Friday, December 20, 2013

Diatonic Scale (Part II)

This F major scale is one of many exercises my maestro Domingo Carbajal taught me.
I've reached the conclusion that it's much more important and practical to practice one
scale many different ways rather the practicing many different scales only one way.
This rule of thumb should be applied to the scales found in music pieces we are
learning. It's a good idea to change the rhythm, dynamics, fingerings, etc. and then
work on it as written.

Saturday, November 16, 2013

Sergiu Celibidache (1912-1996) on his Philosophy of Music

 
This extraordinary Romanian-born conductor studied in Romania and later in Paris and
Berlin, excelling in various disciplines (math, philosophy, piano, composition and
conducting). At the age of 33, Sergiu was already conducting the Berlin Philharmonic  
Orchestra til 1952. After he worked with radio orchestras in Stockholm, Stuttgart and  
Paris. From 1973-75 he was the primary permanent guest conductor of the French 
Orchestre National and in 1979 he became the director of the Munich Philharmonic,
which he made one of the best in the world.
Celi was also considered to be an outstanding maestro giving master courses on
orchestral conducting in Siena (Accademia Musicale Chigiana), Germany (Mainz
University) and at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, PA. He had many great
students and among them were Regino Sáinz de la Maza, D. Carbajal, D.
Barenboim, etc.

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

BIOGRAPHY

Christian Laremont was born May 6, 1969 in Caracas Venezuela. From early
childhood he was deeply responsive to the sounds of both popular Venezuelan
instruments (the cuatro, harp and maracas) and folkloric music (Joropo,
Calypso, etc.). At the age of four he moved to the U.S. where he lived in
Florida and New York. In 1987 he moved to Madrid, Spain where he started
and completed his formal music studies at the  Conservatorio Superior de
Música "Padre Antonio Soler" (El Escorial, Spain) obtaining a B.A. in Guitar
Performance (Título Superior de Guitarra) under the supervision of Jose Carlos
Baños (semi-finalist in the prestigious International Guitar Contest "Francisco
Tárrega") in 2002. His repertoire includes music from the Renaissance, Baroque,
Classical and Contemporary time periods.
He has attended master classes with Enrique Blanco (Composition), Demetrio
Ballesteros (Guitar  Performance), and studied intensely over the course of six
years perfecting his technique and musicianship with Domingo Carbajal (disciple 
of Regino Sainz de la Maza and Sergiu Celibidache). Apart from this, he has a B.A. 
in Media of Communication (1994) from the Universidad Complutense of Madrid.
Christian currently lives in the San Francisco Bay Area where he intends to
demonstrate his personal playing style and ability as well as teaching music.
The move to California is what inspired him to make a video (recorded by
Brian Hallett in Madrid, July 2013) with interpretations from the likes of Luis
de Milán,  J.S. Bach, Manuel de Falla, Heitor Villa-Lobos and the Venezuelan
Antonio Lauro.