Saturday, March 12, 2011

Japanese Guitarist Kazuhito Yamashita

First of all, my thoughts and prayers go out to the people of Japan.  If you are anything like me, you have been following the aftermath of the tsunami in amazement and fear for the Japanese people.  I have decided to take a few moments and mention my favorite Japanese Guitarist, Kazuhito Yamashita.
I first stumbled upon Yamashita through YouTube and his recordings of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an exhibition. I quickly went out and bought the dvd "Kazuhito Yamashita plays his Favorites." The dvd is amazing!  which opens with a piece entitled The Song of Compostela; relatively simple compared to some of his works but absolutely amazing in musicality and technique.  I have spent a great deal of hours trying to find the sheet music for this piece with no luck.
A quick excerpt of his biography from his website:
"Kazuhito Yamashita began to study the guitar at the age of eight with his father, Toru Yamashita. In 1972, aged eleven, he won the Kyushu Guitar Competition. Four years later, he was awarded First Prize in the ‘All Japan Guitar Competition’. In 1977, he won three important international competitions - the ‘Ramirez’ in Spain, the ‘Alessandria’ in Italy and ‘Paris Radio France Competition’, being the youngest winner ever recorded. Yamashita has given solo recitals in concert halls around the world such as Vienna's Musikverein Grosser Saal and the Lincoln Centre and has performed with a variety of orchestras and conductors in Europe, North America and Asia. His appearance at the Toronto International Guitar Festival in 1984 was spectacular and the performance considered a milestone." 

For more information on Kazuhito Yamashita,  his website is
http://www.ne.jp/asahi/yamashita/kazuhito/disk_e.htm

Here is the video for Pictures at an Exhibition.

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