Frank serenades audience with classical guitar performance

    Elliot Frank is a professor at Eastern Carolina University and a traveling musician.  He has performed at the Alexandria Guitar Festival, Piccolo Spoleto, the Appalachian Guitar Fest, and various other places ranging from Canada to the Dominican Republic.  He has commissioned and performed many works for the guitar, one of which debuted at the 2006 Guitar Foundation of America Festival in Columbus on Wednesday.  Frank came to GCSU Tuesday as a guest recital musician on his way through to Columbus and wowed everyone in the audience with his nimble fingers, including Dr. Richard Greene, GCSU music professor and fellow guitar guru.
    “He is amazing,” Greene said.  “The relaxation in his hands that I see even when he is playing something terribly fast is just incredible.  He’s the best kind of musician to see.”
    Frank plays a Paul Sheridan Custom classical guitar and his favorite guitar players (besides himself) are Manuel Barrucco and the L.A. Guitar Quartet.  His own style has been influenced by several genres of music but mainly that of Bach and several miscellaneous Latin American and Spanish composers.  He has somewhat of an obsessive personality, and when he’s not playing guitar he is an active marathon runner.  In other words, he runs 26.2 miles for fun.
    “I spend so much time sitting around on my butt that I need something that makes me feel fresh and more alert,” Frank said.  “It doesn’t take a couple days or weeks to play the kind of music I play.  It takes months of preparation, followed by a few moments of delayed gratification.  It’s the same thing with running a marathon.  I think that’s why I do it.”
    The program for the show consisted of performances of famous pieces by Bach, Lauro, Barrios, and Merlin.  There were also a few selected pieces from some of Elliot Frank’s students and colleagues, one of which was a sonata by Andrew Zohn that was written especially for Frank.  He says it is the single hardest song he’s ever tried to play.
    GCSU students had to pay a dollar to see the performance.
    “I would have paid $20 to see this,”Jon Yoder, a junior, said.  “I thought I knew how to play guitar, but it turns out that I got a whole lot to learn.”
    Anyone who wishes to see Elliot Frank play guitar in person will have to travel to do so, as it is unlikely that he will come back to GCSU anytime soon.  However, for $15, you can own his new CD by ACA Digital Recordings called, “South American Guitar Music.” 

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Oct 13 2006. Filed under Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry