USM School of Music Welcomes Visiting Artist Guitarist Tim Pence This March

On i??Friday, March 6, 2020, Maine-based guitarist Tim Pence will give a lecture recital titled, "What's So Classical About Classical Guitar." His lecture will examine the history of "classical" guitar music through the lenses of three composers: Mauro Giuliani, Dionisio Aguado and Fernando Sor.

The presentation poses and answers verbally and through performances questions including: what really is a classical guitar anyway? What does guitar music of the classical era sound like? What does it mean to call oneself a classical guitarist? Do classical guitarists even play classical music? The presentation is a balanced combination of spoken information and performance - many musical examples from the classical era are performed on classical guitar. Come listen to and learn about guitar music of the actual classical era!

Tim Pence is a composer and multi-instrumentalist with a specialty in classical guitar. For two decades he was active in the greater Boston area performing, writing, and teaching until 2015 when he moved to a small town (pop. 350) in Downeast Maine where he continues that work with a fresh perspective. While always in demand as a classical guitarist, Pence enjoys many other projects ranging from rock to the occasional electric guitar and tuba combo as well as playing French horn with the Passamaquoddy Bay Symphony Orchestra.

As a composer he has written over 50 works including most recently a commission by the Galveston Symphony Orchestra, Big Rocks on Steep Hills - A Collage of Dreams for Large Orchestra, which premiered this past February to enthusiastic reception at The Grand 1894 Opera House in Galveston Texas. Pence developed a connection to brass instruments at a young age as a student of French Horn, a connection which resurfaced in his first brass quintet, In the Monkey Brain... and other stories, which was commissioned and performed numerous times in the early 2000's by the Triton Brass Quintet including the premiere performance at the Lyon Opera house in France. Tim has also worked with the Chagall Performance Art Collaborative who commissioned a "sound painting palate" which they used in performances throughout Boston and New York and it became a signature aspect of their performances. In 2017 his Sleeping Guitar was written for Aaron Larget-Caplan's New Lullaby Project and has been performed over 50 times across the U.S. and as far away as Moscow, Russia.

Tim studied classical guitar formally with David Leisner and composition informally with Lee Hyla at the New England Conservatory of Music, and during this time won 1st prize in the 1996 New England Classical Guitar Society Competition.

Those needing special accommodations to participate fully in this program, contact the USM Music Box Office, (207) 780-5555, usmmusicboxoffice@maine.edu. Hearing impaired: call USM's telex / TDD number (207) 780-5646.

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