IGRC Jeff Beck Article (The Conversation)
Milton Mermikides and John McGrath‘s contribution on the musical contributions of Jeff Beck in The Conversation
21st Century Guitar – Bloomsbury
Release of the 21st Century Guitar Evolutions and Augmentations Richard Perks (Anthology Editor), John McGrath (Anthology Editor) With contributions from IGRC members Tom Williams, Katalin Koltai Amy Brandon and more Table of Contents ContributorsAcknowledgementsForewordIntroduction Richard Perks and John McGrath1. The Well-Tuned Guitar John Schneider2. Transforming the Microtonal Fingerboard: ‘Small’ Frets, LEGO and Robots – Interview with Tolgahan Çogulu Richard Perks3. The Expanding Fretless Guitarscape: Practice and Progress Richard Perks4. Touching the Apple Without Gloves – Interview with Cenk Erdogan Richard Perks5. Extended Range Instruments: Towards a…
21st Century Guitar: Evolutions and Augmentations (forthcoming book for January 2023)
Edited by Richard Perks & John McGrath With contributions and insights from John Schneider, Tolgahan Çoğulu, Ned Evett, Buzz Gravelle, Cenk Erdoğan, Tom Williams, Ant Law, Charlie Hunter, Katalin Koltai, Robert Strachan, Richard Perks, John McGrath, Nels Cline, Bill Thompson, Milton Mermikides and Amy Brandon In the 21st Century, the guitar, as both a material object and tool for artistic expression, continues to be reimagined and reinvented. From simple adaptations or modifications made by performers themselves, to custom-made instruments commissioned…
GFA22 Keynote
IGRC Deputy Director Milton Mermikides gave the Guitar Foundation of America Keynote in June 2022. Watch it here
Katalin Koltai gave lecture-recital,’New soundscapes on the Ligeti Guitar: Bartók, Chopin, Kurtág and Mulvey’ at the Guitar Foundation of America 2022 Convention
AbstractThis lecture-recital explores a new world of guitar sonorities through novel arrangements; Chopin: Berceuse Op. 57, Saariaho: Nocturne and Kurtág: Ligatura Y performed on a new instrument prototype, the ‘Ligeti Guitar’.In collaboration with the Altamira Guitar Foundation, Hanson Yao and Oren Myers, the ‘Ligeti guitar’ was developed in 2021. The new prototype integrates an adjustable magnet capo system into a transformed fretboard. Koltai designed the magnet capo system originally as a new set of partial capos (2018-2020), also presented in…
Roots – Dimitris Soukaras on Naxos
IGRC PGR Dimitrios Soukaras has released ‘Roots’ on Naxos CD. The music in this programme covers a spectrum of genres that have flourished in Greece in recent years, from jazz to contemporary avant-garde. These have all had a strong impact on guitarist Dimitris Soukaras’s development as an artist, and in making this recording he took the opportunity to invite some of Greece’s leading composers to write for his instrument for the first time. All works are world premiere recordings.
Katalin Koltai’s article ‘Breaking the Matrix: Transcribing Bartók and Ligeti for the Guitar Using a New Capo System’ published by Soundboard Scholar
Abstract This paper demonstrates new transcriptions for the guitar of four piano pieces from the twentieth century: “The Night’s Music” from Bartók’s suite Out of Doors and Ligeti’s Musica ricercata, nos. 1, 2, and 7. The transcriptions deploy various newly invented single- and double-string magnet capos: I describe their design and, drawing on the work of De Souza, explain how their use transforms the affordances of the fretboard. In combination with scordaturas, the capos can be used to generate a series of radically…
Katalin Koltai gave lecture-recital,’BREAKING THE MATRIX’ at Guitar Foundation of America (GFA) Convention on 24 June 2020
Watch it here: