297 5th ANNUAL TENNESSEE GUITAR FESTIVAL SET MARCH 16-21 AT MTSU

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 12, 2007
CONTACT: Tim Musselman, (615) 898-2493

Free Concerts and Master Classes Offered in Conjunction with Festival

(MURFREESBORO)—The 2007 Tennessee Guitar Festival, which will consist of five consecutive nights of guitar concerts by top-notch guitar virtuosos, will be held at 8 each evening beginning March 16 in the T. Earl Hinton Music Hall of the Wright Music Building on the MTSU campus.
In addition to the nightly concerts, the festival—which is the largest of its kind in the state—will feature three master classes that will conclude March 21. All concerts and master classes are free and open to the public in MTSU’s Hinton Music Hall.
Opening night, March 16, will feature MTSU faculty William Yelverton, who will perform a program on both lute and guitar, along with duos with flutist Deanna Hahn. Roger Hudson will round out the program, performing on both guitar and the oud, a Middle Eastern instrument, with percussionist David Pruett.
Saturday night, March 17, will feature classical guitarist Stephen Robinson, who was heralded by The New York Times for his “effortless virtuosity with intelligence and good taste.”
“One of the most brilliant guitarists of our times,” commented Andrés Segovia.
Sunday night, March 18, will feature acoustic guitar virtuoso Michael Chapdelaine, the only guitarist to win both the Guitar Foundation of America International Classical Guitar Competition and the National Fingerstyle Championships at the Walnut Valley Bluegrass Festival in Winfield, Kansas.
“We like to have something ‘different’ every year in the Tennessee Guitar Festival, Michael is definitely unique,” remarked Yelverton. “He’ll play a program with both steel string and classical guitar that’ll include his own works as well as arrangements of pop/rock standards.”
Monday night, March 19, will bring Tennessee State University faculty member Richard Todd to perform in his trademark style that Soundboard Magazine has described as “thoughtful and nuanced” but with “intensity, variety of tone color, and ebb and flow in the music.”
The festival will conclude Tuesday, March 20, with a concert by classical guitarist Michael Patilla, an assistant professor of guitar at Mississippi State University.
“Michael is an extremely talented artist,” Patrick Kavanaugh, author, conductor, and executive director of the Masterworks Festival, has said. “I particularly love his approach to South American music.”
Regarding the festival’s featured master classes, Robinson will conduct a 10 a.m. master class March 18; Chapdelaine will sponsor a master class at 10 a.m. March 19; and Patilla will hold a master class at 9:30 a.m. March 21. All master classes will be held in Hinton Music Hall.
•For more information on the Tennessee Guitar Festival, please call (615) 898-2493 or visit http://www.mtsu.edu/~yelverto/guitfest.html.

PERFORMERS AT A GLANCE:
March 16: 8 p.m.—William Yelverton/Roger Hudson and friends
March 17: 5 p.m.—Erol Ozsever, Senior Recital
March 17: 8 p.m.—Stephen Robinson