With this program of beautiful and spacious modern classical music played on electric guitars, Duo Orfeo invites the listener to inhabit the space where music and silence meet.

Pärt’s Fratres and Spiegel im Spiegel, Satie‘s Gymnopedies and Gnossiennes, Mompou‘s Musica Callada, Silvestrov’s Quiet Songs and Cage’s In a Landscape:  these titles, perhaps unfamiliar to some, are particular favorites of Duo Orfeo’s. The dates of these compositions span a century, from the 1880s (Satie) to the 1980s (Silvestrov and Pärt) and were written by composers with very different backgrounds and influences, yet they share a remarkable unity of aesthetic. They are quietly powerful, deeply searching, beautifully simple and simply beautiful, qualities you do not find often enough in contemporary classical music. Originally composed for piano and violin (Pärt), solo piano (Mompou and Satie), and piano and voice (Silvestrov), Duo Orfeo has arranged all of the pieces on this program for electric guitar duo.

A word about Duo Orfeo’s use of electric guitars to interpret classical music. The tone produced by electric guitars (in this case a 1969 Fender Jazzmaster and an ES-335 style arch-top by Hamer) through vintage tube amplifiers in a wash of spring reverb is stunningly gorgeous in and of itself and capable of immense subtlety, expressivity and power. Duo Orfeo approaches these instruments the same way they approach their classical guitars, manipulating the strings with their fingers to produce all the timbral and dynamic variations needed to bring the notes to life. There are no special effects here, just the magic of using a very familiar and beloved sound in a new way.

Or, as John Montanari, classical music host of WFCR, New England Public Radio put it, “So you see, classical music has nothing to fear from the electric guitar, at least not in the hands of Joseph Ricker and Jamie Balmer.”

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Works to be performed on the “La Musica Callada, la Soledad Sonora” program include:

Federico Mompou, selections from Musica Callada, Book I
Eric Satie, selections from Gymnopedies and Gnossiennes
Valentin Silvestrov,  selections from Quiet Songs
John Cage, In a Landscape
Arvo Pärt, Fratres and Spiegel im Spiegel