Please join us for an evening of literature
and music in conjunction with our
current exhibition, Summer
Reading.
Author Glenn Kurtz will
read passages from his bestselling book, Practicing:
A
Musician's Return to Music, and classical guitarist Hunter
Mah will perform a
selection of contemporary music for guitar.
In Practicing: A Musician’s
Return to Music, Glenn
Kurtz takes us on a journey of
hope, loss, and surprising return. Telling the story of his
career as a classical
guitarist—from his first lessons at the age of eight to
his acceptance at the elite
New England Conservatory of Music—Kurtz lets the reader
into the passionate,
hidden world of making and performing music, revealing the elation,
the
self-doubt, and the intense determination that define the work
of practicing. A
prodigy at age ten, by twenty-five, Kurtz realizes that his
dream of being the next
Segovia will not come true. Devastated by this realization,
he quits music forever.
Or so he thought. Ten years later, Kurtz returns to the guitar
to discover what
went wrong. No longer an aspiring artist, he is now a “former
musician,”
overcoming his earlier disappointment and learning a new and
richer kind of love
for music. By examining his own return to music, Kurtz shows
how learning to pick
yourself up and continue may be the practice room’s most
important lesson. In
this way, Practicing speaks
not just to musicians, but to everyone who has striven
for an ideal—and learned from disappointment. Containing
vivid portraits of his
teachers, friends, and competitors, along with a fascinating
history of the classical
guitar, its players, and composers, Practicing
is an inspiring, entertaining, and
meditative memoir. A love affair with music.
The New York Times called Practicing:
A Musician's Return to Music, "A thoughtful
and fluid meditation," and Newsday hailed it as "The
book of a lifetime." Practicing
has been featured on NPR's "Weekend Edition"with Scott
Simon, and will be
released by Vintage in paperback this August. Glenn graduated
from the New
England Conservatory-Tufts University Double Degree Program
and holds a PhD
in comparative literature from Stanford University. His articles
and essays have
appeared in numerous magazines and journals, including ZYZZYVA,
Lost, and the
Huffington Post. He lives in New York City and is currently
working on a novel.
Hunter Mah has studied
Classical Guitar since he was 7 years old. Growing up in
the Philippines, Hunter displayed many talents – he was
a multiple prize-winner
in the annual National Music Competitions for Young Artists
for five years running,
and also received prizes in competitions of painting and chess.
At the age of 12
Hunter gave his debut solo recital at the Cultural Centre of
the Philippines, and
by 14 Hunter had appeared in over 50 public performances, and
was featured on
television. In 1991 Hunter returned to his family's home in
Singapore to continue
a family tradition of attending Anglo-Chinese School where he
studied Physics
and Mathematics. Upon graduation, Hunter was enlisted in the
Singapore Armed
Forces and it was at this time he sought to hone his guitar
technique with
Singapore-based American guitarist-composer Robert Luse, whilst
also training as
an actor with the Singapore Repertory Theatre Core Company.
A veteran of
masterclasses, Hunter has received invaluable instruction from
celebrated
guitarists such as Manuel Barrueco, Carlos Bonnel, Eduardo Fernandez,
Antigoni
Goni, Tilmann Hoppstock, Pavel Steidl, and Timothy Walker. As
a performer,
Hunter has played on stages in Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines,
Washington
D.C, and San Francisco. Hunter completed his undergraduate studies
with Dusan
Bogdanovic at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in 2006,
and in his first
foray into international competitions, Hunter was awarded 3rd
prize in the
Singapore International Guitar Competition 2007. In Fall 2008
Hunter will rejoin
the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, having been accepted
into the
Professional Studies Diploma in Instrumental Performance programme
under the
tutelage of David Tanenbaum.
