Featured Soloist: Sharon Isbin
October 15 and 17, 2004

Acclaimed for her extraordinary lyricism, technique and versatility, Grammy Award winner Sharon Isbin has been hailed as 'the pre-eminent guitarist of our time.' She is also the winner of Guitar Player magazine's 'Best Classical Guitarist' award, the Madrid Queen Sofia and Toronto Competitions, and was the first guitarist ever to win the Munich Competition. She has given sold-out performances throughout the world. She has been profiled on CBS Sunday Morning and A&E's Breakfast with the Arts, and in periodicals from People and Elle to The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.

Ms. Isbin's catalogue of more than 20 recordings range from Baroque, Spanish/Latin and 20th Century to crossover and jazz-fusion. Her latest Warner Classics release, Sharon Isbin Plays Baroque Favorites for Guitar, features concerti by Bach, Vivaldi, and Albinoni, including four world premieres, and debuted on the Billboard Top 10 Classical Chart for over 15 weeks. Her world premiere recording of concerti written for her by Christopher Rouse and Tan Dun (composer of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), debuted as #6 on the Billboard charts.

Sharon Isbin has been acclaimed for expanding the guitar repertoire with some of the finest new works of the century. She has commissioned and premiered more concerti than any other guitarist, as well as numerous solo and chamber works. Her American Landscapes (EMI/Virgin Classics) with the SPCO conducted by Hugh Wolff is the first-ever recording of American guitar concerti and features works written for her by John Corigliano, Joseph Schwantner, and Lukas Foss. (In November 1995, it was launched in the space shuttle Atlantis and presented to Russian cosmonauts during a rendezvous with Mir.) She has also recorded the Schwantner with Leonard Slatkin and the St. Louis Symphony. In January 2000, she premiered the ninth concerto written for her: Concert de Gaudí by Christopher Rouse with Christoph Eschenbach and the NDR Symphony, followed by performances with Andrew Litton and the Dallas Symphony, and David Zinman at the Aspen Music Festival. Among the many other composers who have written for her are Joan Tower, David Diamond, Ned Rorem, Aaron Jay Kernis and Leo Brouwer.

She has appeared as soloist with some 120 orchestras, including the National Symphony, Baltimore, Houston, Dallas, Minnesota, St. Louis, New Jersey, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Phoenix, Utah, and Honolulu Symphonies, the Rochester, Brooklyn, and Buffalo Philharmonics, as well as the St. Paul, New York, and Los Angeles Chamber Orchestras. Ms. Isbin began her guitar studies at age nine in Italy, and later studied with Andrès Segovia and Oscar Ghiglia. She received a B.A. from Yale University and a Master of Music from the Yale School of Music.

Ms. Isbin played Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez on October 15 and 17, 2004.

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