitious project yet with the support of the Canada Council for the Arts: to premiere and record six new commissions for two guitars and orchestra with Ottawa-based chamber ensemble 13 Strings. Cicchillitti and Cowan are sponsored by Augustine Strings and play guitars by Sergei de Jonge and Bruno Boutin.