Archive for the ‘Press’ Category

REVIEW – Fanfare

“Aaron Larget-Caplan is a master arranger and master guitarist. His ‘Guitar America 250’ is fantastic.”

“I could literally listen to Larget-Caplan play Cage all day (he has recorded a whole disc of Cage)” 
– Fanfare

Read the full review: https://alcguitar.com/pdf/Fanfare%20-%20GA%20250%20Aaron-Larget-Caplan.pdf

INTERVIEW – Be with the Guitar

I had the pleasure of speaking with Justin Lundstrom for HyperLocal Cape Cod about the album release concert at Wellfleet Preservation Hall on April 10. I don’t usually share concert preview articles, but I really enjoyed the discussion and the writing is so well done that I had to share. Cheers, Aaron

Be with the Guitar by Justin Lundstrom

Wellfleet Desk, Published April 7, 2026 • Article Link

With the kerfuffle at full volume as we carom toward our collective 250th birthday (all gas, no brakes), there’s real relief that even in our most critical hours, there’s still love and pride for what this country was – and could be. It’s even more pride inducing when that comes out of the arts, a faction who can go either way on the subject of the flag. Appreciate your spirit, Aaron.

Award-winning classical guitarist and composer Aaron Largen-Caplan (and proud Cherry Creek High School Hall of Famer) is touring his new album, GUITARIST AMERICA 250: REVOLUTIONARIES & ROCKSTARS. The program spans The Star-Spangled Banner, West Side Story, Battle Hymn of the Republic, and even a bit of John Cage, interwoven with spoken word elements.

For the sake of laying a foundation before we climb the radio tower (because that’s where the fun is), let’s meet Aaron: Colorado native, outdoorsman & athlete in his youth, who picked up the electric guitar at about 11 and made his way playing along with Van Halen, The Doors, and maybe even some Paul Simon CDs. In a late spring Spanish class his sophomore year, he came across Andres Segovia’s famous lines from Asturias (Leyenda) by Isaac Albéniz quoted by Krieger and The Doors on Spanish Caravan. Smart enough to figure out that they were quoting him and not the other way around, but not knowing it was originally for piano, he was turned to the Classical light.

Painting cupboards all summer to save money, he bought himself a Classical guitar and found a teacher to put him on the road. Soon he was listening to Beethoven regularly and, after playing some for his brother one day in the car, found a key to his personal playing in a simple take his brother gave him about the movements he just heard “that’s not classical, classical is boring – and that wasn’t boring.”

It seems like that is the same approach to Classical guitar Aaron’s still taking – he’s not interested in sanding down complexity, but he is committed to making sure it never feels like work for the listener. He’ll also cite his time in Speech and Debate with adding to that: yes, you have to win the debate and you’re seldom able to do that with boredom and dry complexity. Voila, the transitive property strikes again. The guitar as form has been refined from Rock & Roll to Classical and the performer’s stage presence the verbal and the cerebral to the aural and emotional. Load up for bear, the time is nigh.

Aaron finds himself in Boston for a short stint at BU before enrolling in, and eventually graduating from, the New England Conservatory. Not only does he secure the education that grants him his trade, and the opportunity to gig regularly (both of which are true), this is also when  he meets, and spends seven years studying privately with, what seems to be his most profound teacher and mentor: Dmitry Goryachev.

On the third floor of a triple decker tenement in Dorchester, Aaron studied with Goryachev and learned how to be with his instrument. And while Aaron did not explicitly tie this learning to be to the magic we’re about to discover on our climb through his antennae’s metal geometry growing out of this foundation, I would say the radio was fired up and tuned at about that time. All that was left was to be found working when the frequency came calling from without.

Magic Black

With the Spanish guitar as the root instrument for both classical and flamenco, there are practical similarities before the philosophical or temperamental differences begin to emerge en masse. Classical players often pursue an ideal sound, something they can reliably produce through hand position, touch, even nail length. Success, in that relationship between player and music, can be measured by fidelity to the source material.

Flamenco is concerned less with strict adherence and more with the living exchange between dancer, singer, and the guitarist’s playing. Interpretation opens up. The Spanish roots and traditions themselves are idiosyncratic, and the guitarist leans into percussion and rhythm as drivers, rather than space and composition. Aaron intimates that the animating spirit of flamenco, when the player is captured, overtaken by something outside themselves compelling their hands, the duende, as Federico García Lorca calls it, is essential to pure flamenco. And yet, he suggests, it is also available in classical guitar, especially in the works of one of his heroes, John Cage.

When considering how Aaron seems to have come across this phenomenon, the order of his experiences does offer the benefit of the doubt. First he immerses himself in classical and the pure skill and adherence to proper execution. Then, widening the lens to include Spanish & Flamenco while also equipped with form & ability as muscle memory, able to perform without thought but by feel, he’s accessible to that animating spirit, available to duende. I’ll bite.

But we’re not done; we need to complete the climb the to the peak of the receiver wire, where the wind will certainly wobble you, If classical addresses the relationship between the instrument and the written music, and Flamenco is concerned less with skill than the encounter’s chemistry between the dancer, the singer, and the guitarist’s playing, when Indian music is introduced, the Rasa rises up, concerning itself with the interplay not only of these available elements but now will incorporate the audience as participant.

Rasa translates as “flavor” or “taste” or “juice.” It IS the emotional or spiritual state that passes between the audience and the performer. The nine traditional rasas in Indian aesthetic theory: love, humor, sorrow, anger, heroism, fear, disgust, wonder, and peace/transcendence. When our man Aaron invokes the concept of Magical Black, he’s getting to a place where the performer, the performance, and the audience’s collective frequency (likely established through engagement & experience) align to the ultimate end of what can almost be described as molecular dissolve: all of the atomic points dissipate, leaving only the realized energy of the music, itself now greater than the sum of its, many parts.

Knowing this is Aaron Largen-Caplan’s goal, are you moved?

We will see you for seance this Friday night at 7p at the Wellfleet Preservation Hall.

•••

Listen to Aaron’s music on Spotify, READ more about his work, especially his New Lullaby Project HERE.

INTERVIEW VIDEO – Meet Aaron Larget-Caplan

I had the privilege of speaking with Jack Schoenfeld of Clarion for a beautifully recorded and edited interview, especially liked the slow-mo tremolo. Love the beautiful shots of Boston and reminiscing on why I came to this musical city.
Music: honey cadence by me. 

Shouts to Stephen Drury, Sharan Leventhal, New Lullaby Project composers, luthier Olivier Fanton D’Andon, Catherine, and the many musicians that make Boston so musical. 

2024 Music Highlights

Thank you for an amazing 2024! 

I am incredibly appreciative of the support received this year. 

Some of the concerts and trips would not have been financially feasible without the generosity of individuals and organizations.

Huge shouts to Arun Luthra, Walburga Marder, Marion Singer, Peter & Yukiko Zisa, Mary Rowell, Luigi Oliva and Nicoletta Vismara, Ciro Gentile, Gino D’Ignazio, Camille Lizarribar, Pasquale Tassone, Laura Kuhn, Renee Lewis & Chris Penny, Peter Frewen and Jenie Smith, Wolfgang and Mechthilde Weber, Yael Abrahamsson, Krista Keogh, All Classical Radio, WOMR, John McDonald, Hannabach Strings, New England Conservatory, Boston Mayor’s of Arts & Culture, NEFA, Christopher Bush, Patreon supporters, Laurie Caplan, Caroline, and my amazing wife and muse, Catherine.

Thank you so much!

A recap of a fulfilling and musical 2024!

US Premiere of Heretic by Richard Cameron-Wolfe – Best Performance of 2024 – The Arts Fuse

photo Catherine Larget-Caplan

New album – Spanish Gems – info & listen

New Publication with Edition Peters: Hovhaness, Mystic Flute – score & video

Debut at Symphony Space, Thalia Theater in New York – video

2 Premieres for Choir & Guitar:

  • Alan Hovhaness – East Coast Premiere – video & review
  • Vineet Shende – New movements of ‘Pravasa – Travels of the Guitar’ at Bowdoin College – video

Residency at the John Cage Trust at Bard College – blog post

Commissioned Douglas Knehans for a new work for guitar + electronics, to be premiered in 2025.

Collaboration with actors —
Recited Shakespeare on stage! 

Hall of Fame inductees for the Arts, Sciences and Humanities at Cherry Creek

Collaboration with poet Charles Coe

Hall of Fame induction to Cherry Creek High School – article

New Lullaby Project concerts and premieres #’s 76, 77, 78 – website

Piano solo ‘Aurore‘ debuted by John McDonald at Tufts University – video

Concerts in Oklahoma, Oregon, Maine, New York, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Tennessee

Joined the New England Conservatory Extension Division – link

Appointed to the Board of the American Composers Alliance

Created 22, 1-minute Guitar Instruction Videos on Youtube, Tiktok, Instagram

Album and concert reviews in Boston Musical Intelligencer, James Wegg Review (JWR), The WholeNote, The Arts Fuse, Fanfare, Take Effect.

                        click to enlarge

The 11 recordings reached over 10 million streams!

Returned to Europe for the first time since 2019!

Duomo di Milano

Passalacqua in Naples

Passalacqua Cappuccino 

 

 

For more photos, videos, and news, follow me on Facebook, Youtube, Tiktok, Instagram, Threads, and LinkedIn! 

Thank you for an incredible 2024!

Award – Cherry Creek Hall of Fame

Album Review – Spanish Gems in JWR

“A delectable Spanish set, with nary a castanet in sight!”

The venerable Canadian music website James Wegg Review (JWR) wrote a few words about Spanish Gems.

READ: https://www.jamesweggreview.org//Articles.aspx?ID=2584

“Less, as measured by duration,
can most certainly be more”

4 Stars 

Click here or the link above to read the complete review

Album Review – Spanish Gems in Fanfare

SPANISH GEMS • Aaron Larget-Caplan (gtr) • TIGER TURN 888-11 (34:43)

TÁRREGA Capricho Árabe (Serenata). Adelita (Mazurka). SANLÚCAR Panaderos. ALBÉNIZ Asturias (Leyenda) (arr. Larget-Caplan). SANZ Suite Española: Canarios. ANONYMOUS Spanish Romance. PUJOL El Abejorro. TORROBA Sonatina

Spanish Gems is another outstanding recital by Aaron Larget-Caplan. On three previous occasions, I’ve reviewed for Fanfare recitals by the Boston-based guitarist. God’s Time—Music of J. S. Bach on Guitar (Tiger Turn 888-09) (Fanfare 46:3, Jan/Feb 2023) features Larget-Caplan’s transcriptions. Nights Transfigured (Stone 888-02) and Drifting (Stone 888-03) (both reviewed in Fanfare, 45:2, Nov/Dec 2021) are Volumes 2 and 3 of Larget-Caplan’s New Lullaby Project, featuring works the guitarist has commissioned, premiered, and recorded. In all cases, I was impressed by Larget-Caplan’s lovely, singing tone, aligned with mastery of both the technical demands and idioms of the works involved. That same level of artistry may be found in Spanish Gems, a collection of favorites teeming with seductive melody, rhythm, and color (strumming effects abound). Larget-Caplan plays all the Spanish works with a compelling balance of fire and elegance, magnified by the closely miked recording. This is a most enjoyable recital. Ken Meltzer

Four stars: Aaron Larget-Caplan’s beguiling recital of Spanish guitar favorites

– Fanfare, September/October, 2024

Link for listening: https://lnk.to/SpanishGems

Link for reviews, videos, and press: https://alcguitar.com/album-spanish-gems.php

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Review and Photos from Heretic, a micro-opera

Concert Review: Cameron-Wolfe’s “Heretic” — As Played by Aaron Larget-Caplan

January 30, 2024| Review: Cameron-Wolfe’s “Heretic” — As Played by Aaron Larget-Caplan

By Aaron Keebaugh

Guitarist Aaron Larget-Caplan managed to keep the micro-opera’s crazed figure sympathetic as he blurred the lines between reality and delusion.

Guitarist Aaron Larget-Caplan performing Richard Cameron-Wolfe’s micro-opera Heretic. Photo: Catherine Larget-Caplan

 

“The secret of life is learning to live with interesting questions,” Richard Cameron-Wolfe said during the post-performance talkback following the American premiere of his micro-opera Heretic at Salem State’s Callan Studio Theater last Friday. The performer and composer had made good on that claim in the compelling resonance of his composition.

In this one-person drama, the protagonist, accompanying himself on guitar, wrestles with bewildering, irresolvable issues that lead to disillusion and eventual madness. Guitarist Aaron Larget-Caplan managed to keep the crazed figure sympathetic as he blurred the lines between reality and delusion.

Given its challenging psychological extremes, the opera cruises through a wide range of emotions in its taut 15 minutes. Drawing on jagged musical textures as well as a disjointed monologue, the score is a journey toward a sharp and shattering gaze into the abyss. The guitarist is both hero and antihero — steeped in the craziness he is gallantly struggling to overcome, this is a journey into coming to terms with insanity.

Inspired by British writer Arthur Machen’s semi-autobiographical 1907 novel The Hill of Dreams, Heretic starts off by placing its central figure in an almost nonsensical predicament. Larget-Caplan plays a character lost in a mental fog. He ambled onto the stage, shifting his gaze about nervously. He then sat down and tore through a jarring phrase that fell somewhere between the soundscapes of Iannis Xenakis and Steve Reich. Vocal utterances entered the fray, and words were slowly formed — language which was interrupted by more waves of violent dissonance. Though it was composed with Cameron-Wolfe’s usual mathematical precision, the music in Heretic can sound personal and harrowing. The piece places listeners into Machen’s dark, dreamy world, where the overwrought senses are finding it harder and hard to discern what is true.

But, while this was an unapologetic descent into mental oblivion, Larget-Caplan’s character is no Parsifalian fool. The man has his semi-lucid moments, articulating a cultural critique in which he blamed himself and others for creating a civilization that has no love for beauty and purity. Our ideals of art, he reasoned, were no longer goals for the imagination to reach — they were artifacts of what we have lost. As he made these scathing observations, the guitarist unleashed another barrage of sound — like an atonal heavy metal riff — that framed his points with an ironic levity.

Here was a man who was driving himself to the end of his tether. Larget-Caplan’s nervous and angular movements suggested the angst of a mind that couldn’t stop churning, couldn’t stop torturing itself. At one point, the guitarist angrily bolted to the rear curtain as if to abandon his mission to think, only to be sucked back in. Heretic ends in a spirit of disquiet — with mumbled words accompanied by the sound of a guitar purposely falling out of tune. The man’s dilemma is inescapable. Caught up in a vicious cycle of grand accusations and self-absorption, he boldly embraces his disheveled mental state, all pain and no illumination.

These manic swings were well-served by Friday’s minimalist staging. Chairs were arranged in cross patterns — as much a symbol of confusion as a pragmatic choice for Larget-Caplan’s performance. Michael Harvey’s lighting and video projections conveyed an eerie aura; Jerry L. Johnson’s swift and economical stage directions never let the solipsistic action lag. The wild thorns of Cameron-Wolf’s score were well served by Larget-Caplan, whose bold and energetic presence underscored his talents as a musician and actor.

The other pieces on his hour-long program were also dedicated to introspection. Keigo Fujii’s The Legend of Hagoromo relayed a Japanese legend with cinematic flair. It is a narrative of a woman who is whisked away to heaven, where she mourns the absence of her husband and son. Her tears water a flower on earth that grows toward paradise. Father and son climb up it to visit her. Fujii’s music colorfully conveys the sadness and joys of this metaphoric meditation on death, loss, and hoped-for reunion. Larget-Caplan played the piece like the fanciful love letter it is: warm and reflective, yet coursing with frequent flamenco-like verve.

John Cage’s In a Landscape embraces greater ambiance. Larget-Caplan’s arrangement of the piano original — inspired by Erik Satie — makes use of Campanella-style playing. Harmonics are meant to ring over the regularly fingered melodic line. The difficulty in executing such complicated effects are considerable, and the guitarist’s arrangement didn’t fit snugly under the fingers. The upshot is that at times Larget-Caplan’s performance felt labored and mechanical, lacking the resonance, the distant glow, that marks the original conception.

Larget-Caplan’s arrangement of Bach’s Prelude in C Major and Vineet Shende’s Carnatic Prelude No. 1 proved more successful. His generous rubato in the Bach allowed him to revel in every shift in harmony. In the Shende — a view of Bach by way of Indian classical music — he unspooled melodies and rhythmic flourishes over drone-like resonances. It was a splendid exercise in singing tone and alert sensitivity.

When taking his bows, Larget-Caplan gestured to his guitar, happy to share the limelight with an instrument that had done its job well. Still, modesty aside, the strengths of these performances came down to Larget-Caplan, a musician of fluent technique and dramatic verve.

Aaron Keebaugh has been a classical music critic in Boston since 2012. His work has been featured in the Musical Times, Corymbus, Boston Classical Review, Early Music America, and BBC Radio 3. A musicologist, he teaches at North Shore Community College in both Danvers and Lynn.

2023 Year in Review – Adventure in Music

I am grateful for the many people who have made this year so special. At times I felt like 2023 was a normal year of music making and collaboration, and then I would be reminded that our recent past is very much with us and that the world is very fragile. 

I consider 2023 to be Adventure in Music year, and I think we have earned a bit of rest and a special cappuccino or affogato (see below) to commemorate the beauty that can exist in the world, if we so desire it.

Onward for a wonderful, safe, and healthy 2024, and thanks to all who have listened, enjoyed, and explored music with me in 2023!

Aaron

Collaborators:

  • Christopher Bush, clarinet
  • Johnathan McCullough, baritone
  • Frederic Jodry III, harpsichord
  • Robert Lehman, violin
  • Kimberly Lehman, viola
  • Rebecca Hartka, cello
  • Jeff Christmas, conductor with the Bowdoin Chamber Choir
  • Charles Coe, poet
  • Kabir Sehgal, Tiger Turn
  • Alex Fedorov, design
  • Steve Hunt, mixing and mastering
  • Gina Genova, Will Rowe, and Simon Henry Berry, American Composers Alliance
  • Gene Caprioglio, Edition Peters
  • Steve Schwartz, Your Heaven Audio
  • Michael Newman, Mannes School of Music
  • João Luiz, Hunter College
  • Tali Roth, Juilliard
  • Nick Morgan, TEDx

Premieres:

  • Alan Hovhaness – Mystic Flute, Op. 29, arranged by ALC, Robbins Library, Arlington, MA, February 2023 (US premiere)
  • Daniel Felsenfeld – Only Winter Certainties on Bargemusic, Brooklyn, New York, April 2023 (info)
  • Sam Cave – …in the soft dark welling… at the Smith Center for the Arts, Providence College, September 2023
  • Nicolás Lell Benavides – Rinconcito for guitar & string trio, University of Southern Maine, December 2023 (info)

New Album & Recordings

  • Spanish Candy – May 26, 2023 on Tiger Turn (888-10) (info)
  • Berceuse Inquiète by Ronald Pearl, for the New Lullaby Project, live at Providence College (listen)

Album Reviews

Publications:

  • honey cadence – a collection of six meditations by Aaron Larget-Caplan was published by the American Composers Alliance, May 2023 (info)

Publication Review:

Awards: 

  • Paul Revere Award for Graphic Excellence from The Music Publishers Association of the United States presented for Aaron’s arrangement of Bacchanale by John Cage, June 2023 (info)
  • Cultural Grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council for Now Musique, Feb. 2023
  • Best of 2023 by The Arts Fuse: God’s Time: Music of J.S. Bach on Guitar, Dec. 2023 (info)
  • Reached 6-million streams!

Videos:

  • Spanish Candy intro video (watch)
  • Remembering by Laurie Spiegel, written for the New Lullaby Project (watch)
  • Libertango by Astor Piazzolla, arranged for sextet (watch)
  • Interview with Anthony R. Green (watch) 
  • Interview with Daniel Felsenfeld (watch)
  • TEDx – moving still by Aaron Larget-Caplan (watch) 

Instructional Videos:

Interviews:

Classes

Misc.

  • New press photos with photographer Paula Morin (info)
  • TEDx – moving still by Aaron Larget-Caplan (watch) 

REVIEW: ‘honey cadence’ Publication

Honored to have the score collection of ‘honey cadence’ featured on the awesome classical guitar resource This Is Classical Guitar!

–> https://www.thisisclassicalguitar.com/honey-cadence-aaron-larget-caplan/

There is a very nice write up and a lovely video of the title track by Bradford Werner too!

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TY American Composers Alliance for a beautiful publication!