Among a lengthy list of achievements on classical guitarist Eliot Fisk’s Wikipedia page, including graduating summa cum laude from Yale and winning Gargnano’s prestigious International Guitar Competition, there’s an entire section dedicated to criticism. Which he totally digs.
“I take slings and arrows of outrageous fortune as they hit,” he says from Montevideo, Uruguay, where he’s performing the following night. “There are too many players not taking risks or pushing boundaries. There’s too much tolerance for unimaginative playing.”
Fisk, a professor at the Universität Mozarteum Salzburg in Austria (where he teaches in five different languages) and the New England Conservatory in Boston, is a known risk-taker.
He combines romantic tradition with modernity to connect with musicians outside the classical music realm, collaborating with jazz-guitar greats like Bill Frisell and Joe Pass.
“My approach to classical guitar is similar to flamenco and jazz and even rock [guitar] players,” Fisk explains. “In the classical music scene there’s a fixation on the technical side, but it’s at the expense of creativity and fun.”
On Friday, Fisk brings his rabble-rousing brand of classical guitar play to CSUMB, along with a pair of like-minded colleagues, A-list composer/classical guitarists Andrew York and Roland Dyens. Each musician will perform a set fueled by Fisk’s beloved fusion of mind and heart.
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