[slideshow_deploy id=’899′]HARRINGTON PARK, NEW JERSEY —— A concert hosted by the Arts Council of Harrington Park Music Society will be held on Sunday, March 4 at 5 p.m. at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, 31 Lynn St., Harrington Park. The concert, “Guitar Solo with Tomas Rodriguez,” is free and open to the public, however, the society will gladly accept donations to assist them in presenting world-class artists for everyone to enjoy. Immediately following the concert there will be a light reception, including a mix and mingle with the artist.
Rodriguez is no stranger to the Arts Council audience, having performed last year to acclaim with the program “Guitars of the Americas.” The Christian Science Monitor wrote, “Tomas Rodriguez plays guitar with a passionate originality, with an individual touch, drawing from the musical heart of the Latin world. The folk and classical traditions of Spain and South America are richly evident in Rodriguez’s playing, but he transmutes them into a sound clearly, fervently his own.”
Rodriguez has developed a unique repertoire for his solo guitar performance that is rooted in his ancestry and guided by the diverse styles of music that have inspired him. His programs draw on the folk music of Galicia, Spain, arrangements of the works Venezuelan harp masters Juan Vicente Torrealba and Ignacio Figueredo, interpretations of the compositions of Malian virtuosos Toumani Diabate, and Ali Farka Toure as well as touching on contemporary flamenco. Rodriguez’s own compositions, emerging from these diverse musical inspirations, include original Brazilian choros, Venezuelan waltzes and flamenco granainas.
Such diverse inspiration is perhaps rooted in his unusual background. Born in Washington, D.C. of a Spanish father and a mother from the Appalachian region of Virginia, Rodriguez grew up in New York, New Jersey and Boise, Idaho. As a child he was inspired by his father’s record collection, which included everything from Beethoven to the boleros of Latin crooner Lucho Gatica. He learned to play electric guitar by ear from Jimi Hendrix records, and later came to study classical guitar with Sharon Isbin at the Manhattan School of Music.
Rodriguez’s guitar has captivated audiences nationally and internationally. He has performed concerts at International Festival of the Guitar in Lima, Peru, in New York’s Brooklyn Museum, Merkin Hall, Trinity Church, the New Jersey Center for the Performing Arts (NJPAC), the World Expressions Series at Boise State University and the University of Virginia. He regularly performs steady engagements at the St. Regis, Ritz Carlton and Peninsula hotels in Manhattan.
Rodriguez is also a dedicated music educator. He founded and directed an innovative after-school guitar program at one of New York’s largest Latino social service organizations, utilizing music from Latin America and Spain to teach basic guitar skills to Latino young people. He is also a registered Suzuki guitar instructor who maintains a private studio serving more than 15 families in Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan.
For more information about the Harrington Park Arts Council and its activities, contact Gerri Gibney at (201) 768-2615, or visit the Arts Council on Facebook or on their website: www.artscouncilofharringtonpark.com.