Sunday, November 14, 2010, at 4:00 PM

Co-Sponsored by New York City Classical Guitar Society and The Roger Smith Hotel
Frank Wallace and John Olson, series co-curators

Roger Smith Hotel
501 Lexington Avenue
New York City (see map)

Tickets $15, cash only at the door. For reservations, email rogersmitharts@rogersmith.com or call (212) 755-1400.

With a repertoire spanning from J. S. Bach to Jimi Hendrix, Michael Nicolella is recognized as one of America's most innovative classical guitar virtuosos. He has received wide critical acclaim for his performances, recordings and compositions. As a concert artist, Michael has performed throughout North America and Europe as solo recitalist, chamber musician and soloist with orchestra.

A uniquely eclectic and versatile artist, Michael blurs the lines between musical styles and disciplines. He is part of a growing trend in classical music to revitalize the role of the composer/performer. As a concert artist he frequently programs his own works for guitar in solo recital and chamber music settings. Known for his creative programming, he has introduced electric guitar into his "classical" programs and extended the repertoire and audience of his instrument not only with his own compositions and transcriptions, but also by premiering and commissioning works by some of today's most exciting emerging composers. In the last five years alone, he has premiered over a dozen new works for classical and electric guitar in solo, chamber and orchestral settings. In reference to his abilities on the classical and electric guitar, noted guitar composer, scholar and critic John Duarte stated in Gramophone magazine that "others have 'crossed the track' in one direction or the other but none has done so with the technical and/or musical success as Nicolella, who, chameleon-like, achieves comparable distinction in both fields." Most recently, Nicolella 's new work for electric guitar and orchestra, commissioned by 4Culture and entitled Ten Years Passed, was premiered by the Northwest Symphony Orchestra with Nicolella as soloist.

Michael's education ranges from undergraduate studies at Berklee College of Music, where he studied improvisation with jazz greats Gary Burton and Billy Pierce, to Yale University where he received his Master of Music degree, to post-graduate studies at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, Italy, as a scholarship student of Oscar Ghiglia. At Yale, he was awarded the George Knight Houpt Memorial Scholarship as a student of Benjamin Verdery and studied composition with Martin Bresnick and Jonathan Berger. From 1991-95 he served as head of the classical guitar programs at Lawrence University and the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music. He currently resides in Seattle.