The Slovenian guitarist will be a guest at QC twice
On September 11th, you can get up close and personal with the world-renowned, Grammy-nominated guitarist in Davenport.
Mak Grgića friendly, 35-year-old Slovenian woman, will first perform that day at 2 p.m. for Quad City Symphony Orchestra’s “Up Close” Chamber Music Series at a new (for classical music) venue, Davenport’s Redstone Room (at the RME, 2n.d and main streets). Grgic will return with the full QCSO as guest soloist Masterpieces III: Ode to the GuitarDecember, in the Adler Theater and Centennial Hall.
The September 11 show (with the QCSO String Quartet in the second half) will be his first QC appearance; he made his Iowa debut at Grinnell College last March.
We start the program with selections from Mako’s album Cinema Verismoa, featuring originals and covers of popular music from famous films from the past few decades. The QCSO String Quartet joins in the second half to perform the Guitar Quintet no. 4 by Luigi Boccherini, “Fandango” and Miroslav Tadić Balkan suite — inspired by melodies from the Balkan Peninsula.
Balkan pieces – from Mako’s part of the world – are special to him, he said in a recent interview.
“First and foremost, music is fun. People are really into it, people are really into it,” Mak said. “There’s something exotic about it, but also a lot of grooves.”
This suite of five pieces was arranged for string quartet and guitar by Leon First, a friend of Mako who is a Slovenian composer, “a very talented young composer,” he said.
From the ethnic music of his native Balkans to extreme avant-garde and microtonal music, his roles as a soloist, collaborator and recording artist are fueled by curiosity, imagination and boundless energy, writes Mak’s biography. In 2018, singer-songwriter kd lang invited him to perform as the opening act on her North American “Ingénue Redux” tour.
Born in Ljubljana, Slovenia, in 1987, Mak studied guitar in Zagreb. By the age of 14, he was balancing the status of world champion in karate with his love for the guitar. After injuring his left thumb, he decided to focus solely on a musical career, continuing on to the University of Music and Visual Arts in Vienna and starting the Artist Diploma program at USC in the fall of 2017, the first guitarist in the university’s history to be accepted into this elite program .
Mak is proud to be involved with the Bosana Foundation, an organization that raises money for Bosnian youth. He also regularly awards continuing education scholarships to selected students throughout South America and now holds the position of Performing Artist and Professor at the University of South Carolina School of Music (he calls it “the other USC”).
Excitement at the premieres of new pieces
In an interview, Mak said that it’s exciting to commission and premiere new works, as he will do in December at the Masterworks concert on December 3rd and 4th, where he will premiere a guitar concerto Michael Abelsco-commissioned by the QCSO.
“It’s especially exciting when you know that person who’s bringing new work to the stage, knowing that they’re celebrating a truly fantastic undiscovered talent,” Mak said. Abels is not undiscovered as he is known for writing the music for Jordan Peele’s Get Out (2017) and Us (2019).
Mak will premiere his new guitar concert at the end of September, first in Houston, Texas, and then on December 3rd and 4th with the QCSO. Abels’ works have often been performed by the QCSO, as music director and conductor Mark Russell Smith is a longtime friend of the composer (both grew up in Phoenix).
“It’s a great honor to be writing this for me on this occasion,” Mak said of Abels. “But he’s already on the map. So working with Leon is more like, oh, I’m discovering new talent.”
While it is The Redstone Room (on the second floor of the River Music Experience) is traditionally home to many rock, pop, jazz and folk concerts, classical music is uncommon there.
Mak said he spent a few years in Los Angeles playing clubs and bars, so that aspect won’t be too different, although having a string quartet and Bach on the agenda is something different for Redstone.
“I like these specific, different kinds of settings,” he said.
Performing all over the world
As a soloist and collaborator, Mak gives an average of 85 concerts a year. Recent engagements include performances and residencies at Musikverein and Konzerhaus in Vienna; Konzerthuset in Stockholm several venues in Portugal; Teatro Cervantes de Bejar in Castilla-Leon/Spain; Music Academy Sarajevo; several venues in Slovenia; Paris Guitar Foundation; Zurich University of the Arts; Taipei National Theatre; Shanghai Grand Theatre; and the Hong Kong International Guitar Festival.
In North America he performed in Austin for classical guitar; Beyond Microtonal Music Festival/Pittsburgh; Dallas Opera for performances by Peter Maxwell Davies Lighthouse; Dumbarton Concerts/Washington, DC; Kennedy Center/Washington, DC; Especially Mozart/San Diego; National Gallery of Art; NAMM Show/California; Strathmore Hall/Maryland; New York Classical Guitar Society; Pacific Symphony; Triangle Guitar Society/North Carolina; and Walt Disney Hall/Los Angeles.
An avid recording artist, Mak’s latest recordings, “Balkanisms” for Naxos Music plus “MAKrotonal” and the Grammy-nominated “Mak|Bach” for MicroFest Records, explore a vast repertoire spanning ethnic music, microtonal, new music and old music on the road again . fretted instruments, such as a “zig-zag prototype Bach guitar,” allowing him to create a “well-tempered guitar” for “Mak | Bach.”
The new projects are Mako’s first recording of his own compositions (released in November); and a recording of the entire concert, including Rodrigo’s “Concierto de Aranjuez” and “Balkan Suite of Dances,” a new concerto based on music from “Balkanisms.”
For more information, visit his Web page. Tickets for the “Up Close” concert are $25 for adults and $10 for students HERE.