Ovation Guest Artist Concert: Sharon Isbin, guitar
& Gemma Coma-Alabert, mezzo-soprano

Tuesday, February 19, 2008
7:30 pm, Weber Music Hall

Acclaimed for her extraordinary lyricism, technique and versatility, GRAMMY Award winner Sharon Isbin has been hailed as “the pre-eminent guitarist of our time”. She is also the winner of Guitar Player magazine’s “Best Classical Guitarist” award, the Madrid Queen Sofia and Toronto Competitions, and was the first guitarist ever to win the Munich Competition. She has given sold-out performances throughout the world in the greatest halls including New York’s Carnegie and Avery Fisher Halls, Boston’s Symphony Hall, Washington D.C.’s Kennedy Center, London’s Barbican and Wigmore Hall, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Paris’ Châtelet, Vienna’s Musikverein, Munich’s Herkulessaal, Madrid’s Teatro Real and many others. She has served as Artistic Director/Soloist of festivals she created for Carnegie Hall and the Ordway Music Theatre (St. Paul), her own series at New York’s 92nd Street Y, and the acclaimed national radio series Guitarjam.

Born in Minneapolis, Sharon Isbin began her guitar studies at age nine in Italy, and later studied with Andrès Segovia and Oscar Ghiglia. A former student of Rosalyn Tureck, Ms. Isbin collaborated with the noted keyboardist in preparing the first performance editions of the Bach lute suites for guitar (published by G. Schirmer). She received a B.A. cum laude from Yale University and a Master of Music from the Yale School of Music. She is the author of the Classical Guitar Answer Book, and is Director of guitar departments at the Aspen Music Festival and Juilliard School (which she created in l989 becoming the first and only guitar instructor in the institution’s 100-year history).

Sharon Isbin is featured on the soundtrack of Martin Scorsese’s Academy Award winning The Departed (2006), starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Jack Nicholson and Matt Damon. She was also heard on the Awards telecast excerpt viewed by nearly 40 million. She also received the 2005 Latin GRAMMY Nomination for ‘Best Classical Album’ and the 2006 GLAAD Award Nomination for ‘Outstanding Music Artist.’ Isbin is joined by Spaniard Gemma Coma-Alabert.

MP3 Samples

• Sample 1
• Sample 2

Weber Music Hall
7:30 p.m. • $30/$25/$15
All seats reserved. Advance purchase recommended.