Today at noon in Room 115 of the music building, students will get the opportunity to experience a free guitar concert by Mobius Trio.
Formed in 2010, Mobius Trio is currently made up of Matthew Holmes-Linder, Robert Nance and Mason Fish. The trio aims to present a sense of freshness and youthful energy to guitar music and alter some preconceived ideas about guitar music.
“The works we have commissioned all show the guitar in an entirely new light,” Mason said. “Many people associate the guitar with its Spanish roots and music, but the repertoire we have built with these composers points in a completely different direction. It is also a very diverse collection.”
Mobius Trio focuses on the visibility of guitar and its expansion of sound through repertoire. And today’s repertoire will feature two composed pieces of work of Garrett Shatzer – a familiar face in the music department on campus.
Shatzer got in touch with Mobius Trio in June of 2009 and decided to collaborate on a piece for a seven-string guitar.
“The Transition was the first piece in what is an ongoing collaboration with guitarist Mason Fish,” Shatzer said. “Being a guitarist myself, one of my goals with this piece was to ensure that each of the three parts was idiomatic – as opposed to a lot of guitar ensemble music which is transcribed from other mediums.”
Just last month, Mobius Trio performed at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. They performed the works of Sahba Aminikia, Matthew Cmiel and Clayton Moser, which will also be featured in today’s concert.
“The music Mobius Trio plays is quite eclectic in style,” Nance said. “Sahba’s piece is deeply rooted in Persian tradition, Clayton’s explores his love and fascination with heavy metal, Anthony’s piece is a fantastic, unique work the likes of which [the trio] have never heard on the guitar, and Matt Cmiel’s piece boarders on the avant-garde while creating a great soundscape.”
UYEN CAO can be reached at arts@theaggie.org.
