Newman & Oltman Guitar Duo Appears In Recital at Stiefel Concert Hall

The acclaimed Newman & Oltman Guitar Duo, the Ensemble in Residence for the Mannes School of Music, will perform a in recital at the Ernst C. Stiefel Concert Hall this Sunday, April 7 at 8 PM. Michael Newman and Laura Oltman will present their 40th Anniversary Retrospective program that includes works by Du an Bogdanovi , Manuel de Falla, Paul Moravec, Celso Machado, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Luiz Simas, Clarice Assad and Isaac Alb niz. Stiefel Concert Hall is located in The New School at 55 West 13th Street, New York. This concert is free and open to the public.

Hailed as a revelation to hear by The Washington Post, the Newman & Oltman Guitar Duo's phenomenal musicianship places them solidly at the top of their field. Their innovative programming, matchless technique and ensemble precision, combined with their commitment to expanding the repertoire for guitar duo, make them a chamber ensemble of world renown. Their concert tours have taken them to world cultural capitals and premiere venues across five continents, the Caribbean, and South Pacific. In addition to their international engagements, they have performed at Carnegie Hall, aboard the Queen Elizabeth II, Caramoor and the Grand Canyon Music Festival. The Duo has demonstrated extraordinary stylistic breadth in their collaborations with such diverse artists as composer/conductor Marvin Hamlisch and the Pittsburgh Symphony, mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade, fiddler Eileen Ivers, pianist Clarice Assad, violinist Tim Fain, and the ETHEL, Daedalus, Calder, and Turtle Island string quartets.

Highlights for this season include the premiere of a new work written for and dedicated to the Duo by renowned Cuban composer Leo Brouwer. Michael and Laura have exclusive performing and recording rights to this new addition to the guitar duo repertoire. The Duo hosted Brouwer last spring during a rare US appearance at Mannes School of Music. Recent highlights include the world premiere of Concierto Buenos Aires composed for the Duo by Nuevo Tango Master Daniel Binelli with l'Orchestre de l'Op ra de Reims in France. Following on the success of the concerto's French debut, the Duo charmed the Ferguson audience with phenomenal musicianship (Gazette Journal) when they performed it with the Virginia Symphony. This summer Michael and Laura will return to teach and perform at the Lanciano International Guitar Seminar in Abruzzo, Italy where they are co-artistic directors. They also performed as guest artists and master class presenters at the Camino Artes Guitar Workshop in Palencia, Spain and at the Festival de Viol o in Porto Alegre, Brazil.

Through their groundbreaking new music-commissioning program, Newman & Oltman have built a unique repertoire of works for two guitars by composers such as Paul Moravec, Augusta Read Thomas, Lowell Liebermann, Du an Bogdanovic, Arthur Kampela and Roberto Sierra. Fanfare Magazine hailed the Duo's latest CD, Music from Raritan River as top notch and a winner all around. The recording features a collection of world premieres commissioned by the Duo over the past decade. Their artistry has also been captured on nearly a dozen other acclaimed recordings and has been recognized by grants and awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, Chamber Music America and ASCAP.

Michael Newman and Laura Oltman are the Founders and Artistic Directors of the New York Guitar Seminar at Mannes and will celebrate their 30th year as ensemble-in-residence at Mannes College of Music this season. They are also Founders and Artistic Directors of the Raritan River Music Festival marking its 30th season this year.

For more information, visit www.guitarduo.com

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