Eliot Fisk

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Eliot Fisk
EliotFisk+AndresSegovia-ca. 1985.jpg
Eliot Fisk with his mentor Andrés Segovia
Background information
Born (1954-08-10) August 10, 1954 (age 70)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Genres Classical
Occupation(s)Musician, teacher
InstrumentClassical guitar
Years active1976–present
Labels Musical Heritage Society, MusicMasters, Naxos, Albany, Nimbus, Wildner
Website EliotFisk.com

Eliot Hamilton Fisk (born August 10, 1954) is an American classical guitarist. [1]

Contents

Music career

Education and teaching

Fisk was born into a Quaker family in Philadelphia. [2] He finished high school in DeWitt, New York, and then studied music at Yale University with harpsichordists Ralph Kirkpatrick and Albert Fuller. [3] [4] He received both B.A. and M.S. degrees, and in 1977 started Yale's guitar department. [5] He was a student of guitarists Oscar Ghiglia, Alirio Díaz, and Andrés Segovia. He received private lessons from Segovia over the years and was his last private student. [5] Segovia became his mentor and one of his biggest admirers. [4]

In 1989 Fisk became an instructor at the Mozarteum University of Salzburg in Austria and in 1996 at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. [4] He created the Boston GuitarFest and is its artistic director. [5]

Performing

Fisk has performed with orchestras around the world, including Orchestra of St. Luke's, Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Houston Symphony, American Composers Orchestra, and the Pro Arte Orchestra. In chamber music settings, he has performed with the Juilliard String Quartet, Miró Quartet, Chilingirian Quartet, and Shanghai Quartet. He has performed and recorded with flautist Paula Robison; violinist Ruggiero Ricci, jazz guitarists Joe Pass and Bill Frisell, flamenco guitarist Paco Peña, and singer Ute Lemper. [5] Early in his career he was in recitals with soprano Victoria de los Ángeles. [6]

Transcriptions, commissions

Fisk has increased the amount of material available to classical guitarists by transcribing music written for other instruments. This increased repertoire includes his transcriptions of Bach, Scarlatti, Paganini, Mendelssohn, Mozart, Haydn and Schubert. [5]

He has also expanded the body of music for classical guitar by commissioning new pieces from composers, such as Leonardo Balada, Robert Beaser, Luciano Berio, William Bolcom, Nicholas Maw, Xavier Montsalvatge, George Rochberg, and Kurt Schwertsik. [6]

The volume and impact of his transcriptions, as well as of his teaching, has led him to be called "the Liszt of the guitar." [7]

Recording

In the 1990s, Segovia's widow gave Fisk unpublished compositions by Segovia. Fisk turned these compositions into Segovia: Canciones Populares, which became a bestseller on the Classical Album chart of Billboard magazine. [4] His transcription of violinist Niccolò Paganini's 24 Caprices also entered the chart and was widely praised. He collaborated with Ernesto Halffter, at the request of Segovia, on Halffter's Concierto for Guitar and Orchestra, which was performed with the Spanish National Orchestra and then turned into an album. With flutist Paula Robison, he recorded Robert Beaser's Mountain Songs, which was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1987. [8]

Awards and honors

Views on guitarists

Eliot Fisk has said:

Discography

YearAlbumLabel
1981Eliot Fisk: Guitar Virtuoso Musical Heritage Society
1985Eliot Fisk Performs Works by Baroque Composers MusicMasters
1986Eliot Fisk Performs Baroque Guitar TranscriptionsMusical Heritage Society
1989Eliot Fisk Plays Guitar FantasiesMusicMasters
1993Paganini: 24 CapricesMusicMasters
1991Bell'Italia: Four Centuries of Italian MusicMusicMasters
1993Latin American GuitarMusicMasters
1993Vivaldi Concertos & Other WorksMusicMasters
1994Mountain Songs: A Cycle of American Folk Music with Paula RobisonMusicMasters
1994Rochberg:Caprice VariationsMusicMasters
1995Sequenza!MusicMasters
1995The Best of Eliot FiskMusicMasters
1995Eliot Fisk: Für EliotGSP
1996Segovia: Canciones PopularesMusical Heritage Society
1998Bach: The Trio SonatasMusicMasters
1999Canciones LatinasMusical Heritage Society
2000George Rochberg: Eden: Out of Time & Out of Space Arabesque
2001Concert Music for Guitar and Mandolin Orchestra, Vol. 2 MDG
2001Bach: The Sonatas & Partitas for Solo ViolinMusical Heritage Society
2002The Artistry of Eliot FiskMusical Heritage Society
2003Scarlatti: 18 SonatasVgo
2004Castelnuevo-Tedesco: Guitar Concerto No. 1; Guitar Quintet; Other WorksMusical Heritage Society
2005Françaix, Ponce, Rodrigo: Guitar ConcertosEssay
2006Ernesto Halffter: Sinfonietta; Guitar ConcertoEssay
2009Eliot Fisk Performs His Own Guitar Transcription of Works by Baroque ComposersMusical Heritage Society
2010A Tribute to Andrés SegoviaNimbus
2010The Red GuitarWildner
2010Ein kleines RequiemWildner
2014Paco Peña & Eliot Fisk in Duo RecitalNimbus
2014Songs Without Words: From Bach to Bachianas Albany
2015Ralf Yusuf Gawlick: Kollwitz-Konnex, Song Cycle for Soprano & Guitar Musica Omnia [9]

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Tosone, Jim (2000). Classical guitarists : conversations. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland. ISBN   0-7864-0813-8.
  2. Eichler, Jeremy (June 10, 2011). "Searching in the guitar for all the colors of the orchestra". Boston Globe. Retrieved September 29, 2016.
  3. Johnson, Melinda (March 8, 2013). "Guitarist Eliot Fisk to perform with Symphoria on Saturday night". Syracuse Post Standard.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Morita, Patsy. "Eliot Fisk | Biography & History". AllMusic. Retrieved September 29, 2016.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 "Biography". Eliot Fisk. Retrieved September 29, 2016.
  6. 1 2 Serinus, Jason Victor (April 2007). "Interview: Eliot Fisk - Classical Guitarist". Home Theater Hi-Fi. Retrieved September 29, 2016.
  7. Introduction to Fisk's concert on November 6th, 2021, at St. Mark's Lutheran Church, San Francisco. See for instance , accessed September 2, 2023.
  8. "Eliot Fisk- Bio, Albums, Pictures". Naxos. Retrieved September 30, 2016.
  9. "Eliot Fisk | Album Discography". AllMusic. Retrieved September 25, 2016.

Further reading