Beyond the Curtains II (Giorgio Mirto)

The second movement of a new composition by Giorgio Mirto available at:
https://productionsdoz.com/product/93...
and
https://www.stringsbymail.com/mirto-b....

(photo by Cecile Hournau, retrieved from "unsplash")

About the composer:
Guitarist and composer, Giorgio Mirto graduated from the L. Campiani Conservatory of Mantua, later earning his advanced degree with honors from the Conservatory of Cuneo. Mirto maintains an intense performance schedule throughout Europe, Russia, Japan, China, Africa, U.S.A., and South America. He has recorded several albums for international record labels including: Gendai Guitar (Tokyo), Moisycos Musical Editions (Tokyo), Sinfonica Editions (Italy), and Guitart (Italy). In recent years he has recorded for the major label Brilliant Classics (Netherlands). His album, Norwegian Memories, released in 2015 on Brilliant Classics and featuring Mirto’s works for guitar and strings orchestra, was named “CD of the Year” by American Record Guide Magazine.
Mirto serves as the artistic director for Six Ways, a prestigious international guitar festival taking place in his native town of Turin. In addition to conducting masterclasses throughout the world, he has taught guitar for notable Italian conservatories, currently serving on the faculty of the prestigious Conservatory of Perugia.
Awarded as a composer in several international competitions, his music is performed in festivals and concert halls throughout the world, earning Mirto the admiration of audiences and musicians alike. His music is published by Les Productions d’OZ, Ut Orpheus, and Edizioni Sinfonica.
From the performer:
In March of 2022 I contacted Giorgio Mirto to investigate the possibility of commissioning a composition from him. But, with a somewhat unusual caveat. I asked if he would be interested in composing a new work for the guitar duo I have with my wife, the widely celebrated classical guitarist and scholar Candice Mowbray. What made my request a little odd was that I specified I wanted the composition to be playable pickstyle (using a plectrum), rather than with traditional classical technique (using fingers and thumb). I was familiar with a number of Giorgio’s compositions for solo classical guitar, as well as his works for classical guitar and cello, and was confident his compositional voice would translate well into this slightly different idiom.
Allow me to explain and give a little background. As mentioned, Candice is quite an accomplished and respected classical guitarist, but she also has extensive experience playing the electric guitsr. For my part, I am primarily an electric guitarist who plays jazz and rock styles, but I also have a master degree in classical guitar performance. However, despite both being accomplished guitarists living under the same roof, we have rarely played together. That changed in the early weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic. As we were stuck at home during the Spring and Summer of 2020 we were very fortunate to have been asked to contribute to a number of creative musical projects — arranging music, making audio recordings, streaming performances from home, etc. From this we began shaping a concert program that would straddle our separate musical identities. The program would feature each of us playing both classical guitar and pickstyle electric guitar, with works taken from traditional classical repertoire, our own arrangements of music by Duke Ellington, and even some contemporary jazz. To round out our program, I went on a search for newer “classical” works specifically composed for electric guitar and found very little available—and what little I did find didn’t fit with the musical aesthetic of our duo. This lead me to contacting Giorgio.
After a few initial email exchanges I was able to explain to Giorgio what I was looking for in a composition: expressive music with emphasis on beauty and melody rather than acrobatic virtuosity. To my delight, he agreed to take on the challenge with Beyond the Curtains.
It has been an honor and a pleasure to work with Giorgio in bringing this wonderful composition to fruition. I want to express my sincere gratitude to the composer for his contribution to the repertoire of serious “art” music for pickstyle guitar. I hope guitarists around the world find it as engaging as I do and that Beyond the Curtains finds its way onto many concert programs. Perhaps it might even serve as the spark of inspiration for other composers to explore the possibilities of composing for pickstyle guitar.
--Danny Webber