This past Tuesday, the Oberlin Guitar Ensemble’s nine members performed pieces by eight different composers, and featured special guests on cello, piano, voice, violin and viola in Kulas Recital Hall.

The first three musical acts performed very traditional classical pieces. Conservatory first-year Jung Tae Shon and Conservatory junior Nicholas Dodd, both on guitar, performed three duets by Barcelonian guitarist and composer Fernando Sor. The Spanish theme continued with three selections by Joaquin Rodrigo, performed by double-degree sophomore Douglas Pace, accompanied by pianist double-degree sophomore Vicki Wang. Vocalist Conservatory first-year Emily Cruz-Nowell, sang John Dowland’s Three Elizabethan Ayres with a warbling, controlled vibrato, accompanying Joseph Karamer-Miller.

Cellist and Conservatory senior Dorette Roos, and guitarist Philip Smith, OC ’06, uprooted the mood with the contemporary piece Spiel, written in 1992 by Erkki-Sven Tuur. The piece was evocative of the music from Waking Life, and featured violent, sawing cello and heavily percussive guitar. 

After the intermission, double-degree first-year Andrew Flachs on soprano saxophone and guitarist Timmy Ballard took on David Noon’s 1946 piece, Parita, Opus 103b. Violinist and Conservatory first-year Julian Cartwright performed an original piece, The Lemur, with Conservatory sophomore Aaron Bobis on guitar and Conservatory sophomore Ben Dorfan on piano. Romantic composer Franz Schubert’s “Arpeggione” Sonata in a minor, D. 821 was played with a bright, upbeat pace by Conservatory junior Raphael Lizama on viola and Conservatory junior William Hudson Lanier on guitar. 

Vocalist and College sophomore Nina Moffitt eased through five Brazilian songs, arranged by L. Almeida and played by guitarist and Conservatory senior Michelle Younger.  The first, “Para Ninar,” was a soft lullaby. Then, “Bamba-Le-Le,” full of swoopy, cascading notes lightly stirred the listener.  “A Casinha Pequinina” was an extremely beautiful, low ballad, in which Moffitt sang in rubato style, communicating delicately with Younger to determine rhythm and entrances. “Bia-Ta-Ta” was full of characteristically Brazilian bent notes, desafinado; the two finished up with the brisk “Engenho Novo.”

Overall, the Guitar Ensemble was a highly versatile concert, with a wide range of instruments, musical styles and composers spanning generations and cultures.