Guitar, D.J. Sparr || Composer, Mara Gibson
Concerto for electric guitar (small chamber orechestra one per part with double bass and percussion)
About the piece:
The structure of the piece roughly follows the structure of a Rosary Mass inspired by Saint Bernadette’s apparitions of the Virgin Mary in Lourdes. The church on the site was built around the miraculous healing power of the water which the Virgin Mary told Bernadette was blessed and pilgrims to this day travel the hundreds of miles by foot on the Santiago de Compostela pilgrimage route.
The piece is built around contrast, timbre and meditation transforming the four mystery types each within the five decades of the rosary. These mysteries, the joyful, sorrowful, glorious, and luminous inspire the form of the piece and are especially guided by the effects of the electric guitar. Sparr and Gibson have begun collaborating by building a sound bank of effects to match the acoustic ensemble.
About D.J. Sparr:
Composer & Electric guitarist D. J. Sparr, who Gramophone recently hailed as “exemplary,” is one of America’s preeminent composer-performers. He has caught the attention of critics with his eclectic style, described as
“pop-Romantic…iridescent and wondrous” (The Mercury News) and “suits the boundary erasing spirit of today’s new-music world” (The New York Times). The Los Angeles Times praises him as “an excellent soloist,” and the Santa Cruz Sentinel says that he “wowed an enthusiastic audience…Sparr’s guitar sang in a near-human voice.”
He was the electric guitar concerto soloist on the 2018 GRAMMY-Award winning album with JoAnn Falletta and the London Symphony Orchestra. In 2011, Sparr was named one of NPR listener’s favorite 100 composers under the age 40. He has composed for and performed with renowned ensembles such as the Houston Grand Opera, Cabrillo Festival, New World Symphony, Washington National Opera, and Eighth Blackbird. His music has received awards from BMI, New Music USA, and the League of Composers/ISCM. Sparr is a faculty member at the famed Walden School’s Creative Musicians Retreat in Dublin, New Hampshire. His works and guitar performances appear on Naxos, Innova Recordings, & Centaur Records.
D. J. lives in Baton Rouge, Louisiana with his wife Kimberly, son Harris, Nannette the hound dog, and Bundini the boxer. D. J. Sparr’s music is published by Bill Holab Music.
