BGS Presents ...

Duo Mosaico

November 24, 2025

A mosaic from Spain, Brazil and Colorado.

Duo Mosaico is Ben Johnson and Steve Mullins, performing a mosaic of classical, flamenco, and original guitar music. With six music degrees between them (one for each string of the guitar) they bring a wealth of experience and expertise to the concert stage. Ben currently serves as the Head of the Classical Guitar Department, Director of Classical Guitar Ensembles, and Professor of Music Theory at Colorado State University in Pueblo. Steve has taught ethnomusicology at the University of Colorado in Boulder, where he also earned his doctorate, with a dissertation on Spanish flamenco. He has also taught at Metro State University and the University of Wyoming.

Their repertoire includes the challenging Tango Suite and other works by Astor Piazzolla, along with works by Rodrigo, Gnattali, Hermeto Pascoal, and the original flamenco-inspired compositions of Dr. Mullins. Duo Mosaico is also pioneering the use of high-strung and low-strung guitars to expand the range of a guitar duo (by nearly an octave), creating a truly unusual and satisfying mosaic of sound.

For their “hi/lo” pieces, Steve’s guitar adds a high A string and a capo for an open string range of low B to high B, while Ben’s guitar adds an even lower B string for an open string range an octave below Steve’s. Here they are playing their hi/lo version of Canarios:

They played:

• Their “hi/lo” arrangement of “Canarios” by Gaspar Sanz
• Steve’s “A Corner of November”, after his father died
• Steve’s “December Nocturne”
• “São Jorge” by Hermeto Pascoal
• Steve’s “Pearl in the Moonlight” in memory of his 103yo grandmother
• Their duo arrangement of “Jongo” by Paulo Bellinati
• Steve’s “Icaros (Magic Songs of the Peruvian Amazon)”
• Their “hi/lo” arrangement of “Las Abejas (The Bees)” by Augustin Barrios
• Their “hi/lo” arrangement of “Asturias” by Isaac Albeniz

Open Stage Education Time:

• SteveM with students TobyS (guitar) TehyaS (mandolin)
  
  • playing “Big Catalpa” from Steve’s CD “Shine & Rise”
• MarkL
  • His arrangement of Chopin’s Prelude No.4 in E minor
• MartinT
  • “Silent Night”, arr. Gabriel Rodriguez
• AdamB
  • “Watercolor” and “Sorrow’s Wake”, both by Andrew York
• JeffO
  • His melodic reduction of “Capricho Árabe”
  • As featured in last month’s sightreading handout.
  • Recently published as IMSLP1002597
• LudoM
  • “Chôros No. 1” by Villa-Lobos
• GabrielB
  • “Prelude No.3” by Villa-Lobos
• MarkC
  • “Christmas Time is Here” from “A Charlie Brown Christmas” by Vince Guaraldi