Jose Luis Merlin In Concert

Presented by JCGS

WHERE:
SOU Music Building
Recital Hall
Mountain Avenue
Ashland, Oregon

WHEN:
Saturday, November 3rd, 2007, 8:00 PM

CONTACT:
541-552-9515

ADMISSION:
$20.00 General,
$15.00 Seniors,
$5.00 Students,
Children under 12 free

“Classical guitar at its finest. When you sit quietly and listenyou feel and see the poetry of the Argentina landscape. Throughout his prolific career, Jose Luis Merlin has composed and interpreted songs related to his home and his people, reflecting the subtle mixture between the classical and the popular. Merlin gives us a classical music with strong folkloric roots, in which malambos, zambas, chacareras, carnavalitos, tangos, and joropos are found.”
–Victory Music review of Merlin CD, “Dreams of Argentina” —

Argentine guitarist/composer Jose Luis Merlin will perform a concert on Saturday, November 3rd, at 8pm, in the SOU Music Building Recital Hall, in Ashland. The Jefferson Classical Guitar Society sponsors the event, which is the first concert of the “2007-2008 JCGS Concert Series”. Mr. Merlin will present a master class on Sunday, November 4th at 2:00 pm in the SOU Music Building Choir Room.

Tickets are $20.00 general, $15.00 seniors, and $5.00 students. Children under 12 years of age are admitted free. Tickets can be purchased in advance at “CD or Not CD”, 343 E. Main St. in Ashland or at Central Arts Supply, 101 N. Central, in Medford. Tickets can also be purchased at the door. For more information, go to the JCGS website at www.JeffersonGuitar.org, or call 552-9515.

Jose Luis Merlin was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1952. He began playing the guitar at the age of five under the tutelage of Maestro Vincente Degese, continued with Maestro Abel Carlevaro, and was performing in Argentina by the time he was nine years old. He has been a concert artist, composer and guitar teacher since 1967, as well as a researcher and teacher of instrumental technique. Merlin has made more than twenty international tours, which include: Spain, Austria, USA (over 100 concerts), Canada, Cuba, Germany, France, Switzerland, Italy, Brazil and Uruguay.

Merlin has played as a soloist with the Symphonies of Rosario and San Juan (Argentina), and has performed chamber music with the following quartets: Buenos Aires, Sudamérica, Sudamericano, Musicámera, del Plata, and the Grupo Merlin. He is co-founder and first president of the Association Integración Guitarrística Argentina. He has published over ten recordings in the USA, Japan, Austria and Argentina.

As a composer he has given workshops on instrumental techniques, rhythmic folklore of Argentina, insights and analyses of South American composers, as well as lectures at universities in Texas, Southern California, Oregon and Michigan. He composed the music for Travesia (The Guitar, Witness to Five Centuries), an oratorio for recitative, singing voice, mezzosoprano and chamber orchestra (texts by José Tcherkasky). Merlin has composed works for solo guitar, guitar and violin, guitar and string quartet, piano and voice, etc.