· By Nicholas Stevens
Guitar Heroism, ca. 1850: Mallett Plays Holland
Our partners at Naxos bring performances by great artists to diverse audiences through their recordings. But they also create a wide array of free educational offerings! These multimedia efforts, from podcasts and online video channels to live-streamed interviews, illuminate the cultural backdrop and inner workings of great music and bring artists into contact with listeners around the world.
In February 2023, Naxos hosted a Live Q&A session with guitarist and educator Christopher Mallett. In this interview, Mallett spoke about his latest project: an album devoted to the arrangements and original music of nineteenth-century guitarist-composer Justin Holland. The California Conservatory of Music co-founder described Holland's journey from Virginia to Boston to Northeast Ohio; the intricacy and appeal of his theme-and-variations treatments of popular tunes; and the activism that helped this Black American composer open opportunities for himself and many others.
In 2022, Naxos hosted live Q+A sessions with pianists Eleonor Bindman, Frank Dupree, and Sara Aimée Smiseth; composers Peter Boyer and William McClelland; countertenor Randall Scotting; and cello-piano duo Gabriel Schwabe and Roland Pöntinen. The recorded video from these talks lives on in perpetuity!
Order your CD recording of Christopher Mallett's Justin Holland: Works and Arrangements for Guitar on ArkivMusic today!