About Jason Vieaux, guitarist
Jason Vieaux, "among the elite of today's classical guitarists" (Gramophone) is expanding the definition of the classical guitarist and changing the face of guitar programming, building a devoted audience and fan base along the way. Vieaux is a musician noted for virtuosic and stirring performances, imaginative programming, and uncommon communicative gifts.
His collaborations with the Escher Quartet, flutist Gary Schocker, harpist Yolanda Kondonassis, mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke, and bandoneon/accordion virtuoso Julien Labro continue to display Vieaux’s broad range of musical interests. Recent career highlights include solo performances at Lincoln Center, Spivey Hall, the Chautauqua Festival, and a return to Music@Menlo. This season, he will make his debut at the Caramoor Festival and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and has numerous return engagements, including appearances at the 92nd St. Y Guitar Marathon, the Peninsula Music Festival, the Maverick Series, Fontana Chamber Arts, the Elgin Symphony, and a Hartt School of Music residency. In addition, an extensive chamber music tour with The Curtis Institute of Music is slated for spring 2012.
In 2011-2012 Mr. Vieaux will perform concertos with the Buffalo Philharmonic, the Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra, the Ft. Wayne Philharmonic, and the symphonies of Richmond, Kitchener-Waterloo and Amarillo, featuring works by Rodrigo, Vivaldi, Castelnuovo-Tedesco, and Roberto Sierra. He has to date played concertos with more than 50 orchestras, working with conductors David Robertson, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Michael Stern, Jahja Ling, Stefan Sanderling, David Lockington, Andrew Constantine, and Alasdair Neale. His triumphant programs for Music@Menlo, the Strings Music Festival, the Grand Teton Festival and the Jupiter Chamber Players have forged his reputation as a first-rate chamber musician. Vieaux’s passion for new music has fostered premieres of works by Dan Visconti, David Ludwig, Jerod Impichchaachaaha' Tate, Eric Sessler, José Luis Merlin and Gary Schocker.
Jason Vieaux has eleven commercially successful albums to his credit, with more to come through his contract with Azica Records. A new album of Astor Piazzolla’s music with bandoneonist Julien Labro and A Far Cry Chamber Orchestra was released in 2011, and a new solo disc will arrive in 2013. His Bach: Works for Lute, Vol.1 hit No. 13 on Billboard’s Classical Chart a week after its release, and received rave reviews by Gramophone, The Absolute Sound, and Soundboard. Images of Metheny features music by American jazz legend Pat Metheny, who, after hearing this landmark recording, declared: "I am flattered to be included in Jason's musical world." Sevilla: The Music of Isaac Albeniz made several Top Ten lists the year of its release. Vieaux's recordings and live performances are regularly broadcast on radio and the internet, and he writes on various classical music topics for National Public Radio’s Deceptive Cadence blog series. His communicative gifts are the subject of feature articles in print and internet media outlets around the world every year, including magazines such as Acoustic Guitar, MUSO, and Gramophone.
In autumn 2011, Jason Vieaux co-founded The Curtis Institute of Music Guitar Department with guitarist David Starobin. He has been Head of the Guitar Department of the Cleveland Institute of Music since 2001, and is also affiliated with Philadelphia’s Astral Artists, with whom he gives annual outreach concerts. Vieaux was the youngest First Prize winner in the history of the prestigious Guitar Foundation of America International Competition. He is a Naumburg Foundation Competition top prizewinner, a Cleveland Institute of Music Alumni Achievement Award recipient, a Salon di Virtuosi Career Grant winner, and a former NPR Young-Artist-in-Residence. In 1995, Vieaux was an Artistic Ambassador of the US to Southeast Asia, touring seven countries, and he now regularly concertizes abroad to Asia, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. His primary teachers were Jeremy Sparks and John Holmquist.
Jason Vieaux is represented by Jonathan Wentworth Associates, Ltd. For more information, visit www.jasonvieaux.com.
