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Sunday February 6, 2022
Emerson Avenue Salonlines Proudly Presents
a Live YouTube Broadcast
– A “hybrid” concert –
Maya Lončar, guitar
and
Rob Catinella, contrabass
There is a certain magic in joining two opposite string instruments such as the guitar and the double bass. Maya and Rob are exploring the sounds of their instruments but not in an expected way. Rob takes his double bass into the cello register to play expressive and lyrical melodies which on the bass get a special color. In this concert they will present two unique arrangements of pieces for this combination of instruments. Rob will also present the exciting expressive qualities the double bass can show as a solo instrument.
Program
J.S Bach – Suite No. 1 in G Major
Giovanni Bottesini – Reverie
Niccolo Paganini – Cantabile
Francois Rabbath – Poucha Dass
Manuel De Falla – Siete Canciones Populares Españolas
Program Notes
Bach Suite No. 1: This is a transcription of Bach’s famous G major suite for Cello. Because of the tendency of bassists to play in “solo” tuning, which is a whole step higher, double bass transcriptions, including mine, often sound in A major instead. There are a lot of tricky fingering considerations when playing this on double bass, but there are also some opportunities to add additional voices that could otherwise not be played on cello.
De Falla: Originally written for voice and piano, this piece consists of seven spanish songs each telling their own story. It was popularly transcribed for guitar and cello, but this double bass arrangement is the first of its kind.
Bottesini/Paganini: Another unique transcription, we decided to arrange the piano part for guitar after realizing its accessibility. Bottesini was an Italian double bass virtuoso who is often regarded as the “Paganini of the Double Bass.” This piece differs from our next piece, the Paganini Cantabile, by being in E minor vs D major, but we hope that you might be able to hear the similarity in lyrical style between the two.
Rabbath: Francois Rabbath is a pivotal contemporary double bassist and composer. His Pouch Dass focuses on some idiosyncratic qualities of the double bass, and much like some of his other music, is impressionistic in its repetition or focus on only a few musical ideas throughout.
BIOGRAPHY
Award-winning double bassist Robert Catinella is a Long Island native who captures audiences with his virtuosity and eclectic performance styles. Rob performs frequently throughout the United States, including appearances at popular venues such as Carnegie Hall, David Geffen Hall, the Grand Ole Opry and more. As a soloist, Rob has secured first prize in multiple competitions, including the One World Symphonic Festival Competition and the Shenandoah Conservatory Soloists Competition. He has subsequently performed as a concert soloist with both orchestras, under the direction of Maestro Jan Wagner and Julius P. Williams of the Conductors Guild. Having been proclaimed as “a young Gary Karr,” Rob hopes to continue his mission of opening the public eye to the wonders of the double bass through instrumental competitions, teaching, and public performance. Eager to step outside of conventional boundaries, Rob also specializes in multiple genres of music, including classical, rock, and country.
In addition to double bass. He frequently plays and teaches the electric bass. Rob holds a Bachelor and Master’s of Music from Shenandoah Conservatory, where he studied with double bass virtuoso Donovan Stokes. He currently teaches Orchestra and Beginning Piano at Park View High School in Sterling, VA, while also pursuing a doctoral degree at Stony Brook University, studying with NY Philharmonic assistant principal Blake Hinson.
Maya Lončar is an award winning Croatian-American guitarist with a passion for performing and teaching while carrying an energy that commands attention on any stage. She began her studies at the age of six with her father and has since then been invited as a guest artist for multiple concerts and festivals throughout Europe and America. She has performed as a guitarist and a violinist in a multitude of prestigious venues, including three separate performances at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C. Maya holds top prizes from competitions including the Appalachian State Guitar Festival Competition, the Charlottesville Guitar Festival Competition, and the Southern Guitar Festival Competition. In February of 2020, she was runner-up for the Eastman Concerto Competition where she performed Heitor Villa-Lobos’s Concerto for Guitar. She has also had the pleasure of working closely with some of the world’s most legendary guitarists such as David Russell, Pepe Romero, and Berta Rojas. In addition to her solo career, she is also an experienced chamber musician, having most recently performed in a concert tour with her trio, Triple Tango.
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