miami guitar seminar

saturday, August 8th, 2020

11:00AM – 4:00PM EST

Directed by Dr. Koh Kazama

A virtual intensive of workshops and masterclasses

Featuring

Miami Guitar Seminar is an online day-long event filled with workshops and masterclasses. The seminar is fully dedicated to the learning of the classical guitar, focusing on providing practical and interactive educational experiences for the student. We have specifically sought out leading guitar educators to teach our classes. The inaugural Miami Guitar Seminar will be featuring Koh Kazama, Arash Noori, and Simon Powis. Improve your practice techniques, learn how to apply fretboard knowledge to repertoire, and gain invaluable knowledge from masterclasses!

*Miami Guitar Seminar will be conducted through Zoom. Stable internet connection and a computer, tablet, or phone are required to participate.

Questions? For inquiries, please send your message HERE.

Register

$15 – Participant (access to all events, OBSERVE masterclass) – RSVP HERE

$50 – Masterclass Participant (access to all events, PLAY in masterclass) – APPLY HERE

NOTE: Space is very limited for masterclasses and is not guaranteed. You will only be required to pay the masterclass fee if you are confirmed for a spot in a masterclass.

Applicants will be required to submit a video recording (phone recording is fine) of the piece they plan to play for the masterclass. Deadline to apply is July 27th. Applicants will be notified of the results by July 31st.

* Masterclass participants MUST have a computer with audio and video and the Zoom application installed, as well as a stable internet connection.

schedule

*All times are US Eastern Standard Time

11:00-11:45am Workshop: A Practical Approach to Technical Exercises and Playing with Ease with Dr. Koh Kazama

12:00-1:00pm Workshop: Demystifying the Fretboard with Arash Noori

1:00-2:00pm Break

2:00-4:00pm Masterclass, Dr. Simon Powis

WORKSHOP DESCRIPTIONS

A Practical Approach to Technical Exercises and Playing with Ease with Dr. Kazama

When practicing, it is often easy to neglect any tension in our bodies and lose body awareness while playing. In the first part of the workshop, we will address this issue and learn exercises that help one loosen their tension and play with more ease. The second part of the workshop will addresses technical exercises that are often overlooked and can be applied to how one learns and approaches repertoire. This is an interactive workshop, so please be prepared to use your guitar. Ability to read music on guitar is necessary for this workshop.

Demystifying the Fretboard with Arash Noori

This workshop will provide you with exercise routines that, when incorporated into your daily practice, will substantially improve your understanding of the fretboard with far reaching benefits (improvisation, facility in learning and memorizing music to name a few). Ability to read music is necessary for this workshop.

faculty

A passionate and expressive style coupled with a formidable technique has garnered attention for Simon Powis as a talented soloist, chamber musician and innovator. Growing up in Sydney, Australia, Powis began his studies at the age of five on the cornet. Inspired by his brother’s musical pursuits he took up the guitar at age eleven and began an enduring obsession that would result in performances throughout Europe, Australia and the Americas.

After completing his studies at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music with Raffaele Agostino in 2004, Powis traveled extensively throughout Europe to study with some of the world’s most renowned virtuosos. Oscar Ghiglia, David Russell, Pavel Steidl and Aniello Desiderio have had a great impact on the musical style and technical foundation that Powis possesses. In 2006 Powis was invited to undertake a Masters of Music at Yale University on a full scholarship and upon completing this degree he was accepted as the first guitarist in over two decades to undertake doctoral studies at Yale. During his time at Yale the professor of guitar, Ben Verdery, offered instruction, support and guidance that readied him for a career as a professional musician.

Powis has toured extensively as a soloist with performances in the Kennedy Center (Washington D.C.), Australia House (London), and the Banff Center for the Arts (Canada). A strong passion for chamber music has resulted in international collaborations ranging from traditional groups such as the Modigliani String Quartet and Ian Swenson (violin) to less common performances with double bass, electronics, and even the tuba. Powis’s openness to innovation is exhibited by his devotion to performing new works. In the past years he has collaborated with a variety of composers to premiere over thirty new works on the concert stage.

As a teacher Powis has instructed masterclasses in Lima, Mexico City and New York and at Yale he was employed as both a guitar instructor at the school of music and a teaching fellow in the department of music. He is also the creator of classicalguitarcorner.com, one of the internet’s most prominent guitar education sites and maintains an active podcast where he interviews leading musicians from around the world including John Williams and Oscar Ghilgia.

Noted as “the compelling” guitarist and “the fine” lutenist by The New York Times, Arash Noori performs throughout North America and Europe on lutes and guitars as both recitalist and accompanist. Arash has appeared in performances with Les Arts Florissants, Early Music New York, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Piffaro: The Renaissance Band, Ars Lyrica, Opera Lafayette, the Folger Consort, Repast Baroque, the Sebastians, Academy of Sacred Drama, ARTEK, and NOVUS NY of Trinity Wall Street amongst others. Hailed for his “flair and sensitivity” in accompaniment (Opera News), Arash has accompanied operas at the Wiener Staatsoper, Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, the Kennedy Center in Washington and Brooklyn Academy of Music and has performed at Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully Hall in New York, Philharmonie de Paris, Teatro Real in Madrid, and the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia. Arash has been a prize winner at several international competitions including Guitare Montréal, and the Great Lakes Guitar Competition.

Arash is a core and founding member of Cantata Profana, an “intrepid” (New Yorker) ensemble that juxtaposes masterpieces from the medieval era to the 21st century with an aesthetic orientation “devoted not to new or modern or early music — such specialists proliferate — but to most anything, so long as the mixture is put together thoughtfully and put across persuasively.” (The New York Times) The group was honored by Chamber Music America with an award for Adventurous Programming in 2016 and has garnered rave reviews from The New York Times, New Yorker, Boston Globe, Opera News, and The Wall Street Journal amongst others.

A graduate of Yale and the Juilliard School, Arash currently serves as Adjunct Professor of Early Music at University of North Texas, College of Music.

A New York City native, Koh Kazama is a concert guitarist and educator exposing audiences to the endless possibilities of the classical guitar. He started his guitar studies at the age of six, after being inspired by a Japanese rock musician. His diverse repertoire ranges from early music played on period instruments to contemporary music using electronic effects.

Dr. Kazama has performed in renowned venues, festivals, and concert series, including Carnegie Hall, Long Island Guitar Festival, Symphony Space, Webster Hall, WNYC New Sounds Live series, Morse Hall (Juilliard), Mid-Hudson Classical Guitar Society, and Yale Guitar Extravaganza. He has also premiered works by a wide range of prominent composers, including Michael White (Juilliard), David Lang (Yale), William Anderson (Queens College), Paula Matthusen (Wesleyan), and Kendall Williams.

Dr. Kazama holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Stony Brook University, where he was a scholarship student and teaching assistant of the guitar department. He completed his Bachelor of Arts in psychology, Master of Music, and Artist Diploma at Yale University. He received a full scholarship to attend Yale, and he was the recipient of the Eliot Fisk Prize, which was awarded to an outstanding guitarist whose artistic achievements and dedication have contributed greatly to the department. He attended LaGuardia Arts High School in New York City, where he majored in cello and was part of the LaGuardia Symphony Orchestra. His major teachers have included Jerry Willard, Benjamin Verdery, Simon Powis, Liam Wood, Nadav Lev, and David Gonzalez.

Dr. Kazama is currently on the faculty at New World School of the Arts, a partner of Miami Dade College, University of Florida, and Dade County Public Schools in Miami. He has previously taught as a guitar instructor at Yale University and Stony Brook University. He is also a former faculty member and alumnus of Third Street Music School Settlement, the longest-running community music school in the United States.

In addition to his teaching and performing, Dr. Kazama has contributed publications and learning resources to the guitar community. He co-founded Monologue Publications, which is dedicated to creating solo and chamber music arrangements for guitar that include thoroughly researched historical and stylistic information for the player. He is also the co-founder of Leyenda, an online graded classical guitar database.