Sharon Isbin set to Perform in May
U.S. Classic Guitar is excited to present world-renowned classical guitarist Sharon Isbin in a solo concert in Portland, Oregon located at the Trinity Episcopal Cathedral at 147 NW 19th Avenue on Friday, May 6 at 7 PM and Los Angeles, California located at the First Congregational Church of Los Angeles at 540 S. Commonwealth Avenue on Mother’s Day - Sunday, May 8 at 4 PM. Her concert in Portland will be preceded by a master class on Thursday, May 5 also at the Trinity Episcopal Cathedral and the Los Angeles concert will be preceded by a master class on Saturday, May 7 at 6:30 PM at the Guitar Salon International located at 1455 19th St, Santa Monica, CA 90404. These concerts and master classes are part of the U.S. International Guitar Series Season 2022 and both events in Los Angeles will also be streamed worldwide live for a pay-per-view audience. Tickets range between $20-$65 and can found at usclassicguitar.org.
Acclaimed for her extraordinary lyricism, technique and versatility, multiple GRAMMY Award winner Sharon Isbin was named the 2020 Musical America Worldwide Instrumentalist of the Year, the first guitarist ever to receive the coveted honor in its 59-year award history. Hailed as “the pre-eminent guitarist of our time,” she is the winner of the Toronto, Madrid and Munich ARD Competitions, Germany’s Echo Klassik and Guitar Player’s Best Classical Guitarist awards. Isbin has appeared as soloist with over 200 orchestras and has given sold-out performances in many of the world’s finest halls across 40 countries.
The documentary Sharon Isbin: Troubadour, seen by millions on over 200 PBS stations across the U.S. and abroad, won the ASCAP Television Broadcast Award and is available on DVD/Blu-ray and Amazon streaming. She performed in Scorsese’s Oscar-winning The Departed, at Ground Zero for the first internationally televised 9/11 memorial, the White House by invitation of President Obama, and as the only classical artist in the 2010 Grammy Awards.
Isbin’s catalogue of over 35 albums has sold nearly a million copies and reflects her remarkable versatility. Her two recent recordings were named Best of 2020 and feature world premieres composed for her: Affinity showcasing Chris Brubeck’s dazzling guitar concerto, along with works by Leo Brouwer, Tan Dun, Antonio Lauro and Richard Danielpour; and Strings for Peace with India’s legendary sarod master Amjad Ali Khan in a program of ragas for guitar, sarod and tabla. Her 2019 Souvenirs of Spain & Italy with the Pacifica Quartet showcases works by Vivaldi, Boccherini and Castelnuovo-Tedesco, and debuted at #1 on Amazon and #2 on Billboard, and Alma Española with opera star Isabel Leonard, the first Spanish art song album with guitar of its kind in 40 years, was honored with a 2018 GRAMMY Award for Producer of the Year. She appears as a guest artist on bluegrass star Alison Brown’s summer 2022 album release On Banjo.
Other recent #1 bestselling titles include Sharon Isbin: 5 Classic Albums and Sharon Isbin & Friends: Guitar Passions with rock and jazz guests Steve Vai, Steve Morse, Heart’s Nancy Wilson, Stanley Jordan and Romero Lubambo. Her GRAMMY-winning Journey to the New World with guests Joan Baez and Mark O’Connor spent 63 consecutive weeks on top Billboard charts. Her Dreams of a World soared onto top classical Billboard charts, and earned her a GRAMMY for Best Instrumental Soloist, making her the first classical guitarist to receive a GRAMMY in 28 years. Her world premiere recording of concerti written for her by Christopher Rouse and Tan Dun received a GRAMMY and Germany’s prestigious Echo Klassik Award. She received a Latin GRAMMY nomination and GLAAD Media Award nomination for Outstanding Music Artist for her Billboard Top 10 recording with the New York Philharmonic of Rodrigo Concierto de Aranjuez/Ponce/Villa-Lobos concertos, the Philharmonic’s only recording with guitar. Other bestselling titles include Baroque Favorites for Guitar with the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, and her GRAMMY-nominated Journey to the Amazon with Brazilian percussionist Thiago de Mello and saxophonist Paul Winter.
Sharon Isbin has been acclaimed for expanding the guitar repertoire with some of the finest new works of our time and has commissioned and premiered over 80 works by world-renowned composers. Works written for her by John Corigliano, Joseph Schwantner and Lukas Foss are featured on her American Landscapes, the first-ever recording of American guitar concerti. (In November 1995, it was launched in the space shuttle Atlantis and presented to Russian cosmonauts during a rendezvous with Mir.) Among many other composers who have written for her are Joan Tower, David Diamond, Aaron Jay Kernis, Leo Brouwer, Howard Shore, Ned Rorem and Ami Maayani, with highlights including John Duarte’s Joan Baez Suite, and a duo by rock guitarist Steve Vai which they performed in Paris’ Théâtre du Châtelet. Recent premieres of compositions written for her include a work by Richard Danielpour co-commissioned by Carnegie Hall and by Chicago’s Harris Theater, and Affinity: Concerto for Guitar & Orchestra by Chris Brubeck which honors his father Dave Brubeck. Upcoming world premieres include a new work for her by Schwantner which she will premiere with the Pacifica Quartet and a concerto by Missy Mazzoli.
Recent highlights include a 21-city Guitar Passions tour with jazz greats Stanley Jordan and Romero Lubambo, sold-out concerts at the Kennedy Center, Kimmel Center, and Carnegie Hall, including a collaboration with Sting. Her latest partnership, Strings for Peace, with sarod master Amjad Ali Khan, is an eloquent and impassioned call for harmony—in music, religion, and culture throughout the world.
As a chamber musician, Isbin has performed with the Emerson String Quartet and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, soprano Jessica Rivera, and has shared the stage with luminaries from Aretha Franklin to Muhammad Ali.
Isbin studied with Andrès Segovia, Oscar Ghiglia, and with noted Bach scholar and keyboardist Rosalyn Tureck with whom she collaborated on landmark editions/recordings of the Bach lute suites for guitar (Warner Classics/G. Schirmer). She authored the Classical Guitar Answer Book and is Director of guitar departments at the Aspen Music Festival and The Juilliard School which she created in l989.
Please visit her on Facebook, Twitter and www.sharonisbin.com