{"id":10246,"date":"2018-06-22T20:33:10","date_gmt":"2018-06-23T03:33:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/?p=10246"},"modified":"2018-06-22T20:33:10","modified_gmt":"2018-06-23T03:33:10","slug":"report-from-gfa-3-antigoni-goni-enchants-rovshan-rules-nzgq-delight-and-the-grigoryans-triumph","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/report-from-gfa-3-antigoni-goni-enchants-rovshan-rules-nzgq-delight-and-the-grigoryans-triumph\/","title":{"rendered":"Report from GFA #3: Antigoni Goni Enchants, Rovshan Rules, NZGQ Delight, and the Grigoryans Triumph"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thursday night at GFA, the showcase concert featured formed GFA winner (1995) Antigoni Goni, the magnificent Greek guitarist who has lived in the Belgium for many years, teaches at the Royal Conservatory in Brussels, and also spearheads the groundbreaking Volterra Project guitar program each summer in Tuscany. Perhaps you saw her on the cover of the Spring 2018 issue of Classical Guitar<\/em>. If you missed it, here’s a link to that story<\/a>. Goni’s appearance at this year’s GFA, her first in a number of years, was greatly anticipated and drew a large and enthusiastic crowd.<\/p>\n

In an interesting move, she eschewed the traditional headlining concert structure of two sets separated by an intermission, instead opting to play one long set. I liked that\u2014it seems like it brought an added continuity and flow to the well-structured program. Most of her concerts these days are built around her most recent album, Hymn to the Muse<\/em>, which explores her Greek roots, Greek music, and music inspired by Greece. In fact the two largest pieces she performed at Comstock Hall weren’t written by Greeks at all, but by Serbian Du\u0161an Bogdanovic (the title suite from the album) and Bulgarian Atanas Ourkouzounov (Four Greek Miniatures<\/em>); both countries are near Greece and share some similar musical influences. Goni explained the origins of each piece she played and offered some historical context in terms of her own musical evolution. Two of the highlights from the Greek portion of the show, which dominated, were Manos Hadjidakas’ transcendently beautiful Giacoinda’s smile<\/em> and two Mikis Theodorakis’ Epitfios<\/em>.
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