A Pioneer In Guitar Ensemble Education Thomas Amoriello Fleminton Raritan School District tamoriel@frsd.k12.nj.us
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n the May 2015 issue of TEMPO appeared an article entitled, Guitar Education Roundtable: Thoughts on Guitar Ensemble, also reprinted in the Michigan Music Educator, Winter 2016 issue. The purpose of that article was to learn from various guitar ensemble directors from across the United States about what strategies worked in their programs, and valuable information was shared by all involved in the roundtable. Today we will revisit the topic with a focus on one person who created the first guitar chamber orchestra in the USA. Reed Desrosiers, a native of Jaffrey, New Hampshire, did his undergraduate studies in guitar under Otello Mauri, Florence, ltaly, and Bernard Hebb and Herbert Balzer at the Hamburg Conservatory of Music, Hamburg Germany. His graduate studies were done under Bernard Hebb at the Hochschule für gestalltende Kunst und Musik in Bremen, Germany, where, in 1978, he received that institution’s first Kunstlerische Reifediplom - Germany’s highest degree in musical performance - in the performance and pedagogy of classical guitar. Desrosiers joined the music faculty of Keene State College (Keene, NH) in 1974 during his final semester of studies for the BM in Music Education degree, which he received in 1975. In 1978 he became a member of the full-time faculty, and in 1980 was named Artist-in-Residence. He is the founder and conductor of the internationally renowned Classical Guitar Chamber Orchestra of Keene State College. He is director of The Classical Guitar Chamber Orchestra & The Classical Guitar Chamber Orchestra of Keene State College, this was the first guitar orchestra established in the United States. Founded in 1976 by Desrosiers, the Orchestra amassed substantial performance credentials both nationally and internationally. In 1983 the orchestra undertook its first international tour with concerts, radio recordings, masterclasses and TV appearances in Los Angeles, Manila, and Hong Kong. The Orchestra has also appeared frequently on both New Hampshire and Vermont PBS radio. Guest soloists with the Orchestra have included German guitarist Hans Wilhelm Kaufmann, Alice Artzt, and the Newman/Oltman Guitar Duo. The Orchestra performed or conducted clinics at numerous colleges and universities throughout the Northeast and for such organizations as the Guitar Division of the American String Teachers Association, the then Music Educators National Conference, the New Hampshire State Legislature, and New Hampshire and Massachusetts All-State Music Festivals. Thank you to the 2016 NJMEA Honors Guitar Ensemble conductor, Michael Lemma, who made me aware of and introduced me to his former teacher, Desrosiers, via email. You can learn more about Michael Lemma’s program by checking out the TEMPO, May TEMPO
2014 article, Guitars, Mandolins & So Much More. What type of experience or participation did you personally have in participating in a guitar ensemble during your music studies? In 1969, at the age of 17, I had the absolute, total dumb luck of stumbling into what was, at that time, the most comprehensive guitar education program in the world, at the Hamburg Conserva46
MARCH 2017
