COURTESY OF SHARONISBIN.COM
Sharon Isbin was named "Best Classical Guitarist" by Guitar Player magazine, is a multiple Grammy award-winner and head of Juillard School's guitar department (which she originally established).
Sweet strings
of success
By her admission, Sharon Isbin became a world-class guitarist by default. "It all started in Italy, when I was 9 years old, and my family had moved there on sabbatical," she said by phone from her New York City home earlier this week. "I was already familiar with the folk songs of Theodore Bikel and Pete Seeger, which I found beautiful. But it was by default that I became a classical guitarist, because it was my oldest brother that originally wanted to learn to play. We found out that Andres Segovia was teaching in a nearby town, but my 16-year-old brother wanted to be the next Elvis Presley! So my parents said that someone should take his place, so I did so, more out of a sense of duty."
Guitarist Sharon Isbin
Where: Paliku Theatre, Windward Community College
When: 7:30 p.m. Sunday
Tickets: $30 general; $25 seniors, children, military, and UH faculty, staff and students
Call: 235-7330
Also: Tomorrow at Kauai Community College, Monday at the Castle Theatre of the Maui Arts & Cultural Center, Wednesday at the Hilo Palace Theatre and Thursday at the Kahilu Theatre in Waimea
What was initially placating a family's "sense of duty" has certainly put Isbin in good stead among those in the guitar world. She was named "Best Classical Guitarist" by Guitar Player magazine, she's a multiple Grammy award-winner and nominee, she heads the Juilliard School's guitar department (which she originally established), and she does upwards of a hundred concerts and recitals the world over each year.
She returns to the islands after a 10-year absence to give a solo recital at Windward Community College's Paliku Theatre as part of an interisland tour of Kauai, Oahu, Maui and the Big Island.
Her concert repertoire on this tour includes the premiere of a piece that she first performed last October and was written specifically for her by John Duarte: the "Joan Baez Suite, Opus 144." Also on the program will be "Seven Desires for Guitar" by Chinese composer Tan Dun (again, written expressly for Isbin), "The Black Decameron" by Cuban composer Leo Brouwer, "Spanish Dance No. 5, Opus 37" by Enrique Granados, "Recuerdos de la Alhambra" by Francisco Tarrega and "Asturias, Opus 232/1" by Isaac Albeniz from a transcription by Segovia.
The Baez suite is dedicated to Isbin's favorite folk singer, a project that she's been wanting to do for some 20 years. The time was right, finally, late last year for a favorite composer of hers like Duarte to write a suite in seven movements, based on some early Baez songs near and dear to Isbin's heart.
"All of the songs -- like 'The Unquiet Grave' and 'The Lily of the West' -- are from the public domain, except 'Where Have All the Flowers Gone,' which was written by Seeger," Isbin said. "And this suite is a piece of music that Joan herself has given her blessing."
Besides that folk-inspired work and trio of Spanish compositions, another favorite composer of hers is Tan Dun, who recently guested with the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra. Isbin said that his "Seven Desires for Guitar" draws its inspiration from the pipa, or Chinese lute. The three pieces that make up Brouwer's "El Decameron Negro" are "drawn from love stories based in Africa," she said. "They're filled with Afro-Cuban ideas, very lyrical."
THE WORLDLY Isbin is also known not to shy away from playing with other guitarists outside of the classical sphere. She's done a "Guitar Summit" tour with jazz players Herb Ellis and Stanley Jordan, and the late Michael Hedges. She's made trio recordings with Larry Coryell and Laurindo Almeida, and duo recordings with "a wonderful musician and dear friend" (plus regular Hawaii visitor), Carlos Barbosa-Lima.
Her current best-selling CD is "Sharon Isbin Plays Baroque Favorites for Guitar," featuring familiar concerti by Bach, Vivaldi and Albinoni in arrangements or transcriptions Isbin either made herself or oversaw that aren't associated with her instrument.
Isbin said her next recording project will come this summer, where she'll perform two concerti with the New York Philharmonic, "the first such collaboration between a guitarist and the orchestra in 26 years."
Isbin likes to keep an element of surprise and discovery in her collaborations. "Next year, for example, I'll be playing with Steve Vai," the two originally playing together for a club gig in New York City's legendary Bottom Line.
While some may be surprised by the partnering of Isbin with one of the more technically accomplished rock guitarists out there, it comes second nature to Isbin. "I've done crossover stuff for years," she said, "during a time when it was almost a dirty word during the '80s.
"I'm a very open-minded person -- my music is not defined by boundaries, only by the quality of it."
That sense of adventure also carries over to how she spends her downtime while on tour. Getting several days of vacation in after the Big Island gigs, she plans to do a bit of snorkeling and explore the island's lava fields around the still-active Kilauea area.
"I feel as intense as ever about my music," Isbin said. "I love performing live and feel fortunate that I've been able to do the things I've been doing. I don't consider my music as a career, but as a process -- something I'm really engaged in and passionate about. It's not work, but it's part of a journey, and I'm glad I've reached a place in my life where I want to be."
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