The Public’s Radio morning host Luis Hernandez spoke with Levin and with one of the performers, Cuban-born Rene Izquierdo. Levine started by sharing how he had to pivot during COVID and what people can expect to see during the multi-day event.
Listen to the interview or read the transcript below.
ADAM LEVIN: Instead of canceling, I reinvented the University of Rhode Island Guitar Festival and made it an online festival. And we had artists pre-record, in some cases, live stream from places as far as South Africa. So it was a scary time, it was unpredictable. It was spontaneous, but at the same time, those are the things that I think drive us as musicians to become even better. We thrive off of that, not knowing what it’s going to be like at your next concert or in the next moment. And so I think reinvention was the name of the game.
LUIS HERNANDEZ: So tell us with this festival that’s coming up what people can expect from the festival, but also from you.
ADAM LEVIN: Seven years ago, I could take one breath and tell you in one breath about everything but the festival has grown exponentially from a one-day to a four-day festival; next year, a five-day festival. The Pillars of the festival include six concerts and nine master classes in which students and aficionados can take classes from world-class artists in a low key environment. There’ll be lectures, and technique workshops, and for the first time ever, we will have a rising stars young guitarist program, which is geared to guitar students ages seven to 17. And which will focus on musicianship, ensemble training and just having a fun time.
LUIS HERNANDEZ: That was Adam Levin, founder, and director of the 7th Annual URI Guitar Festival. One of the players who will be performing is Cuban-born Rene Izquierdo. He currently teaches at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He spoke with me about what he will be performing at the event, but he started by telling me the story of how he originally became interested in performing.
RENE IZQUIERDO: Well, my father always loved guitar. He actually studied a little bit when he was young, even though he graduated later in biology. And my mother was a ballerina in Cuban ballet. I remember my father, he was pretty smart. He took me to a concert, I believe it was in 1982 of the great guitarist Costas Cotsiolis. And I remember being kind of bored there because there’s one person there, playing music, not much for a kid. But then he played a piece called The Black Decameron by Leo Brouwer. And I remember having goosebumps with that piece. And immediately when we got out of the concert, I told my father I want to play guitar. I want to be able to do to others what just happened to me. And well, I got a guitar, later on, my mother was not really on board because she understood as a ballerina, like in the life of artists, that is a constant, constant, endeavor through looking through perfection, which doesn’t exist. I’ve been playing guitar well, I started when I was 10 and then I started getting serious when I was 14.
LUIS HERNANDEZ: You are one of the world’s most renowned classical guitarists. How do you continue growing considering your mastery of the instrument?
RENE IZQUIERDO: That’s a very interesting question. You know, what I found later in life, the hardest thing to do is to stay motivated. Because when you reach a certain peak, then what’s next? And the truth is, I find motivation through my students because I see them working hard. And I particularly keep working hard myself. So I serve as an example to them of what their future life is going to be. Because I don’t want them to come to me and tell me that I have only an X amount of classes. I don’t have time to do this. And I told them in rebuttal right there. Well, I also have to teach all day, and I had to have a performing career and, and travel around the world. And you gotta make it work. You have to prioritize. So what helps me is my students that you’ve been in contact with. And you know, the desire to take the world by storm is always something inspiring, as you said, plus, you know, you’re never done learning music. And this means to be discovered yet, not only by all composers, all their composers but also by many new ones.
LUIS HERNANDEZ: What can we expect from your appearance at the URI Guitar Festival?
RENE IZQUIERDO: Well, I was planning to do a program of Cuban music and Spanish music, but I’m going to be sharing the concert with Andre Gonzalez Caballero, a very young and talented guitarist from Spain. So I’m going to do music from the 19th century Cuban piano repertoire range for guitar as well as many traditional folk pieces from Cuba. So I’m gonna end up doing a whole 45-minute half of Cuban music and then Andrea will come and play Spanish
Luis can be reached at lhernandez@thepublicsradio.org
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