Espana El Vito – The Spirit of Spain and Tango

Continuing their ground-breaking 2018 tour collaborations including SOLD OUT shows at the Sydney Opera House and Canberra Internationally acclaimed, award winning concert pianist, ‘Young Steinway Artist’ Nicholas Young joins internationally renowned 10-string virtuoso Guitarist Matthew Fagan, combining musical passion and virtuosity to celebrate the Spirit of Spain, El Vito and Tango.

The duo perform Spanish repertoire from classical to flamenco, plus the colourful and rhythmic sounds of South American Classical and Latin masterpieces, tango and modern jazz infusing the exhilarating traditional flamenco elements of Spanish Guitar with the classical, virtuoso pianism, and transform masterpieces by Joaquin Rodrigo, Isaac Albeniz, Manuel de Falla, Enrique Granados, Astor Piazzolla, Chick Correa, Maurice Ravel, Claude Bolling and more into stunning new arrangements.

REVIEWS
“There’s no doubt pianist, Nicholas Young, and guitarist, Matthew Fagan, are virtuosi. Their credentials are undeniable and their technical skills were quite astounding, especially their precise timing. Even long vivace sequences of notes played in unison were perfect.
The pairing of the piano and guitar was an inspired choice. There was a beautiful complementarity between the two. The mainly well-known pieces by Spanish greats such as Albeniz, de Falla and Rodrigo certainly were crowd-pleasers.”
Clinton White Canberra Reviewers Circle.

“This reviewer found the class of playing better than almost any other performance he has heard. The capacity audience gave a standing ovation and deservedly so.”
ROB KENNEDY City News Canberra.

NICHOLAS YOUNG- Piano
Born in Sydney and currently based in Melbourne, pianist and Young Steinway Artist Nicholas Young has regularly concertised throughout Australia and Europe, appearing as soloist with the Vienna International, West Australian, Queensland, Adelaide and Willoughby Symphony Orchestras.
Nicholas’ past national accolades include Keyboard Winner of the 2011 ABC Symphony Australia Young Performers Awards, Second Prize of the 2012 Australian National Piano Award, and Winner of 2 of Australia’s most prestigious piano awards the 2016 Allison/Henderson Sydney Eisteddfod and Michael Kieran Harvey Piano Scholarships.
During his overseas studies, supported by the Marten Bequest Travelling Scholarship, Nicholas received First Prize of the 2015 ‘Grand Prize Virtuoso’ International Music Competition (London),
In 2013, Nicholas graduated from a Bachelor of Music (Performance) with First Class Honours and received a University Medal; Nicholas undertook Masters studies at the Universitat Mozarteum Salzburg with Claudius Tanski, where he had master classes with Dmitri Bashkirov, Christian Zacharias, Robert Levin, Dominique Merlet and Jaques Rouvier among many others. Nicholas went on to graduate with Distinction and the highest possible grades in all performance and academic components.
‘Commanding performance…consummate skill, virtuosity and panache.’ Limelight Magazine
http://www.nicholasyoungpiano.com/

MATTHEW FAGAN- 10 String Spanish Classical Guitar and 6 String Nylon Classical Godin Guitar
Matthew Fagan has long been established as one of Australia’s finest exponents of the guitar. Matthew has toured with Billy Connolly, The Buena Vista Social Club, Shirley Bassey, Natalie Cole and Michael Crawford. Matthew’s virtuosic rendition of Bach’s famous Toccata in D Minor featured on ABC TV.
Matthew has performed in more than 120 countries worldwide as a soloist, with orchestra and bands including extensive touring across Europe, South America, Alaska, Canada, China, Japan and South East Asia
Matthew’s music education has been at the Victorian College of the Arts (Performance -Classical and improvisation), Monash University (Ethnomusicology, Composition Education) and a Masters PHD of Cultural Development at the University of Melbourne. Matthew has studied and/or performed with masters John Williams, Paco Pena, Leo Kottke, Martin Taylor, Joe Pass amongst others.

‘Matthew has a Latin Soul and we love his playing so much that
we want to take him back home to Cuba’
Ibrahim Ferrer- The Original Buena Vista Social Club

‘A True Artist’
Paco Peña
www.matthew-fagan.com ,
www.youtube.com/mjb1fagan 

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