Interview with Classical Guitarist: Eliot Fisk
American guitarist Eliot Fisk was the last direct pupil of Andrés Segovia and is the holder of all reproduction rights to A. Segovia's music, given to him by Segovia's wife, Emilia. After attending Jamesville-Dewitt High School in Dewitt, New York, Fisk also studied interpretation under harpsichordists Ralph Kirkpatrick and Albert Fuller at Yale University, where he graduated summa cum laude in 1976.
After graduation, he was asked to form the Guitar Department at the Yale School of Music. He was the winner of the International Guitar Competition in 1980. Eliot Fisk has performed to dazzling critical and public acclaim in recital, as well as in most of the great concert halls of the world including in the Palacio de los Cordova in Granada, Spain, for then U.S. President Bill Clinton and King Juan Carlos of Spain.
Called by one New York Times headline ''Fiery Missionary to the Unconverted," Eliot Fisk devotes considerable energy to teaching. He is a professor at the Universität Mozarteum Salzburg in Austria, where he teaches in five different languages, and in Boston at the New England Conservatory.
On Saturday, November 9, and Sunday, November 10, 2024, the Glens Falls Symphony proudly welcomes Eliot Fisk to our region for what is going to be a performance to remember as the symphony’s 41st season of Music, Movement and Memory continues on.
The Symphony had the chance to sit down, and speak with Eliot prior to his arrival in Glens Falls. Please enjoy the inspiring words of the remarkable Eliot Fisk!
Interview:
Wednesday, October 9, 2024 with Guitarist Eliot Fisk
GFS: We are thrilled to have you joining us for an entire weekend of amazing music here in Glens Falls, NY! Have you ever been to our region before? And what are you looking forward to the most about being with us?
Eliot Fisk: I went to high school outside of Syracuse, NY, graduating from Jamesville-Dewitt High school in 1972. By chance, my graduating high school class was an extraordinary class: out of a group of around 315 students more than 90 students had GPA's between 90 and 96. This was in a time before the present ubiquitous "grade inflation". You’re really had to earn your grades. (No GPA’s above or even near to 100 as is the case today!) I remember that two of my best friends and I were at the top of the heap and had GPA’s within a fraction a percent above 96.
This was the time of the Civil Rights Movement and of course of a country polarized by the Vietnam War. My generation’s innocence was shattered in November of 1963 when JFK was murdered, and just before our freshman year in high school we were traumatized again by the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King and just over two months later, by that of Bobby Kennedy.
In social studies classes in high school I as a left winger was in furious debate with a small core of brilliant classmates whose hero was the famous right-wing commentator and personality, William F. Buckley. One big difference between then and now is that we not only became friends back then as a consequence of our vigorous and passionate debates, but that a group of us are still friends now, over half-century later! While most of that group have since moved in my direction, what is great to remember today is that we could fight like dogs and still maintain respect and love for one another. The ability to agree to disagree seems to be very elusive these days, but we’ve got to get it back! And one way we can get it back is through music.
Music is right about so much. It touches the deepest part of our shared humanity and reminds us that as Dr. King. used to say, "An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth leaves the world blind and toothless!”
Both Charles Peltz and I have an Upstate New York legacy so returning to these wellsprings in Upstate New York is something we both cherish.
GFS: You have devoted considerable energy to teaching. As a Professor at the Universität Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria, where you teach in 5 different languages, and in Boston at the New England Conservatory of Music, you have influenced the lives of so many. What do you value most about investing in the next generation of classical guitarists?
Eliot Fisk: Of course, my instrument is important to me, and of course it matters tremendously to pass on the legacy of the great tradition I have inherited from my two most important musical mentors: the legendary guitarist, Andres Segovia, and the genius harpsichordist and musicologist, Ralph Kirkpatrick. I met them both in the same week in February of 1974 when I was a sophomore at Yale College. By chance I became the last direct pupil of both: Segovia I met and played for in his hotel in New York whenever he came to the USA and Kirkpatrick I met at Yale where he was on the faculty at the Yale School of Music. Although Kirkpatrick did not play the guitar, he adored the instrument. And he became my principal teacher and guide through the glories of 5 centuries of European art music, about which his knowledge and experience was encyclopedic.
I value teaching as a way to pass on the great tradition I have inherited but also as a way to help young people find their own voices, to try to help them become more fully human and to go out into the world being what Dr. King used to call “Drummajors for righteousness”: active citizens of the world working to make the planet a better place and to spread the message of great music to create a more peaceful world.
GFS: Joaquin Rodrigo is the most popular Spanish composer of the 20th century. Although he wrote music for many different instruments and ensembles, he is best remembered for his pieces for the guitar. What can you share about what his work had meant to you in your career?
Eliot Fisk: Rodrigo had a marvelous natural feel for the guitar. In my opinion a lot of his best music is written for that instrument. Somehow the guitar brings out the best in him, and he also finds unexplored possibilities inside the guitar. All of us guitarists have eaten many meals we might otherwise not have been able to eat without the income earned from the famous Concierto de Aranjuez and it sister work which we will be performing in Glens Falls, the Fantasia para un Gentilhombre, written for Segovia as a kind of peace offering after the two had fallen out a bit over Segovia’s feeling that the Aranjuez needed further revision to make it more playable on the guitar.
GFS: Rodrigo composed “Fantasia for a Gentleman” in 1954 at the request Andres Segovia, your teacher, mentor, biggest admirer. What can Glens Falls Symphony patrons look forward to most as you perform these dances, that are adapted to create a substantial concerto for guitar and orchestra.
Eliot Fisk: In fact, the Fantasia is based formally on 6 themes culled from the music of the eminent 17th Spanish guitarist/composer, Gaspar Sanz, whose feeling for melody and rhythm was superb but whose compositions tended to be very short. Rodrigo, a great connoisseur of old music, crafts 6 separate themes into an unusual suite like structure: at the start two paired movements including the opening Fanfare and fughetta followed by another pair of movements the poetic Espanoleta and its “Nachtanz” featuring the trumpet calls of the cavalry of Naples, Italy. In the 17th century the city of Naples was still Spanish territory! Two concluding dance movements, the Danza de las Hachas (“Dance of the Axes”) and rhythmic Canarios round out the form of the Fantasia. In a style reminiscent of Respighi’s Antiche Arie e Danze or Pini di Roma or of Stravinsky’s Pulcinella, it is Rodrigo’s sparkling orchestration and reimagining of the older music that brings these fragmentary themes to life and provides a delightful dialogue between guitar and orchestra.
GFS: Andrés Segovia was the most influential classical guitarist of the 20th century. You have had the privilege of carrying on this great legacy into the 21st century, what has that meant to you? And what would you like for those who will be carrying on your legacy?
Eliot Fisk: Segovia was to the classical guitar what Einstein was to physics: he revolutionized the instrument and across an astonishing 80 years of active concertizing around the globe created a career that remains the gold standard for us classical guitarists.
Sadly, in my opinion, some guitarists have lost their way a bit recently, rejecting Segovia’s astonishing romanticism and burnished sound in favor of superficial tricks of the trade, and aspiring to some sort of theoretical but actually nonexistent objective truth that is the antithesis of art. To me Segovia’s legacy remains an indispensable point of departure. Even though I of course have to play in my own style (rather than just imitate his!) the endless wisdom of his legacy remains an eternal inspiration.
GFS: How do you stay inspired and motivated to continue to create and innovate as an artist in the world we are living inside of today?
Eliot Fisk: Music is right about where humanity needs to go. But too few people want to heed this message these days. There is so much to be done! I have ideas for another ten lifetimes so there is never any question of not being motivated. Rather my biggest challenge is just trying to find the time to explore, develop and improve whatever talents I may possess in the service of what Schubert in his famous Lied An die Musik once called the “hold Kunst”. Indeed, I have given my life to the service of this “noble art”.
GFS: Can you share with us a few words about your connection with Maestro Charles Peltz?
Eliot Fisk: Of course, I was privileged to know Charles Peltz as a great friend and colleague over more than 2 decades at the New England Conservatory of Music. He was always an inspiration. Even a short five-minute chat in the hallway would light a fire that kept me going all day.
To Maestro Charles and to all who are part of the marvelous initiative you have created in Glens Falls my deepest thanks and warmest greetings.
Let us recall the words of the great Margaret Mead, whom I met briefly at the start of my career as she was coming out of an NPR interview and I was going in for mine: “Never doubt that a small group of committed people can change the world! It is the only thing that ever has!”
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