I’m not great at reflecting on the year, so I made a little list of some accomplishments as this year felt extra special:
Not bad for barely leaving home 🙂
May 2022 be all that you wish for and need. I’m preparing for some recordings, concerts (fingers crossed), and a surprise or two.
Thank you for being safe and sharing in my music.
Aaron Larget-Caplan
Lainie Fefferman – Carousel – guitar + electronics
Tom Flaherty – Steps and Leaps – guitar + electronics
Alejandro Rutty – Down with those guitars
David Warrin Solomons – Passacaglia
UNC Greensboro Students: Joshua Weitz, Noah Marney, A.J. Lyon – 3 Pieces
Curtis Hughes – lullibule
John Johnstone – Blue Lullaby
Tom Nazziola – Lull-a-by-the-sea
Ronald Pearl – Berceuse Inquiète
Štěpán Rak – Lullaby
Brian Schober – A Winter Lullaby
L->R top: Johnston, Pearl, Schober
L->R bottom: Nazziola, Rak, Hughes
A Guitar Holiday – Tiger Turn Records (450K streams!)
Drifting, Volume 3 of the New Lullaby Project – Stone Records
Passacaglia by David Warin Solomons, digital single
Discography of 6 Albums from 2006-2021 issued online by Stone Records
Nights Transfigured, Volume 1 of the New Lullaby Project, Pub. American Composers Alliance
Hushed, Volume 2 of the New Lullaby Project, Pub. American Composers Alliance
All Things Cage with Laura Kuhn (3x!)
Café Classicale with Felice Coral
Conducting Conversations with Mike Maino
Exploring Music with Tigran Arakelyan
Classical Guitar Around the World with Kevin Collins (2x)
Guitaromanie! with Karl Wohlwend
All Things Six Strings with Rick Cox
Is That Really Legal with Eric Ruben
Jay Talking with Bradley Jay
New Music Gathering, Portland, Oregon
21st Century Guitar Festival – Portugal
Guitar Foundation of America – Denver, Colorado
‘Institute for Effective Training International Conference’ – Russia
Three Revere Awards from the Music Publishers Associations – Nights Transfigured
Grant Southbridge Cultural Council
Small Business Association Grants
Tew Recital Hall, UNC Greensboro, North Carolina
First Congregation Church Camden, Maine
Robbins Library, Arlington, MA
Zalon, Philadelphia, PA
Jacob Edwards Library, Southbridge, MA
Windhover, Rockport, MA w/ amazing Dancers: Michael Trusnovec, Xin Ying, Annmaria Mazzini,, Thryn Saxon
Dorchester Reporter – Larget-Caplan’s new album explores Christmas classics
For your holiday season, listen to tracks from ‘A Guitar Holiday’ and interviews with Aaron. Huge thanks to the hosts for inviting me on their shows and sharing in the music! – ALC
WOMR Radio – Café Classicale with Felice Coral
December 6 – 2 pieces and multiple performed live
December 20 – 2 pieces
All Things Six Strings with Rick Cox, PODCAST
O Come, O Come, Emmanuel
Available December 5, 2021
LISTEN: https://www.spreaker.com/user/srgpodcasts/atss111121alcaplanfinal
KPTZ Radio Port Townsend at 3PM PST with host Tigran Arakelyan
December. 19 – 2 pieces and interview
Available until January 2, 2022: https://spinitron.com/KPTZ/dj/149278/Tigran-Arakelyan
Trust me I’m a Composer with Peter Byrom-Smith
FabRadio Hour MixCloud
December 25 – 5 pieces
LISTEN: http://www.fabradiointernational.com/fab-radio-schedule/saturday/trust-me-i-am-a-composer
Intimate Guitar with Jim McCutcheon
December 25 & 26 – 2 pieces
LISTEN: https://discoverclassical.org/intimate-guitar.htm
. 
Aaron’s seventh album is now available! Enjoy a classical guitar holiday with Aaron and 9 beautifully arranged holiday songs for classical guitar.
SONGS: God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, Angels We Have Heard on High, Greensleeves, Stille Nacht, O Come O Come Emmanuel, Away in a Manger, The First Noel, Deck the Halls, and Silent Night.
*The album is digital only for streaming and download
Produced by Kabir Sehgal.
Edited and Engineered by Aaron Larget-Caplan.
Mixed and Mastered by Steve Hunt at The Kitchen, Chelmsford, Massachusetts, USA
Recorded September 19-20, 2021 at L’atelier d’artiste Boston, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Guitar: Olivier Fanton D’Andon, 2009. Strings: Hannabach.
Time: 23min
Deck the Halls – A holiday classic for guitar solo.
SPOTIFY • AMAZON • APPLE MUSIC • DEEZER • TIDAL
•••••
The full album ‘A Guitar Holiday’ will be released on November 12.
Label: Tiger Turn
New Lullaby: Fourteen enchanting ways to fall asleep
Aaron Larget-Caplan (guitar)
rec. Futura Productions, October 2009, Roslindale, Massachusetts, USA
Six String Sound 2009 & Stone Records 2021 [52:46]
This CD, the first of three that form the “New Lullaby Project”, presents lullabies for adults. As Larget-Caplan states in his liner notes “I don’t have kids”.
In 2006 he started requesting compositions for this project before he suffered two major traumas. Firstly, he lost his house in a fire. Secondly, only two months later, his wife sustained major injuries in an accident. He refers to the irony that he himself needed so much sleep after twelve house-moves in over two and a half years. The fourteen lullabies were performed at three locations in 2009, shortly before this recording. He states that they “Calm the mind, take us to a new place and leave our ears with the gift of sound as we travel through the realm of our realities. Let us be enveloped by the living music of our world and take comfort that we live amongst it.”
I listened to the disc and treated it as a whole concept. The various compositions work fluently and the sequence has been well thought out. There are notes on each piece by the composers; in a live setting I presume that Larget-Caplan would explain the pieces. I was particularly taken with “Berceuse” by David Vayo where Aaron (I presume) whistles and hums. It would certainly be appropriate for young children. Not all the lullabies are “night music”. Carson Cooman contributes “unfolding the gates of dawn”: a morning lullaby. My son, listening to the CD with me, pointed out the hint of the Beatles’ “In no time” by Jonathan Feist. The “Fab Four” clearly influence some of the other compositions as does “Cavatina”. That said, the composers are to be congratulated for composing music of intrinsically high quality.
This album certainly engenders feeling of peace which, given the personal circumstances of the performer when he was planning the project, is apt. There are times when this disc will be appropriate and I found it achieved its aim of producing a state of peacefulness. I look forward to hearing the next two CDs in this project. David R Dunsmore, October
Contents
1. The Sixth Night – Lynn JOB [3:39]
2. Leaky Roof – Jonathan FEIST [1:27]
3. No Time – Jonathan FEIST [2:22]
4. My Darling’s Slumber – Francine TRESTER [3:07]
5. Nachtlied – Scott WHEELER [4:19]
6. Cradle Song – Kevin SIEGFRIED [3:19]
7. Descent to a Dream – Mark SMALL [4:32]
8. Lulla – for Sam – Nolan STOLZ [3:20]
9. Unfolding the Gates of Dawn – Carson COOMAN [3:53]
10. You are Alone to Sleep, Op.430 – John McDONALD [2:46]
11. Berceuse – David VAYO [7:01]
12. Disturbed, a Lullaby – David LEISNER [4:32]
13. Song Softly Sung, in Trying Times – Eric SCHWARTZ [3:50]
14. Shhh – Ryan VIGIL [5:22]
Link: http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2021/Oct/New-lullaby-88801.htm
The wonderful website ‘This is Classical Guitar’ run by Bradford Werner gave a wonderful shout out to ‘Volume 3 of the New Lullaby Project Drifting’ in a recent blog post. Check it out and take a listen to the free embed music. Let me know what you think!
Huge thanks to Bradford for his continued support of contemporary music and passing his great love of the guitar to people!
