Benjamin Beirs Guitarist, Teacher, Composer Benjamin Beirs

Some good news: I was one of a handful of artists and musicians to receive a $1,000 MSAC Individual Artists Award, which will go towards the recording of my next solo CD. More news on that soon!

Also, I’m happy to announce my most recent competition award at the Schadt Concerto Competition in Allentown, PA – I won second prize and the Audience Choice award. Judged by Sergio Assad, William Kanengiser, and Diane Wittry, March 4-6 2011, this was a fantastic competition with a very high level of guitarists, and I was privileged and humbled to be a part of the whole experience. The weekend started out with myself and Gohar Vardanyan giving a radio interview alongside Allentown Symphony Orchestra conductor Diane Wittry for WDIY, the public radio station serving Allentown, PA and the greater Lehigh Valley. Below you can listen to the entire interview, as well as view an album of photos taken after the finals of the competition. Congratulations to all the semi-finalists, as well as Petrit Ceku, 1st prize, and Silviu Ciulei, 3rd prize!

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And now I go into Duo Transatlantique mode for our Spring 2011 Tour in France and the USA! Please visit my calendar for our tour dates if you’d like to see us!

Wishing you a happy Spring,
Ben

I really wanted to have a nice post ready for you all on the 1st of January. Thankfully, I’ve managed to find some to write one before January completely evaporates – in fact, I have one day to spare before February is upon us!

I’ve added FOUR new videos to my music section, and one track to my audio samples. All of these are live, and I hope you enjoy them – just mosey on over to the Music page and dig in!

In other news, I was accepted as a semi-finalist at the 15th annual Schadt String Competitionin Allentown, PA. I will compete with, I believe 9 other semi-finalists for the first prize of money, fame, and immortality. Is that in the fine print?!?! Oh, and a return engagement with the Allentown Symphony Orchestra in 2012. Keep your fingers crossed!

Also prepping for my tour in March 2011 with Duo Transatlantique. Please check our Calendar to see specific dates if you’d like to see us in the Philadelphia / Baltimore area (or in France!).

Wishing you a very healthy, happy and successful 2011 – about a month late, but who’s counting?!

-Ben

I had a great summer! It started out at the Joann Falletta International Guitar Concerto Competition, where I was one of nine semi-finalists chosen to come to Buffalo for the competition. I was very excited, as in 2008 I was a finalist, and it was a thrill to play with the orchestra and Joann Falletta. Unfortunately, this time around I didn’t make the finals, but I did get the opportunity to perform a solo concert at the Chautaqua Institute, as well as outreach for a local school, which was great This is a photo of me working with the kids at the school:

Shortly after that, I was a guest performer at BuddhaFest, a Buddhist Film Festival in Washington, D.C. that included talks with prominent meditation teachers. I played a short concert before the closing talk, which was given by Sharon Salzberg. I was honored to open for such a well-known and respected author and teacher. She spoke of our potential as human beings – that we all really have limitless potential, so why not strive to fully reach it???

I also had the opportunity to return to the National Guitar Workshop in New Milford, CT for a half recital and to present a workshop on tone. It was great to be back there – I spent six summers there as a student, so to come back on the other side was a lot of fun. This is a photo from the concert:

Finally, I had a very beautiful experience giving a concert at the Garrison Institute in Garrison, NY. After 10 days of silent, intensive meditation in a retreat with meditation master Lama Surya Das, the folks at the retreat were very appreciative of the concert – almost as appreciative as I was of their incredible presence during my performance!

I hope you all had a great summer and are enjoying what’s left of it, and I hope to see you around!

Texas
First of all, at the beginning of March, I participated in the 9th Annual Texas Guitar Competition and Festival at the University of Texas at Dallas. I’m happy to say I won first prize! I had a lot of fun hanging out with some of my guitar friends from all over the country, and I also heard a great performance of the “Concierto de Los Angeles” by Shingo Fujii, performed by William Kanengiser with the Guitar Festival Orchestra. The link to the press release can be found here: http://www.utdallas.edu/ah/programs/arts/musi/guitarcomp.html

India
Immediately following that was an amazing tour of the south of India. I performed at a wedding, gave two concerts, and also taught masterclasses and private lessons in conjunction with the Bangalore School of Music. I also received some great reviews in the papers – an online version of one of the reviews can be found here:
http://www.deccanherald.com/content/59440/ensemble-east-west.html

Finally, check out this performance at the Bangalore International Centre I gave with incredible Indian musicians Muthu Kumar, Amith Nadig, Karthik Mani, and Ashwin Kumar during my visit. This was our second concert together, and it only happened because someone who saw our first concert loved it so much they had to have us perform again in Bangalore before I flew back to the states. I had a blast playing with these guys and hope to do more fusion and improvising with these guys in the future.