Mark your Calendars for a very special event in Soap Lake, Washington! On Saturday, May 20 at 4:00, we will play a brand new work written for us by renowned composer Martin Kennedy. Co-commissioned with the Friends of the Lower Grand Coulee, this wonderful new piece evokes the magnificent landscape carved out by the Missoula Floods between 15,000 and 13,000 years ago.
Songs and Dances from the USSR Mikhail Gorbunov (ca. 1930)
Dr. Oleg Timofeyev is a master of the late nineteenth-century seven-string guitar for which a wealth of repertoire was composed during the height of the Russian empire – in the age of the Czars. A world-renowned expert on this instrument and its music, Oleg will be publishing his research through Duke University press in the near future.
Sunday, Feb. 26, at 2:00 in Gallery One: Guitar in the Gallery Presents! Oleg will play Music from the Age of Czars played on a late 19th century seven-string historic instrument. Admission by sugggested donation, $10.
While in Ellensburg, Dr. Timofeyev will also be presenting two additional events at Central Washington University:
1. Lecture/Recital: The Seven-String Guitar in the Russian Empire Mon. Feb. 27, CWU Recital Hall, 1:00pm
In this lecture-recital, Dr. Timofeyev traces the origins of the seven-string guitar to the milieu of Czech and Polish musicians who found themselves in Moscow and St. Petersburg in the 1790s. He then describes through music and slides the rich culture of the Russian Empire seen through images of the seven-string guitar literature, paintings, and memoirs. Finally, the 1917 Revolution brings the glory of the seven-string guitar to an end and ushers in a new approach to music.
2. Film Showing: “The Gypsy Vengerka” (2022, 90 mins) Mon. Feb. 27, Museum of Culture & Environment, Dean Hall Museum lobby, 5:30pm
In this new film, Romani (“Gypsy”) musicians take center stage as Dr. Timofeyev and his film crew document the importance of the Romani in Russian and Soviet culture. “The Gypsy Vengerka” (2022, 90 mins) will followed by a Q & A session with Dr. Timofeyev (and possibly members of the Romani via zoom).
Happy New Year! Join us on the following Sunday afternoons at 2:00 pm.
We are excited to announce upcoming concerts at Gallery One in beautiful downtown Ellensburg, WA. Concerts take place in the acoustically-stunning Evelith Green gallery atrium on the third floor at Two O’Clock on Sunday afternoons. Concerts are by donation and open to the public. Thank you to our sponsors and audience donors for making this series possible.
Our April concert with Jessica Papkoff will be rescheduled to the 2023-2024 season at Gallery One. We look forward to sharing more great music with you in the Fall!
We are working on bringing more wonderful guitar music to the Kittitas Valley community and beyond! Over the pandemic, we have been rehearsing a lot of new music – both from early nineteenth century archives and music written by living composers especially for the Caulkins Guitar Duo.
Hard at work in our living room/studio!
Tentative dates for the Guitar in the Gallery series follow. Concerts will still take place on Sundays at 2:00 pm in the acoustically-resonant atrium upstairs at Gallery One, 408 N Pearl St. in Ellensburg, WA.
Mark your Calendars for 2022-23:
Sunday, Nov. 13: Caulkins Duo playing early Romantic music for their new CD. Music by Varlet, Courmont, Arbreu, and Würfel!
Sunday, Feb. 26: Oleg Timofeyev, Russian 7-string guitar with music from the Age of Czars
Sunday, April 2: Jessica Papkoff, Spanish classics
Sunday, April 30: Caulkins Duo – back with new music written especially for us – several premieres!
To celebrate our Wedding Anniversary, we will be playing music on our early 19th century guitars at the Conservatory in Volunteer Park, Seattle, a place that has been special to us over the years. The program will include the first performance in the U.S. of a Duo by W.W. Würfel and a wonderful “Caprice” by A.H. Varlet.
We can host an audience of twenty-three. If you would like to attend, please send a check for $20 or more (proceeds will be donated to the conservatory) to POB 1676, Ellensburg, WA 98926 and we will hold a spot for you!
The Volunteer Park Conservatory has excellent acoustics for early romantic guitars!
Elizabeth Brown will perform in the Eveleth Green Gallery in Gallery One in Ellensburg on Sunday, April 24, 2022 at 2:00 pm as part of the Guitar in the Gallery Series. She will be performing works by Sanz, de Murcia, Jacquet de la Guerre, Sor, Holland, Villa-Lobos, Flippin, and Kruisbrink for baroque, 19th century, and modern guitar. Elizabeth teaches guitar at Pacific Lutheran University. There is a $10 suggested donation.
We will be performing for the Seattle Classical Guitar Society on April 30, 2022 at 2:00 in the afternoon at the Good Shepherd Center, 4649 Sunnyside Ave N. in Seattle’s Wallingford district. The first half will feature early 19th-century guitar duets that we’ve found in European archives played on original period instruments. The second half will present a series of modern works, largely written for us, including the world premier of the three-movement “Prelude Music for Two Guitars” by Michael Young.
On May 1st at 1:00 in the afternoon at the Maple Leaf Lutheran Church, Neil will be presenting a lecture demonstration on the role of improvisation in early 19th-century guitar music with a special focus upon cadenzas. We hope you can join us.
These are two movements from the Serenade for Guitar and Flute by Charles Blum (1786-1844). Dr. Hal Ott is playing an original flute from the early 1800s and I am playing a guitar by Scot Tremblay modeled after an 1840s French instrument.
Here is a set of three pieces from Benigne Henry’s Op. 21 published c. 1818. These pieces are on “Grand March”, our CD of the complete duets of Henry. You can find information on ordering this CD at: https://caulkinsguitarduo.com/2021/03… We look forward to sending you a copy!