Sunday, April 10, 2011, 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 at East 47th Street
New York City (see map)

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

Praised as "an exceptionally musical and accomplished guitarist," Nicholas Ciraldo is a leader among his generation of American classical guitarists. He has won awards and reached high levels at several prestigious solo competitions, including the Tredrez-Locquemau International Guitar Competition (France), twice at the MTNA Guitar Competition (USA), the Gaetano Zinetti International Chamber Music Competition (Italy), the GFA Solo Guitar Competition (USA), and the Portland International Guitar Competition (USA). Dr. Ciraldo has enjoyed numerous solo, chamber, and concerto performances throughout the United States, South America, and Europe, from Boston’s Jordan Hall to Berlin’s Berliner Dom to Brazil’s Teatro José Maria Santos.

An avid chamber musician, Nicholas Ciraldo has collaborated with many fine performing artists, including harpist Franziska Huhn, flutist Thomas Robertello, guitarist Eliot Fisk, violinist Stephen Redfield, and the Quadrivium Guitar Quartet. Currently, Dr. Ciraldo enjoys a busy concert schedule with his wife, flutist Rachel Taratoot Ciraldo, as the Ciraldo Duo. Their recent concert venues include the National Flute Association Convention, the Pelican State Chamber Music Series of Baton Rouge, the Christ Church of Pensacola, and the Escola da musica e bellas artes do Parana, Brazil.

A participating member of the arts community, Nicholas Ciraldo has held diverse positions with several arts organizations, including Artistic Director of the Boston Classical Guitar Society and Vice President of the Austin Classical Guitar Society. Dr. Ciraldo is also founder of the Hammer/Nail Project, a program that links student composers with guitarists and shows how to write for the guitar in the most idiomatic way possible. He currently serves as faculty advisor to the USM Guitar Society.

Another of Dr. Ciraldo’s activities is as artist/teacher. The Quadrivium Guitar Quartet performed as artists-in-residence throughout rural Kentucky under the auspices of New Performing Arts. The Ciraldo Duo twice has been invited by the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra and the Austin Classical Guitar Society to be artists/teachers-in-residence. Dr. Ciraldo has given numerous lectures and masterclasses throughout the U.S. and Brazil. Dr. Ciraldo is on the faculty of the University of Southern Mississippi’s School of Music in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.

Nicholas Ciraldo holds a Bachelor of Music from Indiana University, where he studied with Ernesto Bitetti and Luis Zea. He also holds a Master of Music with Academic Honors from the New England Conservatory of Music, where he studied with David Leisner and Eliot Fisk. He holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Texas at Austin, where he studied with Adam Holzman and received the Freeman Fellowship. His most recent research involved the “1928 Manuscript” of the
Villa-Lobos guitar studies.