Performer Bios

Anthony Glise
(Festival Director - classical guitarist / composer / author)
The only American-born guitarist to win First Prize at the International Toscanini Competition (Italy), Anthony Glise is a product of the Konservatorium der Stadt (Vienna) and the New England Conservatory (Boston) with additional study at Harvard, Université Catholique de Lille (France) and the Accademia di Studi “L'Ottocento” (Italy).
A Pulitzer Prize Nominee for composition, Anthony has been awarded diplomas and performed at such festivals as Festival des Artes (Hautecombe), Ville Sable (France), ARCUM (Rome) and the Nemzetközi Gitárfesztivál (Hungary). In addition to traditional classical repertoire, concerts often include 19th-Century works performed on a priceless 1828 Staufer Viennese guitar.
Anthony’s commitment to the art has led to many diversified activities. His writings have been published extensively in The Soundboard (U.S.), Guitar International (England) and Gitarre und Laute (Germany). He has acted as an Artist-in-Residence and Touring Artist for a number of U.S. state arts councils and similar European programs. He is also the editor of the internationally-acclaimed series of guitar music, “The Anthony Glise Editions,” published by Willis Music Company and “The Anthony Glise Urtext Editions” by Mel Bay Publications.
An active composer, Anthony’s original compositions have been premiered in such cities as New York, Chicago, Rome, Vienna, Lille (France) and Esztergom (Hungary).
His recordings include traditional works (solo, chamber, orchestral and ballet) as well as original compositions for such labels as Éclipse (France), Young Recording Artists (USA) and Dorian Recordings (USA). His first album, Overview, was chosen as one of the year’s “Top-5 Classical Releases” by Vienna Life Magazine.
Anthony is director of the St. Joseph International Guitar Festival and the Festival Chartres (Chartres, France) and currently lectures at the Academy for the Study of 19th-Century Music (Italy). When not on tour, he lives and teaches part-time in the Flandres region of Northern France, part-time in the Black Forest region of Germany and part-time in the US at Missouri Western State College in St. Joseph, Missouri (one of the nation's leading programs for classical, and commercial guitar studies) where he holds a visiting professorship.
See: http://www.AnthonyGlise.com


Dr. Robert Trent (classical guitarist)
Classical Guitar soloist, performer of chamber music and concerti, Robert Trent has performed on the continents of North and South America and in Europe. Dr. Trent performs on modern guitar, Renaissance lute and on an original French guitar from the early 19th-Century and a reproduction of a 10-string double-necked Romantic guitar of Scherzer. In addition to his in solo recitals he performs regularly with fortepianist Pamela Swenson (as Duo Firenze). In past summers he and fortepianist Pamela Swenson Trent have been in residence as performers and teachers in period instrument performance at the “Accademia L’Ottocento” in Rome and Verbania.
Dr. Trent has appeared in chamber music recitals or concerti with The Audubon Quartet, the Kandinsky Trio and the Philadelphia Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra.
Dr. Trent has been a first prize winner in numerous national and international competitions including; the Webb National Guitar Competition, the Masterworks Young Artist Competition and the chamber music prize at the International Competition “Arturo Toscanini” in Italy.
He is the recent recipient of numerous awards including: unprecedented two career grants from The Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University, two faculty development Grants from Radford University and twice from the Virginia Commission for the Arts.
Recent tours have taken Dr. Trent to Russia and France where he also was the first American judge in the Maurice Ohana International Guitar Festival held in Paris.
Sought after as an expert in performance practice of the early nineteenth-century, he has contributed improvised cadenzas in the style of Fernando Sor to the new Mel Bay text (melbay.com) “Complete Sonatas of Diabelli, Giuliani and Sor, Vol. 1" edited by Anthony Glise.
The first recipient of the degree of Doctor of Musical Arts in guitar from the Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University, Dr. Trent is currently director of Guitar and Renaissance Lute studies at the College of Visual and Performing Arts of Radford University.
He is a recording artist for Dorian Records® as a member of Duo Firenze. Their first Dorian CD is entitled Italian Nocturnes: Early Romantic Music for Guitar and Fortepiano (catalogue no: DIS 80156).
See: http://www.duofirenze.com


Lucia & Valdemar
(spanish flamenco guitar & song)
Founders of the famed Flamenco ensemble, Gitanerias Flamenco, Lucia & Valdemar are also one of the world's leading Spanish flamenco duos, having performed at countless international festivals and concert venues. They have also been the subject of a PBS feature presentation and notably a television documentary broadcast throughout the North America by Time-Warner.
As a flamenco singer and dancer, Lucia has had extensive contact with Ramon Algeciras, Pepe de Lucia and the famed choreographer, Ronald Sequoio of the Metropolitan Opera Ballet in New York.
Flamenco guitarist, Valdemar, has performed with Adam Del Monte, Miguel Rodriguez and the vast majority of every notable flamenco personality and has written the music and performed for numerous touring flamenco dance productions.
Their original approach to traditional Spanish flamenco music runs the full gamut from blazing technical fire to the passionate, heartbreaking love songs so typical of this tremendous art form.
See: http://www.FlamencoInC.org


Kevin Gallagher (classical / electric avant-garde guitarist)
Kevin R. Gallagher began playing rock guitar in his formative years but his musical appetite quickly led him to study jazz and ultimately, classical guitar. His renowned gift for the classical guitar won him numerous scholarships and awards while studying with Benjamin Verdery at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music and at the Julliard School under the tutelage of Sharon Isbin.
As one of the world's leading classical guitarists, he was the first-prize winner in the 1993 Guitar Foundation of America, the 1994 American String Teachers Association, and the 1993 Artists International Competition.
Most notably, Mr. Gallagher also earned the distinct honor of being the only American classical guitarist ever to win first prize in the prestigious Francisco Tárrega Guitar Competition in Spain (1997). Following his studies at Julliard, Mr. Gallagher gave many classical guitar performances and masterclasses throughout the world, including those in Spain, Germany, Sweden, Greece, Turkey, Brazil, England, and the United States. He has recorded four classical guitar CDs, the ultimate being a recording for Naxos Records which was hailed as “...one of the very best NAXOS guitar recordings” by Classical Guitar Magazine (London) in 2000.
In the summer of 2001 Kevin discarded what was hailed as one of the most brilliant traditional classical careers with his return to his first love, the electric guitar — a decision that caused tremendous upheaval in the guitar world. Since this monumental decision, his goal has been to bridge the “contemporary” music concert and the “popular” music concert. Kevin encourages composers to write new music for the instruments of today - such as the electric guitar, turntables, synthesizers etc. This unique mix of traditions is widening the audience and interest for new music as well as educating composers who never have the chance to study these modern genres in a traditional conservatory education.
Mr. Gallagher has arranged numerous works for the solo electric guitar, including pieces by various famed international composer including Jacob Ter Veldhuis, Steve Reich, Leo Brouwer, and Arvo Pärt among others. Urban Mosaic was written for and dedicated to Kevin by Marco Oppedisano.
See: http://www.www.guitar69.com


Jason Riley (rock / jazz / classical guitarist)
A tremendously versatile guitarist, Jason Riley’s professional experience includes recording, composing, teaching and performing in diverse styles. His formal degree in classical guitar and commercial music included extensive work in American musical genres with special focus on the Jazz idiom and improvisation.
As a recording artist, Jason has produced and released three solo CDs, Notes to Self (a compilation of original compositions), Outtakes (original arrangements of traditional works) and Spirit of Things (traditional American spirituals). An equally successful accompanist, Jason has been featured extensively as a guest performer with other artists in concert and on many recordings.
Riley’s unique, personal style highlights an improvisation-based approach utilizing “live” looping and technological effects — all accented by his exceptional stage presence, acclaimed work with acoustic and electric instruments and heartfelt tributes to his many musical influences. His stylistic versatility, mood and character is expansive: blending soft and subtle, frantic and aggressive, swing and rock, Riley plays unaccompanied, in chamber music setting and with symphony orchestra. Jason’s work on stage not only reflects his understanding of classical form and balance, but shows a highly original combination of his classical/rock/jazz background that very few guitarists can successfully execute in live performance.
Since 2003, Jason has regularly appeared in concert with Anthony Glise, Ken Sugita, Edwidge DelleValle (violinist/’cellist of the French National Orchestra) and Jan Akkerman (Dutch guitar legend) at a number of international music festivals in the US and Europe, including his 2003 acceptance of a post as co-director of the Festival Chartres in Chartres, France.
He has won various US competitions and reader’s polls in both the rock and country genres and has performed with numerous international artists including television and syndicated radio appearances. When not on tour, Jason serves as professor of guitar at several colleges in the Central US and is the commercial, jazz and rock guitar professor at Missouri Western State College in St. Joseph, Missouri.
See: http://www.JasonRiley.com


N.B. All performers will give concerts and will teach masterclasses as well as classes on their favorite hobby (see Schedule Grid for details). Additional festival classes include:
• Anthony Glise: Pétanque (a French game similar to American horseshoes but played with steel balls like Italian Boccia)
• Robert Trent: Yoga for Musicians
• Lucia: Basic Flamenco Dance
• Chef Linda Gilmour: Cooking Basics forf Musicians
• Kevin Gallagher: Playing competition Hearts (the card game).

All classes are open to the general public.
Auditor or Day Passes required for classes and include full pass all classes that day as well as entrance to that evening's concert and post-concert jam session.