Born in Montreal
on December 14, 1970.
In 1992 - a first place showing at Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris in
France. The highest honors from the jury. The following year hard work
and perseverance pays off- He is awarded the Superior Diploma in guitar
performance. A first for the school - the completion of both levels in
two consecutive years.
1994 - First mention at the European Classical Guitar Competition in Paris.
August 1995 - He is named assistant to Dr. Glenn Caluda at Shenandoah
University in Virginia, and wins the Shenandoah Concerto Competition.
1996 - Laureate of the D'Addario International Guitar Concerto Competition.
1997 - Wins the Debut Inc. Competition. Completed a master's degree in
classical guitar performance under the direction of Peter McCutcheon at
the University of Montreal. Released his first recording "Bouquet".
Is appointed Classical Guitar professor at Vanier College, Montreal Canada.
March 1998 - Laureate of the Portland International Guitar Competition,
Oregon, USA.
October 1998 - Laureate of the the XVI Guitar Foundation of America International
Solo Guitar Competition, in Montreal, Canada. 2000 Release of CD "stringendo"
on the Daminus label.
Compositions:
Train to Koyunbaba
ca. 6.46 mn.
score includes also Tabulatur 22 pages.
order code DAM 160 ED
Price: € 11,-
online order
A Word from the composer
In 1985 Carlo Domeniconi published "Koyunbaba", which since then has been
performed and recorded by a number of world class classical guitarists.
Koyunbaba apart from being a region in Turkey is also a compound word:
koyun, meaning sheep and baba meaning father. Also, according to John
Duarte it's the name of a 13th century monk. My personal experience with
Domeniconi's Koyunbaba wasn't until 2001. I decide to prepare it for a
concert tour in Europe and I became immediately spellbound by it. My experience
with the piece since then has been profoundly spiritual and I thank you,
Carlo Domeniconi, for offering Koyunbaba to the world.
Once I returned from my concerts I immediately continued my work with
a composition I was working on, Tabea's Fancy, dedicated to Norbert Dams.
In this piece I decided to use a techinique inspired from flamenco guitar.
That technique is the back and forth movement of the thumb as if using
a plectrum (pick). Once finished with this piece I realized that this
technique had much potential, especially for musical motives of the "perpetual"
kind. What better perpetal motion than a train!
I was sixteen years of age when my family decided to undertake it's last
"family" summer vacation. The return trip home to Montreal from Vancouver
was to be done on a train; that's a four day journey! In the train's close
quarters and peacefulness of it's setting, the bond between my father
and I became much closer. At night we would spend countless hours in the
dome car staring out at the stars and talking about various subjects.
This, in essence, was the birth of Train to Koyunbaba.
There are two musical motives in the piece that I describe as "characters"
. In the opening of the piece the train station is described in sixtuplets,
following this we have a motive of europeen flavour, and a little later,
a more eastern "flavoured" motive. Many more "characters" can be seen
or rather heard but I will leave the rest up to your own imagination.
Enjoy, and as my maestro used to say, "La musique avant tout!"
-Patrick Kearney
October 27, 2003
Tabea's Fancy als PDF
Tabea's Fancy
ca. 3.30 mn.
score 4 pages.
order code DAM 158 ED
Price: € 7,-
online order
Forword by the composer
Tabea is Norbert Dams' daughter. Tabea at first glance seemed, when I
first met her and her family back in 1999, like a very shy, tall, blonde
haired, blue eyed, intelligent young girl. However, at times she would
surprise you by coming in from the garden with worms crawling all over
her mud soaked arms and look at you and say, "...look are they not beautiful,
are they not neat!?". Norbert Dams is an extremely busy man - too much
so I think. But to keep himself and his family affloat he must, on top
of his other "jobs", play concerts. This pulls him away from his comfortable
family and onto "the road" for numerous recitals. When he leaves, Tabea
like most loving children, gets sad and angry...but this only lasts until
Dad comes back and when he does an enormous burst of energy rushes through
the air to greet the tired old father. The recitals that Norbert Dams
offers to the public are full of variety and one aspect of his shows is
the inclusion of period instruments. One such instrument may at times
be the vihuela, and / or the music of Luis Milan. This was my inspiration
for the scordatura of the piece and for the main motive. The rest of it
is purely inspired by Tabea!
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