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Eliot Fisk, a Grammy-nominated guitarist from Syracuse, performed a concert for the Society for New Music on Sunday.

The Society for New Music is a nonprofit in Syracuse that features performances from composers in central New York. Part of the nonprofit’s 49th season, Fisk’s performance was the first of seven concerts scheduled until May. Ken Meyer, an instructor at Syracuse University’s Setnor School of Music, also interviewed Fisk.

An educator and the founder of Yale University’s guitar program, Fisk guided audiences through samplings of composer George Rochberg’s Caprice Variations, a series of violin pieces that Fisk arranged for guitar with Rochberg’s blessing.

“What he has done in adapting this work to the guitar … is nothing short of recomposition,” Rochberg said in a press release. “No composer I can think of could have imagined these possibilities.”

Fisk performed the “Sound-Legends I” concert with musicians and crew, and audience members watched online. Before playing, Fisk said the Society for New Music is “a heroic organization” for producing work during “a time of national challenge and crisis.”

The music, which Fisk described as variations inspired by Bach, Beethoven and other well-known classical composers, is meant to demonstrate a “wild stylistic contrast.” Fisk, who donned a white shirt and pink tie during the performance, breezed through the dynamic material. He would pause to offer academic insight on some of the samplings before diving back into the music.

Throughout the performance, he demonstrated a wide variety of picking and strumming styles, with some rousing pieces giving way to lighter, more somber fare.

In anticipation of the concert, Meyer conducted an interview over Zoom with Fisk, which Meyer later edited into a video to share with SU and Onondaga Community College students. Meyer and Fisk discussed politics, COVID-19 and the importance of the arts today. Fisk said he views the guitar as a “great ambassador for classical music,” because of its popularity. 

Meyer and Fisk also talked about conducting music education over video. Fisk said he’s not doing any in-person instruction, but instead teaching entirely online.

Fisk noted many advantages to teaching over Zoom, including the ability to record students’ performances so they can hear it back and send notes and suggestions through the chat function. Online instruction has also forced him to pay closer attention to students, even though he can’t accompany them on guitar like he would in person. Performing music is something best done live, Fisk said. 

“God bless this technology,” Fisk said. “We wouldn’t be anywhere without it.”

Published on October 14, 2020 at 11:53 pm