Arcosanti - An Urban Laboratory in the Arizona Desert.

GUITAR CONCERT: ANDREAS KAPSALIS


Andreas Kapsalis
Solo Guitar Concert

Sunday, March 26, 2017 @1:30 pm
in Arcosanti Cafe

Concert Ticket: $20 ($10 for students)
Buffet Lunch available at Cafe: $10

For ticket purchase, please call 928.632.6217

"I am very impressed that Andreas could cover on guitar what I had written for piano. It is quite amazing to hear my own music performed by great instrumentalists." - Dave Brubeck, American jazz pianist and composer

"Andreas is reinventing the art of guitar playing. He is the next level." - Jim Tulio, Grammy Award winning producer

 

Andreas Kapsalis Website

 

[Downloadable Poster link at the bottom of this page]

Andreas Kapsalis is a Greek American guitarist and composer born in the suburbs of Chicago. His first exposure to music was through his mother, Frances, a student of opera, and his father Peter, a violinist. Andreas began teaching himself guitar at the age of 11, reading and writing music as well as music theory. At the age of 18 he suffered a hand injury; during his recovery period, he began developing his 10 finger tapping techniques. Under the tutelage of composer and producer Jim Tullio, a student of Aaron Copland, he refined his compositional approach on the guitar using these techniques. Tullio produced Andreas' first EP with Andreas' arrangement of Dave Brubeck's composition Blue Rondo a la Turk, which garnered attention from the composer himself, who said "I am very impressed that Andreas could cover on guitar what I had written for piano. It is quite amazing to hear my own music performed by great instrumentalists."

Andreas began performing nationally with the Andreas Kapsalis Trio and recorded two discs featuring his compositions. While performing in LA, he was invited to apply for the Sundance Composers Labs. He was awarded the fellowship, an honor awarded to only six composers a year. This was his initiation into film composing. At the end of the Sundance Composers Lab, Andreas was invited by the directors to complete a score for their documentary film "Black Gold" among the documentaries selected for the January premier at the Sundance Film Festival. Founder of the Sundance Institute and Festival, Robert Redford, noted this was the first time in Sundance Institute history that documentary fellows and a composer fellow had an "official selection" at the Sundance Film Festival. Subsequently, he composed scores for several documentary and feature films such as "Pig Business" and "Mulberry Street" to name a few. He also has been commissioned by Northwestern University and Notre Dame to compose music for their silent film festivals as well. Following this, Andreas performed and recorded several discs with Polish singer/contra bassist Megitza and the AKGI duo. He has been performing internationally, solo and in various ensembles for festivals and concert series in North America, Europe and Asia, such as Montreaux Jazz Festival in Switzerland, the Calcutta Guitar Festival in India, the Canadian Guitar Festival and the Guitar Festival in the Phillipines.

In addition, concerts have taken place in Germany, Austria, Poland and Slovakia.

Most recently Andreas was invited to Armenia to participate in "Sounds of Peace" a musical exchange featuring 60 artists from 10 different countries. Throughout his career he has also enjoyed teaching guitar for many years, first at the Kapsalis Music Shoppe, Elgin Community College, and Northwestern University Mini Courses. Being very much a self taught musician with a relatively unique playing technique and musical perspective, together with the variety of cultural experiences in the world of music, and as a traveler, Andreas continues to be inspired and eager to share the beauty of music and how it can enrich one's life. Among his many projects, Andreas is composing and arranging pieces for a solo album.

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