David Leisner can’t escape Spanish music. He’s a guitarist.

“It’s been a crusade since early in my career to demonstrate that guitar programs don’t need to have Spanish music,” says Leisner.  “Most of the guitar repertoire is not Spanish at all! The pieces most people think of by Albeniz and Granados were originally piano pieces.

“The majority of music written for the guitar before the 20th century is from Italy and from Central Europe.   In the 20th and 21st centuries, only a very few important composers for the guitar were Spanish, the most famous being Rodrigo.  The masterpieces of the modern literature are by Britten, Ginastera, Henze, and Takemitsu.”

Leisner thinks there’s one new masterpiece about to arrive, “Facts of Life” by David Del Tredici. Leisner commissioned the piece, worked extensively with the composer in its creation, and will premiere it on April 29 at Symphony Space in New York.

A composer himself, Leisner, 56, has already written extensively for his instrument (as well as plenty of orchestral, chamber and vocal music).  With his concert series Guitar Plus, he’s now focused on expanding the repertoire for the instrument by commissioning other composers. Though Del Tredici has never written for the instrument, he was at the top of Leisner’s list.

More than an admirer of Del Tredici, Leisner also studied orchestration with him some years back.  During the two-month process of birthing “Facts of Life,” the tutoring seemed to go in both directions.

“David and I were in contact through phone calls and visits at least a couple of times a week.  I wanted to make myself available as much as humanly possible for this great composer who knew little about the guitar,” recalls Leisner. “We both discovered how valuable my input was because of my abilities and perceptions as a composer.  I had certain capacities as an editor that a non-composing guitarist simply wouldn’t have had, and I believe David found that helpful.  And observing David’s composing process so intimately was like one big composition lesson.”

Leisner originally approached Del Tredici for a 10-minute piece. Yet as with many other DDT commissioners, he got far more than he bargained for. Del Tredici countered that original offer with a suggestion of 15 minutes, yet the piece continued to grow.  In final form, it stands at four movements and more than half an hour in length.  Leisner likens it to a symphony.

“He wrote what he thought was 26 minutes of music, but because tempos on the piano (his composing instrument) tend to be faster than what’s possible or sounds good on the guitar, it’s turned out to be closer to 35 minutes.”

The piece includes two fugues – a challenge for the guitar that both composer and performer relished. And then there’s the final movement.

“A request I made at the beginning was not to write Spanish-flavored music.  I told him it was a cliche. A couple of months later he wrote the humongous last movement of the piece, called ‘Flamenco Forever,’ which centers totally on a typical Spanish Flamenco rhythm and style.  He was being very naughty and he knew it.  Probably only DDT can get away with this, but it’s fabulous!”

Along with the Del Tredici premiere, Leisner’s program features pieces for guitar and harp by Alan Hovhaness and Xavier Montsalvatge, performed with harpist Yolanda Kondonassis.  Another Guitar Plus event, also at Symphony Space, happens on April 23 with the trio known as Crazy Jane, which consists of baritone Patrick Mason, guitarist David Starobin and percussionist Daniel Druckman.  Their program features Leisner’s Three James Tate Songs plus works by George Crumb, Akemi Naito, Paul Lansky and William Bland.

By the way, next month Leisner and his partner Ralph Jackson will celebrate their 29th anniversary. Ralph is vice president of concert music for BMI.  But they’re an integrated musical family. To wit: Del Tredici is a member of ASCAP.

Composer Robert Baksa readily admits that he writes music in which the underlying intelligence and rigor is not always apparent on first listen.

And he’s comfortable with that — mostly.

“A review of my first Flute Sonata said that the harmony was so simple it would make Mozart or Handel climb the walls,” Baksa says. “Actually, there’s polytonality in that piece, it just doesn’t sound that way.”

Baksa’s newest CD, “Journeys” (MSR Classics), features more than an hour of flute and guitar music performed by the Heim Duo from Alabama. And it is, indeed, more warm and sweet than it is flashy or grabby.

“It makes it difficult to win grants and contests,” says the 72-year old composer with a knowing grin.  And he’s right on that count, too.  When a piece is being reviewed by committee, something ear-popping usually needs to happen in the first minute or two, otherwise the agenda usually moves on to the next application.

While his music may take its time in making impact, Baksa certainly doesn’t hold back much in conversation.  He’s been in the music business long enough to have more than few juicy stories and a seasoned perspective for how the world works.

“Things never really jelled for me in New York. I don’t think I was pretty enough for those guys,” he says, referring to several decades of living on Manhattan’s upper west side and mingling in gay musical circles, where he was better known as a music copyist than a composer. “But Copland did get me into Tanglewood and he certainly ogled me when I was there.”

Baksa also has an imaginative view on the hand of fate.

“John Corigliano and I were born two weeks apart,” he says. “John had a famous father and relatives in television.  I always liked to think we were up in heaven ready to get born and God was dividing up the talent and opportunity but the phone rang.  He stepped away and I went on down to earth and then God came back and gave John a bit more opportunity.”

Baksa landed on earth in New York and was raised in Arizona.  He was about 12 years old when his family bought their first piano and he immediately began composing.  “There are three pieces from my high school years that still get performed,” he says.

Another youthful talent was drawing. While in high school he had a series of original cartoons appear in the Arizona Daily Star. And that flair for the printed page served him well as a music copyist, first with pen and paper, later with computers.  Asked which of the most popular engraving programs he uses — Finale or Sibelius — Baksa proudly says he’s stayed true to Score, a DOS application that he’s able to use with Windows 98. “Its appearance is unbelievable,” he says. But he adds it necessitates having two computers. Adding, “I don’t want he internet connecting with my music.”

While most of Baksa’s catalog is vocal and chamber music, he’s written two one-act operas. The first, to Edna St. Vincent Millay’s play “Aria da Capo,” necessitated his trip into the Hudson Valley to negotiate for the rights with Millay’s sister.  The opera went on to be premiered further north at the Lake George Opera in 1969.

His next stage effort, “Red Carnations” was commissioned by the Lincoln Center for the Metropolitan Opera Studio. It’s had a healthy life over the years, primarily through education programs introducing opera to children.  But it was most recently performed by the Diamond Opera Theater, a fledgling group in Hudson, in an imaginative double bill that began with a performance of the original play by Glenn Hughes.

About 10 years ago Baksa and his partner of 14-years Allen Schaefer relocated to the township of Kinderhook in Columbia County, when Schaefer took retirement from a 35-year career in the airline industry.  Settling in the Hudson Valley was a compromise. “Allen wanted Vermont and I said if you go to Vermont and then I’ll stay here (in Manhattan). It was just too far.”  But country life in the Hudson Valley seems to suit Baksa. “I look out my office window on incredible beauty.”

One of her most recent collaborations is with heavy metal guitarist Steve Vai, better known for his work with Frank Zappa, David Lee Roth and Whitesnake.  Isbin says that the two will eventually record together but for now, she’s riding on the success of her disc “Journey to the New World,” which was released a year ago and last month won Isbin her second Grammy Award.

For much of “Journey to the New World” Isbin performs with violinist and composer Mark O’Connor and the two will appear together on Sunday afternoon at The Egg. The concert will feature solo sets from each artist, and they will also perform two duets written by O’Connor — a new arrangement of his hit “Appalachian Waltz” and “Strings and Threads,” the suite which concludes Isbin’s recent disc.

“He’s a very sweet, wonderful and generous person and it’s a pleasure to call him a friend.  We enjoy traveling together and have a very warm collaboration,” says Isbin. “It’s especially fun to do that last movement of ‘Strings and Threads,’ since it’s different each time with Mark improvising while I do the chord chart.”

Also on Isbin’s recent disc and an expected part of Sunday’s program is a tribute to Joan Baez, a lifelong hero of Isbin’s.   Almost 10 years ago Isbin commissioned John Duarte, a British composer and guitarist who died in 2004, to write the “Joan Baez  Suite.” It includes such now-standard fair as “The House of the Rising Son” and “Where Have All the Flowers Gone.”

More recently that Isbin worked with the real Joan Baez, not just her songbook.  After giving a hearty blessing to the piece by Duarte, Baez agreed to sing a couple of additional songs on Isbin’s disc “Journey to the New World.”

“Our first rehearsal was extraordinary,” recalls Isbin. “She came to my home in New York and asked me to play for her before we began. So I sat down about 4 feet from her and when I was done she had tears streaming down her face.”

Isbin’s selections that afternoon included some Spanish pieces that Baez remembered from childhood, when her dad played recordings of Segovia. “It was a poignant meeting of the souls since her music has inspired me for so many years,” says Isbin.

Last November Isbin had a slightly more grandiose audience when she performed at the White House.  It was actually more than just a one-evening, in-and-out concert. Isbin was one of four classical musicians who spent a full day in the building, giving classes for local students followed by a matinee concert.  After that was done, they went back to their Washington hotels to dress up for the evening’s formal concert in the East Room. (Apparently there are no dressing rooms for visiting artists in the presidential residence.)

Nevertheless, says Isbin, “We practically moved in, since we were also there the previous night to rehearse.  It was very elaborate with multiple bomb-sniffing dogs each time we were going in and out.  I kept hoping the dog wouldn’t drool on my guitar.”

During the evening’s concert, Isbin performed a few Latin American selections and a duet with violinist Joshua Bell, which was their first collaboration.  She also had a few moments with the President. But it wasn’t their first encounter.

Isbin says they met in 2005 at a memorial for Chicago philanthropist Irving Harris, at which Isbin performed.  Out on the sidewalk afterward, Isbin spotted Illinois’ newest senator, went up to him and introduced herself.  She recalls that Obama complimented her on the performance and said, “I wish you’d do something like that for me sometime.”

After her performance at the White House, he paid her another compliment, “He told me that one of his daughters is interested in studying the guitar. So maybe I inspired someone to go in that direction.”

(March 11, 2010, Times Union, Albany, NY)

Only in classical music could the borrowing and crosspollination of musical styles be such big and controversial thing. But “crossover” is a sometimes suspect, though often profitable category for artists and projects that blend popular and classical material.

Two of its best exponents, guitarist Sharon Isbin and violinist Mark O’Connor, appeared together Sunday afternoon at The Egg in Albany.

What makes them such an interesting pairing is that they come to the middle ground from opposites sides of the tracks. Isbin has excelled with Bach and the Spanish staples of the guitar repertoire and commissioned imaginative new concertos for the instrument. O’Connor is both composer and performer and his roots as an old time fiddler show through in practically every phrase. They share an impeccable technique and a taste for modest adventure.

The pair’s current tour follows on the success of their CD, “Journey to the New World,” that recently received a Grammy. It included O’Connor’s “Strings and Threads,” a suite of original airs and dances that ended the concert. They also teamed up for “Appalachian Waltz,” O’Connor’s tuneful and reverent hit from the early 90s.

But they were really at their best performing alone, each offering short sets during both halves of the program.

Isbin began with some Spanish material, meticulous but flavorful. After intermission she performed the “Joan Baez” Suite” by John Duarte. It touched on about a dozen folk songs, including “House of the Rising Sun,” which was given a fresh but cloudy harmonization, and “Where Have All the Flowers Gone.” A bit of “Taps,” played on hushed harmonics, was inserted into the latter, as if to reinforce its wartime message. It was all delicate and lovely, but Baez’s magic isn’t so much her material, but her voice’s unavoidable edge and presence — qualities that were missing from the homage.

O’Connor’s off the cuff, good ole boy presence makes it easy to overlook his unique gifts. Yet in the first half, he delivered with a country inflection a series of solos that were wandering, questing and demanding. He eased off after intermission, playing a series of folk songs, like “O Susannah” and “When the Saints Go Marching In.”

O’Connor spent the weekend in Albany introducing violin students to his new method of instruction based on various American material. A couple of times he pointed out to the violin students in the audience when he was playing an instrument with an alternative tuning.

(March 15, 2010, Times Union, Albany, NY)

Previously on MyBigGayEars:

Sharon Isbin at the White House (12/09)

Sharon Isbin’s Musical Journey (6/09)

Here’s a shot of the First Listeners taking it in, followed by two beautiful clips, compliments of the White House. In the first, Sharon performs Albeniz’s Asturias and Mangoré’s Waltz Op. 8, No. 4, then it’s a duet of Paganini’s Cantabile.

A simple “No, thanks” would have sufficed.

I’d actually forgotten about that, having put out of my mind some of the stormier aspects of bringing to market that title and the two volumes of “Gay American Composers” discs at CRI.  But Laura and I have remained friends for years and she herself reminded me of the letter about a year ago when we had a little reunion at Symphony Space.

The occasion was the premiere of David Del Tredici’s song cycle “My Favorite Penis Poems,” which Laura had programmed in her capacity as music curator. (The most startling aspect of that event, by the way, certainly wasn’t David’s typically eloquent music, nor the two singers performing at times in their underwear. No, it  was approaching the venue on Broadway and seeing “PENIS POEMS” on the big bright lighted ribbon of a marquee.)

A couple of months ago when the New York Times announced that Laura had been named the new artistic director of Symphony Space, succeeding the illustrious Isaiah Sheffer, I hesitated to put her on this website about (out) GLTB artists in classical music. But recently Laura contacted me, praised the site, and said she wanted to be on it.  With pleasure.

Though she doesn’t officially take the reigns of Symphony Space until July 2010, Laura already has had a broad influence in the programming decisions and she’s kindly pointed out a few of the more queer-friendly events coming up, including:

A concert (earlier this month) of Gavin Creel, star of the current Broadway revival of “Hair”

Another Del Tredici premiere, written for guitarist David Leisner on April 29, 2010.

A recital of the all-female Colorado Quartet on May 7, 2010.

“I have been trying to reach out to the gay arts community in NY to get them to pay attention,” emails Laura, adding that Symphony Space also shows lots of operas in HD.

As for Laura Kaminsky the composer, she’s at work on a string of new pieces including a quartet for the Cassatt, which will be part of an all-Kaminsky program at the Greenwich House on April 15.  How she has time to run Symphony Space, write music and teach at SUNY Purchase is a wonder, but she also makes time for a girl friend, the artist Rebecca Allan.

“Each time I would walk in a room I thought ‘they know,’” she told me a few years ago. “This deep echoy bass voice kept saying ‘they know.’”

But if the public knew something, they seemed to approve.  That was certainly the message she got at her first New York concert after making the leap into full disclosure.

“I remember walking out on the stage and thinking ‘they know.’ And what happened is that they wouldn’t stop clapping.  I sat down and they wouldn’t stop clapping and I hadn’t played a note,” recalled Isbin of the sold-out performance.  “I really needed to experience that to get over any questions I had in myself.  It was such a positive experience I can only say how grateful I am that this is what ensued from my taking that first step.”

Isbin has made it over plenty of hurdles since then.  She’s toured the world and championed new works, taught at the Juilliard School and even appeared on the hit Showtime series “The L Word.”  Among her two dozen or so recordings is “Dreams of a World,” which received a Grammy Award in 2000, making her the first classical guitarist to be so honored in 26 years.  Four years ago, she recorded with the New York Philharmonic the concertos Rodrigo, Villa-Lobos and Ponce, essential repertoire for guitarists.

Her latest is “Journey to the New World,” just issued by Sony Classical.  The new disc brings Isbin together with one of her professed heroines, the folk music legend Joan Baez.  Eleven of Baez’s best known songs, like “The House of the Rising Son” and “Where Have All the Flowers Gone,” are incorporated in the “Joan Baez Suite.” Written for Isbin in 2002 by the now deceased composer John Duarte, it’s a lovely 20 minutes or so of music that Isbin has performed widely in recital alongside more traditional classical works. On the new disc, a performance of the suite is bookended by the real Baez, who Isbin accompanies in subdued but stirring versions of “Wayfaring Stranger” and “Go ‘Way From My Window.”

Isbin is also joined by violinist and composer Marc O’Connor in his “Strings and Threads Suite.” According to O’Connor’s notes, the 13 short movements trace his family’s musical inclinations over several generations, from Irish reels to Appalachia folk styles, on to “Texas Dance Hall Blues” and ending with some easy going jazz. Perky and folky music delivered with the highest classical refinement, it brings the disc to a lively finish.

Isbin opens the disc in the Old World, with “Four Renaissance Lute Works,” followed by “Two English Folksongs.” The latter includes “The Drunken Sailor,” just one of the many delightful tunes sprinkled liberally throughout the collection.

“Born to Strum,” my 2004 portrait of Isbin, is available in my book Artists & Activists: Making Culture in New York’s Capital Region.

There’s more than just music in the Wainwright gene pool. Also, self-deprecating humor and the general ability to entertain. All this came through Saturday night at The Egg, in the concert by Rufus Wainwright with an opening performance by his half sister Lucy Wainwright Roche. (Their father is the folk singer Loudon Wainwright.)

Lucy offered a handful of fine original folk ballads but she could consider working in stand up comedy as well, or maybe just write a family memoir. Her mom is Suzzy Roche of The Roches, while Rufus’ mom is yet another folkie, Kate McGarrigle. According to Lucy, they all get obsessed analyzing each other’s song lyrics.

But it was Rufus’ night. His fans nearly filled the Hart Auditorium and roared with approval at such signature songs as “Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk” and “My Phone’s on Vibrate For You.” His set stretched for more than 90 minutes, featured at least two new songs, plus several numbers with Lucy, and ended with three encores including Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah,” from the “Shrek” soundtrack.

Wainwright’s many recordings, including last year’s “Release The Stars,” are mostly characterized by original songs in lavish arrangements created with a string of collaborators. But this was a solo night with no backing band or recorded tracks and the material still held up beautifully.

Whether at the piano or with an acoustic guitar, Wainwright proved to be an able instrumentalist as well as a powerful singer. While retaining an immediately recognizable vocal sound, he’s lost most of the nasal wail from a few years ago. In songs like “Beauty Mark” and “Nobody’s Off The Hook,” he went seamlessly from a clear head voice into a warm baritone.

Yet things were frustratingly uneven when trying to catch the inventive imagery of his lyrics. Though every word came through in the politically charged “Going to a Town,” some more romantic ballads were often a mush. Not that he seemed to be hiding anything. Gay cruising and the beauty of men came through regularly.

Like his sister, Wainwright likes to chat with the crowd and his humor and interests were also revealing. He got Michael Phelps’ name wrong but he cheered on Barack Obama, or Barack “Oh-Body!” having liked what he saw of the senator on the beaches of Hawaii.

Originally appeared in Times Union, 8/18/08

Isbin has become the preeminent classical guitarist of our time on her own terms – by studying Bach but also embracing world music, and by commissioning some of today’s most adventuresome composers while also paying homage to another heroine of the instrument, Joan Baez, as she did with last year’s “Joan Baez Suite.”

With her latest CD, Isbin tackles the great Latin guitar concertos of Joaquin Rodrigo, Heitor Villa-Lobos and Manuel Ponce. Each of the pieces exudes heat, sensuality, and romanticism and Isbin’s performances are crisp, heart-felt and ultimately flawless.

Rodrigo’s famous “Concierto de Aranjuez” from 1940 is especially significant to Isbin. A broadcast of her performance in 1979 prompted the great Spanish composer to contact Isbin and was the start of a 20-year friendship. The piece’s languid slow movement was also a favorite of Isbin’s brother Neil who died of AIDS in 1996.  “It is impossible to not to think of him in this music,” she says in the notes to the new CD.

And in June 2004, when Isbin returned to the Rodrigo concerto for concerts with the New York Philharmonic in preparation for this recording, it was the first time a guitarist had played with the illustrious orchestra in 26 years. From start to finish it’s some powerful and persuasive music making.

A version of this story originally appeared in The Advocate.