Curriculum Vitae

EDUCATION

• Doctor of Musical Arts (Performance & Literature), 1998-2002, Eastman School of Music (studio of Nicholas Goluses)
• Master of Music (Performance & Literature), 1990-1992, Yale University School of Music (studio of Benjamin Verdery)
• Diploma of Advanced Studies (Graduate Recital Diploma), 1989-1992, Royal Academy of Music, London (studio of John Mills; visiting professor: John Williams)
• Bachelor of Music (Undergraduate degree in music performance), 1984-1988, Royal Academy of Music, Denmark (I was a student of the late Leif Christensen).
• Kindermusik Certificate, 2006. Kindermusik is an internationally recognized early childhood music program.
• Private studies of the viol and the lute in Europe and the United States (Hans-Georg Kramer, viol; Viggo Mangor & Patric O’Brien, lute)

TEACHING EXPERIENCE  (excerpt)

• Professor, counterpoint, music history and classical guitar, Nyack College Manhattan Campus, 2006 (present).

• Director and Professor, Guitar Department at the Brooklyn College Music Conservatory of the City University of New York (1997 – present). The college guitar program currently has seven full time performance students, comprising undergraduate and graduate students. As part of my faculty obligations to the college, I present a recital every semester. In addition, I host a recital series at our campus library, and the Guitar Department hosts two master class workshops each semester with national as well as international artists. Our student body is a truly international one with past and present students from Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela, Turkey, Mexico, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Israel, Romania and the United States.

• Director of Brooklyn College Guitar Ensemble (1997 – present). The guitar ensemble comprises the guitar majors at the conservatory, as well as students and faculty members from the college’s other departments. The ensemble gives public recitals each semester at the college, and at venues ranging from public libraries to full-length evening recitals in Manhattan. Embracing a repertoire from the high renaissance to contemporary music, the ensemble has given more than fifteen premieres of new works.
•       The core of the guitar ensemble consists of a quartet of specially made instruments with expanded range. This quartet was invited to perform at Yale University in 2003.

• Professor, Core 2.2: Introduction to Music, (1998 – present). Introduction to Music is an undergraduate music appreciation course in the Core Curriculum of the City University of New York. The course is a classroom course with no fewer than fifty-five students per class. Topics range from the introduction, performance and analysis of all eras of classical music to jazz and contemporary popular music. In student surveys, my Introduction to Music class has consistently scored better than 90% in approval rating which is somewhat unusual for a mandatory freshman course at the college.   

• Professor, Fretted String Workshop, (1998 – present) The Fretted String Workshop is a college music education course designed to teach guitar pedagogy to music education majors who are studying towards their New York State Teaching License in music. The course is aimed at guitar instruction at the elementary levels in public and private schools as part of the music curriculum. My approach to beginner pedagogy does away entirely with the traditional “first-position-chord-strumming,” and instead uses the open strings of the guitar in duets with the teacher. The open strings are played first with the right hand thumb while the other fingers are resting on the first string in the classical hand position for polyphonic playing. When stopped notes are introduced, a capo is employed to shorten the string length of the guitar, while also raising the pitch to a compatible one for a child’s voice. A shorter string length accomplishes at least three other things for the beginner: shorter reach for the left hand/arm; lower string tension; shorter spread between left hand fingers.

• Advisor for Independent Study Projects, (1999 – present). At the request of conservatory students from several departments, I have had the pleasure of serving as advisor for independent study projects to several Brooklyn College students. The topics for these projects have ranged from Rhetorical Figures and Ornamentation in Baroque Vocal Music, (a favorite topic of mine from my background in early music); Music and Politics; and Music Education for Disabled Children.

• Chamber Music Coach & Master Class Teacher. The first guitarist ever at the Apple Hill International Summer School for Chamber Music in New Hampshire, I have coached and performed chamber music for five seasons with a faculty comprised of musicians from the London Symphony, the Chicago Symphony and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. The participants at the summer school have included students from the Oberlin Conservatory, the Eastman School and the Rubin Academy.
•       The conductor of several guitar master classes in Europe as well as North and South America, a recent appearance took place at the 2004 Aalborg International Guitar Festival in which other invited artists included Carlo Macchione (Italy), Paul Gregory (England), Duo Spinozi (France) and others.
• Recent master classes and concerts on U.S. college campuses have included Houghton College, NY, and Mansfield University, PA. Both schools have invited me back for the 2006 season.

• Presenter and Speaker at International Guitar Festivals. I have presented seminars on sound reinforcement for guitar chamber music at international guitar festivals at Yale University and the Eastman School of Music.
•       In duo with fellow Eastman alum Peter James Sulski of the London Symphony Orchestra, I have presented a contemporary music workshop at the Eastman School (in 2001), featuring music for viola and guitar by Samuel Adler, Hans Werner Henze, Graham Whettam and others.

• Guitar and Piano Instructor (1997 – present), the Hewitt School. Guitar and elementary piano instruction given to school children ages four to seventeen at a prominent Upper East-Side private girls’ school in New York City. As an undergraduate student, I took four years of classical piano lessons, and I took harpsichord lessons as a secondary study at Yale.

• Head of Guitar Studies (2000 – 2001), Bloomingdale School of Music, New York. Guitar instructor to students of all ages, ability and aspirations at an Upper West-Side community music school.

• Substitute Guitar Instructor, Juilliard Pre-College, Guitar Department (1998 – 2002). Assistant classical guitar instructor to talented students of pre-college age who have undergone the rigors of an audition to the Juilliard School’s Pre-College Division, headed by Professor Antigoni Goni.

• Graduate Teaching Assistant Positions

Eastman School of Music. Assistant to Professor Paul O’Dette (lute) in the Early Music Collegium: preparing music scores and playing continuo in an extended chamber ensemble comprising students and faculty from the Eastman School of Music. Assistant also to Professor Nicholas Goluses: private guitar instructor to secondary studies at the conservatory, as well as non-major students from the University of Rochester.

Yale University School of Music.  Assistant to Professor Benjamin Verdery: private guitar instructor to non-major students at Yale University.

Royal Academy of Music, London.  Assistant to Professor John Mills: private guitar instructor to students at the Spanish Guitar Centre in central London, leading several students to their artist diploma and board qualifying exams offered by London conservatories, such as Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Trinity College, the Royal Schools of Music.

• Recordings, Papers and Lectures. To date, I have found myself too busy with my family life, teaching and studying to undertake commercial recording projects; all recording of my guitar and lute performances are unedited concert recordings. I prefer the spontaneity of live interaction with an audience to the recording studio.

•       I did, however, make one commercial recording in 1994 with British flamenco guitarist Jason Carter and three Indian studio musicians. The recording was largely improvised and made live-in-the-studio in Bombay, India by CBS Records.
•       Recordings with Joseph Trent (Fiori Musicali) and Anton Machleder (Papazian Guitar Duo) are forthcoming (2006 - 2007).
•       While at Eastman I undertook an independent theory study of the Royal Winter Music sonatas by Hans Werner Henze. The resulting paper and lecture recital (apparently the first such studies in English) will result in an article that I intend to publish. A lecture recital on Henze’s Winter Music is scheduled for Fall, 2006, at the Manhattan School of Music.

PERFORMANCE EXPERIENCE  (excerpt)

• Performances and projected recitals for the 2006 season include two Spring recitals in New York with flautist Joseph Trent as part of Fiori Musicali, a period instrument ensemble that currently specializes in 19^th century music on original instruments (see separate attachment to this resume). One of these recitals will be at Brooklyn College, the other at the Union Church of Bay Ridge. The duo has been invited to also perform at Radford University, VA, and Bowling Green State University, OH in 2006 - 2007.

• In May 2006, I will be playing contemporary Cuban guitar duos with fellow Eastman alum Anton Machleder. The recital is part of the library guitar series at Brooklyn College. Our guitar duo is named the Papazian Guitar Duo, and we will be performing also at Houghton College, NY where Dr. Machleder is professor of guitar.

• In December 2005, I performed in the Brooklyn College 75^th Anniversary Celebration with our symphony orchestra and chorus to a capacity audience of 2000 people in the college’s Walt Whitman Hall.

• In December 2005, ‘cellist Loren Dempster and I were invited to accompany and solo with the Gay Gotham Chorus of New York City, directed by Jonathan Babcock, at their Christmas concert in Manhattan. The chorus performs every year to a capacity audience at the St. Paul and St Stephen’s Church in Manhattan.

• In March 2004, I was one of the featured performers and master class teachers at the Alborg International Guitar festival. Aside from a solo recital with an all-Spanish program (music by Albeniz and de Falla), I also played in duo with British guitarist Paul Gregory. Other festival performers included Carlo Macchione (Italy) and Duo Spinozi (France).

• In March 2003, I gave a solo recital and master class at Mansfield University PA. I have been invited back in 2006 - 2007.

• In June 2003, I led the Brooklyn College Guitar Quartet in a performance at the Guitar Festival at Yale University.

• In May 2002, I played Nagoya Guitars by Steve Reich with Kevin Gallagher in a recital at Brooklyn College, his New York debut as an electric guitar player.

• In September 2002, I gave a solo recital and master class at Houghton College, NY. I have been invited back in 2006 - 2007.

• From 1995 to 2000, I performed chamber music during five consecutive summers at the Apple Hill Chamber Music School in New Hampshire. The faculty featured the Apple Hill Players and members of the London Symphony Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and others. I was the first guitarist ever to be invited to the Apple Hill Festival.

• In June of 2000 my wife and I traveled to her native Guyana, S.A. where I gave two recitals and a master class in the capital, Georgetown. Both recitals were recorded by local television and were broadcast in part by local radio. The enclosed DVD was the recorded result of a stationary camera feed to local CC-TV from one of these concerts (in a jazz club). The other event was held at the Cultural Center in a 1500-seat concert hall.

• In 1999, I gave two recitals at Brooklyn College with German violinist Uli Speth who is the first-violin of the Diller-Quale String Quartet in New York City.

• In 1998 - 1999, I played several recitals in Worcester, MA with violist Peter James Sulski of the London Symphony Orchestra. My musical collaboration with Peter goes back to my time at the Royal Academy in London. He has since our student days there invited me several times to perform with him when ever he is in the United States, where he was born. We played at the Holy Cross College with double-bass player Richard Hartshorn (Dobbs) of the Apple Hill Chamber Players and well-known New York pianist Kenneth Merrill.

• In 1998, I played a recital at Brooklyn College with flautist Janet Axelrod of the Radio City Orchestra in New York.  Over the years I have played on numerous occasions with Janet Axelrod.

• In 1997, I premiered a composition by New York composer Mark Grant for harp, flute and guitar with flutist Janet Axelrod and harpist Karen Lindquist. In 1997, I premiered also a 25 min solo guitar piece by Mark Grant. Both concerts took place at the Park Avenue Christian Church at 85 Street in Manhattan. Further, two of my graduate students and I presented a piece for three guitars by Mark Grant at Yale University.

• In 1997, I presented a solo guitar recital at the American Institute of Guitar in Midtown Manhattan.

• In 1992, I played a concert tour of England and Denmark as duo partner of British guitarist Paul Gregory. Paul is probably best known to most people as the winner of the Segovia and the Tarrega Guitar Competitions, and as duo partner in the 1980s to David Russell. 

• When I lived in London (1988 – 1993), I played in every concert season at the Brighton Music Festival, either as a soloist or with guitarist Paul Gregory and/or violist Peter James Sulski.

Master Class Performances. I have performed in public master classes with:

• Guitarists: John Williams (three times), David Russell (four times), Manuel Barruecco, Vladimir Mikulka, Seppo Siirala, Nicola Hall.
• Historical Performers: Paul O’Dette, Malcolm Bilson, Rosalyn Turreck, Anthony Newman.