Spanish Candy is now available!

–> https://spanishcandy.lnk.to/SpanishCandy (streaming, downloads, CDs)

Spanish Candy features classical Spanish and flamenco standards by Isaac Albéniz and Francisco Tárrega, Esteban du Sanlúcar, and Pascual Marquina.

Spanish Candy is the culmination of a vision that sought to combine my favorite elements of flamenco (dance, rasgueado, energy) and Spanish classical guitar (harmonic language and colors). See Sevilla, Mantilla de Feria, and España Cañi for examples.

The 10 tracks promise to be a treat for fans of Spanish classical and flamenco music.

This is my 10th studio album and fourth with producer Kabir Sehgal for Tiger Turn.

It is also the first dedicated to the music of Spain, I am grateful to be able share Spanish Candy with you.

Read the complete press release and see a video playlist: https://alcguitar.com/album-spanish-candy.php

Thank you for listening,
Aaron

Ps. The first 50 CD orders via Bandcamp will receive a special ALC Olé magnet.

CD Tracks. photo by Catherine Larget-Caplan

Spanish Candy CD inside

The moment when you knew you wanted to be a musician:

I asked my parents for piano lessons at age 4 and was immediately hooked, so I feel like I’ve always known that I wanted to be a musician. Choosing music as a career path came later, with lots of support from family, friends, mentors, and a solid foundation of resilience.

An important skill for a career in music that does not have anything to do with an instrument or making music:

Time management and self-care are very important skills for musicians. Often, as a freelancer, I have to set my own boundaries regarding when I’m working and when I’m not, to manage the pace of my work and adapt to various obstacles that may arise along the way to a project’s fruition. I have found that resisting capitalistic definitions of “success” are key to finding a balance.

Two ways you stay motivated:

I go to concerts or other artistic events and find inspiration in what other people are doing! Deadlines are usually the real motivation though!

Latest Project:

Letters That You Will Not Get: Women’s Voices from the Great War

What inspired it:

“Letters…” is a chamber opera created and performed by an all female/nonbinary team that tells the story of women’s experiences in World War I in their own words. Six singers and string quintet present 21 vignettes written by women from around the world during one of the most catastrophic conflicts in history, which continue to resonate meaningfully today.

Who’s on it:

The American Opera Project commissioned, developed, and premiered it in Brooklyn. Librettists Susan Werbe and Kate Holland, stage direction by Kate Bergstrom, music direction by Mila Henry, design by Sara Brown, Stefania Bulbarella, An-Lin Dauber, and Masha Tsimring, featuring the Opera Cowgirls.

How do you discover new music?

Concerts, various internet radio stations (college, community radio, new music shows), and recommendations from friends

One living and one dead musician that deserves more attention:

Living: Arooj Aftab — I think she’s actually gained quite a bit of notoriety at this point, but when I discovered her music a few years ago, I was totally enraptured.

Dead: Cesária Évora — She is a Cape Verdean legend and had an international career starting in the 80s. May her incredible voice and legacy live on!

Where can we find you online?

Website • Bandcamp • Facebook

Upcoming Event you’d like to share?

Verdant Vibes Album Benefit Show with spoken word artist Christopher Johnson – LINK

June 4, 2023 at 7:30 pm

Grant Recital Hall, Brown University
1 Young Orchard Avenue, Providence, RI
$25–40 suggested donation (notaflof)

Includes free digital download when album is released!

• ​Amanda Feery — On Shuffle
• ​Matt Frey — Lean
• Christopher Johnson — TBD
• Scott Lee — Engine Trouble
• ​​Kirsten Volness — for Anna Atkins
• Roseminna Watson — Lullabies for Icarus
• Evan Williams —  GRIME

We’re recording our first album at Machines with Magnets and are playing this concert to raise funds to cover production and distribution costs. Please join us—we appreciate your support!!

Soprano Tharanga Goonetilleke

Mezzo-soprano Caitlin McKechney

Left to right: Jessica Sandidge, soprano; Tharanga Goonetilleke, soprano; Maria Maxfield, soprano; Caitlin McKechney, mezzo-soprano; Tesia Kwarteng, mezzo-soprano; Sarah Beckham-Turner, soprano

I am very proud to announce that I am now affiliated as a composer with the American Composers Alliance (ACA):

https://www.composers.com/composers/aaron-larget-caplan

My first collection of compositions, honey cadence, are officially published today and available worldwide!

Purchase the physical score through the ACA or on my Bandcamp page HERE. PDFs of the scores area also available HERE.

Based in NYC, the ACA is a nonprofit composer service organization dedicated to the publishing and promoting of American contemporary classical music through concerts, grants, collaborations, and recordings.

Founded in 1937 by Aaron Copland, I am humbled to join this historic organization with its powerful and inclusive vision, and to be affiliated with such a truly fantastic group of composers, a few of whom I am honored to have forged friendships with through music. Learn more about the ACA.

I was introduced to the organization in 2015 by Thomas L. Read. I have since had the pleasure of working as a performer, grant recipient, and curator with their fearless director Gina Genova.

In 2020 and 2021 the ACA co-published two volumes of scores by 30 composers from my New Lullaby Project in the anthologies: Nights Transfigured and Hushed. The first winning multiple Revere Publishing Awards.

The first collection of my own compositions: honey cadence – six meditations for guitar solo are available today! Gratitude to Simon Berry for his excellent work and patience in bringing this publication to life.

The collection, recorded on the honey cadence album has earned over 3-million streams since its release by Tiger Turn in April 2022.

Amazon Music • Spotify • Apple Music

A few of the ACA composers I have performed:

• Francine Trester – solos, viola-guitar duo, songs
• John McDonald – solos, chamber works
• Brian Schober – solo
• Tom Flaherty – cello-guitar duo, guitar + electronics
• Thomas L. Read – solos, string qrt-guitar, cello-guitar

Will be playing:

• Richard Cameron-Wolfe – Heretic – micro-opera (2024)
• John Anthony Lennon* 
• Darleen Mitchell*
• David Liptak*

I look forward to continued collaborations and more musical creations.

*To be rescheduled from 2020

The moment when you knew you wanted to be a musician:

After seeing the film The Pianist.

An important skill for a career in music that does not have anything to do with an instrument or making music:

There are many things that qualify more as personality traits, which can be mutable (though usually not). But in terms of actual skills, I would say learning how to manage money, and learning about the audio/video recording process.

Two ways you stay motivated:

Listening to my favorite pieces of music or favorite musicians & reading a piece I love but have never studied.

Latest Project:

The Brahms Age – the complete Violin Sonatas of Johannes Brahms played on historical instruments (hänssler Classic, HC22081) coming out this summer.

What inspired it:

My enduring connection and aptitude for the music of Brahms is inspired by his unique fusion intense and sensitive romanticism, which provides a vehicle to exhibit the expressive abilities of the violin, and his Bach-influenced architecture that transcends the violin.

Who’s on it:

Myself and Constantine Finehouse

How do you discover new music?

YouTube and recommendations.

One living and one dead musician that deserves more attention:

Living: Shunske Sato

Dead: Alexander Labko

Where can we find you online?

Youtube or on facebook

Spotify

Upcoming Event you’d like to share?

Next is a little concert featuring Korngold and Rachmaninoff Piano Trios @ Brookhaven in Lexington on May 16 (with Jonathan Senik, piano and Joan Herget, cello)

The moment when you knew you wanted to be a musician:

I knew I wanted to be a musician pretty early, around age 13. I had only been playing guitar a few years at that point but I had fallen so deeply in love with making music I knew I wanted it to be a central part of my life.

An important skill for a career in music that does not have anything to do with an instrument or making music:

Perseverance! It’s a long journey full of ups and downs, successes and failures, opportunities and closed doors. It’s important to keep going. Be smart about it, learn from your mistakes and don’t be afraid to put yourself out there. In the end, opportunities and a career will emerge.

Two ways you stay motivated:

The first way is that I am always setting short term and medium term goals. That way I am always working towards something that gives me a sense of completion. That could be a new composition that I give myself a few weeks to compose, or a setting a date to learn and record it. We need to feel that sense of completion and these short and medium term goals provide that.

The second way is challenging myself to try things that are difficult for me. Fretless guitar is difficult. However, I love challenging myself to push the envelope and try things that I don’t think I can do.

Latest Project:

I am working on a second solo album of fretless guitar compositions as well as some collaborations with other guitarists. Additionally, I am developing my company, G&G Guitars, which are exclusive resellers of Altamira fretless guitars, which I play and helped develop. I am proud of these guitars and I want to make them available to more guitar players interested in fretless guitars.

Additionally, I am in the development phase of some fretless electric guitar models which I also eventually hope to make available to the public.

What inspired it:

I am very motivated to do everything I can to popularize the fretless guitar. This includes not only composing, performing, and teaching fretless guitar but also making fretless guitars easier to acquire.

Who’s on it:

Well, the collaborations are secret 😉

How do you discover new music?                     

Online. Social media. People recommend music to me a lot too. I’ve heard some great music that otherwise I’d never hear were it not for an online follower sharing it with me.

One living and one dead musician that deserves more attention:

For living, I would say the Turkish fretless guitarist Erkan Ogur. He “invented” it  back in the 1970’s and uses it to primarily play Turkish music. He is well known within Turkey but not so much outside of Turkey. A great musician.

For a dead musician I would say the Egyptian oudist Hamza el Din. He did a lot of interesting East/West collaborations when he was alive, including with Kronos Quartet. Another great musician.

Where can we find you online?

On Instagram and TikTok I am @fret_buzz. Also, my website at buzzgravelle.com

*In November 2022 at Pomona College, Buzz and Aaron Larget-Caplan performed John Cage’s Bacchanale arranged for two fretted guitars. The arrangement is by Aaron Larget-Caplan and available through Edition Peters.