La Conner Guitar Festival proudly presents:

An Unforgettable Evening:

Bill Mize

with

Tony McManus & Julia Toaspern

“Tennessee’s Grammy-winning guitarist Bill Mize is a solo acoustic guitarist who, though he possesses great chops, never lets his fingers get in the way of a great song.” -Vintage Guitar Magazine

Fingerstyle guitarist and composer, Mize appeared with the emerging acoustic guitar movement in the 1980s (by way of the Windham Hill Guitar Sampler and the Winfield Guitar Competition), and has continued to developed a style and sense of taste that influences many of today's guitarists. Guitar players aren't always known for subtlety, but Bill Mize isn't your everyday guitar player. “I'm really into subtlety,” he said. “There's a wealth of it on the acoustic guitar.”

While Mize has drawn inspiration from legends of soul, jazz, folk and rock, his original music is more difficult to peg. It has been described as varying from delicate Appalachian highland melodies executed with classical sensitivity, to greasy Memphis grooves, performed in such a smooth yet syncopated fashion, you'd swear there was another guitarist on stage. Rather than only rely on wowing with his impressive “chops”, Bill draws an audience in with his composition, emotion and tone. (He does let the fingers fly every now & then!) His critically lauded fingerstyle compositions are fluid and intricate, and their delivery masterful. One suspects an influential teacher, and one would be right. “I received most of my musical education from a cheap Zenith radio,” says Mize, who as a child drifted off to sleep to the decidedly non-sleepy lullabyes emanating from Nashville’s WLAC and WSM and Knoxville’s WNOX. Maybe that’s why critics speak of his ability to “transport” the listener; the music itself has been transported. The links to his Tennessee roots are unmistakable, but so are the elements of the far wider musical realm he inhabits, and the mixture is as intoxicating as Tennessee moonshine. With a twist.

Applauded by critics and guitar enthusiasts alike for his composition, tone, emotion and smooth “multi-part” style, Bill's music is featured on the Grammy-winning recording, Stellaluna, as well as popular guitar compilations Windham Hill Guitar Sampler by Windham Hill Records and Masters of the Acoustic Guitar by Narada Records. John August Music/Mel Bay Productions have transcribed Mize's second cd, Tender Explorations, into a songbook, and several guitar magazines have published some of Mize's arrangements and original compositions. Bill tours nationwide and is a frequent clinician / performer at guitar camps including the Swannanoa Gathering in North Carolina, the La Conner Guitar Festival and Steve Kaufmann's Guitar Camp in Tennessee.

Tony McManus & Julia Toaspern

Tony McManus is the leading celtic guitarist worldwide and has just been listed as one of the 50 transcendental guitarists of all time by Guitar Player Magazine. A native of Scotland and now living in Canada, Tony continues to amaze audiences with his flawless technique and unique approach to this ancient music form. While Tony is known as a soloist his frequent collaborations with diverse musicians have always been a significant part of his work.
Tony will be joined this evening by Julia Toaspern. Together they perform interwoven guitar duets, from Italians madrigals to Scottish reels, classical pieces and self-penned songs of love, loss, hope and survival.

Julia Toaspern, from Berlin, combines her vocal and violin classical training with a passion for jazz, baroque and traditional music. On top of this, her skills on guitar dovetail beautifully with Tony's expertise. Together they perform interwoven guitar duets, from Italians madrigals to Scottish reels, classical pieces and self-penned songs of love, loss, hope and survival. Julia has released two albums of original songs and has performed in both classical and singer/songwriter modes on both sides of the Atlantic. On top of all this her skills as a guitarist are prodigious and make an exciting fit with Tony’s work. Their twin guitar treatment of traditional music is unique and each supports the other in exploring the harmonic possibilities of these old, and not so old, tunes. Each of the pair both flatpicks and fingerpicks at the highest level but always at the service of the tune rather than a display of technique. Her violin can effortlessly morph into a fiddle as she weaves from Italian madrigal to Scottish reel. Julia’s songs go to the heart of love and loss, hope and survival and are inflected with musical input from a wide and eclectic experience of musical life. Tony and Julia’s arrangements are rooted in deep musicality and heartfelt expression.

Saturday — May 11th — 7:30 pm to 9:30 pm

Maple Hall / Upstairs
104 Commercial St.  La Conner, WA - Map

$20 / Advance - Online

$25 / at the Box Office (located in Maple Hall during exhibition hours)

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