Events

Bob McAuley was born in Saskatchewan, raised in Manitoba, worked in Alberta and retired in Colorado. He started classical guitar in his his teens and has pursued it with as much enthusiasm as time and circumstance allowed during his career as a petroleum geologist and stay-at-home dad.

Eri McAuley is from Japan, where she began guitar studies as a child and resumed in Calgary, Alberta. She and Bob both belonged to the Classical Guitar Society of Calgary, which is how they met. Their kids, Grace (10) and Keith(9), have picked up the guitar, making The McAuleys a guitar quartet. Bob and Eri now run the Denver Classical Guitar Society.

Masae Yonaiyama plays koto in Denver and is a fixture at the annual Denver Cherry Blosson Festival. She also is a respected translator, serving as administrator of the Japanese Language Division of the American Translators Association, and has been instrumental in relocating Afghan interpreters.

Masae began with an introduction to the koto. The music tells which string(s) to pluck and is read in columns from top-to-bottom and right to left.

Eri and Masae played Hiuyaku. See the video.

Next, in a rare guitar-koto arrangement they played Danny Boy. See the video.

Eri gave an introduction to the shamisen and then played two pieces:
Taugaru Jongara-bushi
and Kokiriko Bushi.

Switching to all guitars, the whole family played two pieces together: Costa Brava and Earth Song.

Keith played a Bourree attributed to Leopold Mozart but likely by Bach.

Bob played three sets:
(1) Sor’s Opus 9 Variations on a Theme by Mozart,
(2) Bach’s Gavotte from Cello Suite 6 joined with a sonata by Domenico Cimarosa, and
(3) Torija by Moreno Torroba.

Open Stage Education Time:

• MartinT
  • Villa-Lobos: Prelude No.3
  • Villa-Lobos: Prelude No.4
• LudoM
  • Barrios: Julia Florida
  • Granados: La Maja de Goya
• JeffO and TobyG
  • Jeff on piano demoed this month’s sightreading handout:
    Back-to-Back Bach Bassi
  • Toby on guitar played this month’s Exercise 1 (from BWV 1041)
• TobyG played and sang an old Hot Tuna song:
  • Davis: Hesitation Blues