PORT ANGELES — At the Segovia International Guitar Competition, Paul Galbraith, the youngest of 50 rivals, won a silver medal.
When Andrés Segovia himself heard him play, he pronounced him “magnificent.”
That was in 1981 in Kent, England, and Galbraith was 17 years old.
The competition began the globe-trotting career that has taken the Scottish Galbraith to Chile, Greece, Norway, Brazil, China, India, Iceland and, this week, Port Angeles.
With an evening of European and Mexican classical works in the intimate Maier Performance Hall at Peninsula College, Galbraith will begin this season’s Maier Hall Concert Series at 7 p.m. this coming Tuesday.
Tickets are $15 for the general public and $5 for students, and the venue is on the main campus at 1502 E. Lauridsen Blvd.
Innovative musician
Galbraith is known across the world as an innovator — not only for exchanging the traditional guitar for the eight-string Brahms guitar, but also for his interpretations of the classics.
Among the works he’ll offer Tuesday night are a Haydn sonata in his own transcription for guitar, as well as his arrangement of Bach’s Chorale Prelude, originally for organ, titled “Ich ruf zu Dir, Herr Jesu Christ.”
“Virtually all of the guitarists I spoke with have said: ‘How did you get him out here for a concert?’” said David Jones, the Peninsula College music professor who coordinates the Maier series.
Galbraith, who lives in Switzerland, gave a straightforward answer.
“The concert is part of a two-week tour in the States. I love visiting the Pacific Northwest, and am very glad that Dr. Jones has invited me to play in the concert series at Port Angeles,” he wrote in an email.
“This is an easy program to enjoy, as it includes a colorful and varied group of Spanish pieces,” the guitarist said of the Albeniz and Granados music on his program.
The concert also will have what Galbraith calls “one of the most striking, beautiful and profound works written originally for guitar, the Folias Variations by the Mexican composer Manuel Ponce.”
Brahms guitar
In his announcement of Tuesday’s season opener, Jones noted that Galbraith was one of the developers of the Brahms guitar.
The instrument has two extra strings, one high and one low; is supported by a metal endpin, similar to that of a cello; and rests on a wooden resonance box.
Both this design and Galbraith’s style are considered groundbreaking developments in the guitar’s evolution, Jones added.
The Maier Hall Concert Series will next bring the Bottom Line Duo back to Port Angeles on Nov. 24, the Port Angeles String Quartet on Jan. 4 and finally Trio Seraphim on May 9.
Season tickets for these performances including Galbraith’s are $50, while reservations and details are available at www.pencol.edu, the Peninsula College Facebook page and 360-417-6405.
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Features Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5062, or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
