News
- The Guitar Whisperer Blog: Performance, pedagogy, practice, and the tension between received wisdom and critical thinking.
- New blog post: Bach, Busoni, Segovia, and the Chaconne: A New Look
- PDF, EPUB, and MOBI versions of selected articles are now available through LeanPub.
- Now: Scores to “Lullaby Blue” and “Pavane for All Souls” are available. More coming soon.
- Most digital items available through Gumroad.
- Thank you to all who came out for my recent concerts in Sumter, SC and Asheville, NC!
- SoundCloud changed its API for embedding tracks and some of mine weren’t showing up. I’ve now fixed this.
- Thursday, March 2, 2017 in Florence, SC at 7:30 pm: Solo recital in Kassab Recital Hall at Francis Marion University.
Christopher Berg
Classical Guitar And Lute
Christopher is a professor of music at the University of South Carolina where he directs the classical guitar program. His students have won top prizes in regional and national competitions. During 1999-2000 he was honored by the University of South Carolina as a recipient of a Michael J. Mungo Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching and in 2003 he was awarded the Cantey Outstanding Faculty Award by the School of Music for performance, research, and teaching. In 2003 his former students created the Christopher Berg Endowment Fund at USC in his honor, which supports The Christopher Berg Guitar Award presented annually to an outstanding undergraduate guitar student at USC. In 2008 he was named a Carolina Distinguished Professor.
Christopher received his training at the Peabody Conservatory of Music, in master classes with Andrés Segovia at the University of Southern California, and at the Schola Cantorum Basilensis in Switzerland. He has performed recitals in Carnegie Recital Hall and Merkin Hall in New York in addition to hundreds of recital and concerto appearances throughout the United States including the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series in Chicago. His New York debut concert at Carnegie Recital Hall in 1981 was praised by the New York Times for its “special sensitivity.” Recent tours have included recitals at the New England Guitar Festival in Boston, the Radford University International Guitar Festival in Virginia, the Appalachian Guitar Festival in Boone, NC, and the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
He has been honored by the National Endowment for the Arts as a recipient of a Solo Recitalist Fellowship and by the South Carolina Arts Commission as a recipient of two Solo Artist Fellowships. The Post and Courier (Charleston, SC) called his playing “a stellar display of guitar virtuosity,” and The State (Columbia, SC) found his performance of Joaquin Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez “electrifying… hugely enjoyable and freshly played.”
Christopher received his training at the Peabody Conservatory of Music, in master classes with Andrés Segovia at the University of Southern California, and at the Schola Cantorum Basilensis in Switzerland. He has performed recitals in Carnegie Recital Hall and Merkin Hall in New York in addition to hundreds of recital and concerto appearances throughout the United States including the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series in Chicago. His New York debut concert at Carnegie Recital Hall in 1981 was praised by the New York Times for its “special sensitivity.” Recent tours have included recitals at the New England Guitar Festival in Boston, the Radford University International Guitar Festival in Virginia, the Appalachian Guitar Festival in Boone, NC, and the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
He has been honored by the National Endowment for the Arts as a recipient of a Solo Recitalist Fellowship and by the South Carolina Arts Commission as a recipient of two Solo Artist Fellowships. The Post and Courier (Charleston, SC) called his playing “a stellar display of guitar virtuosity,” and The State (Columbia, SC) found his performance of Joaquin Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez “electrifying… hugely enjoyable and freshly played.”
Christopher Berg’s experience performing early music on lutes and guitars has afforded him a unique perspective when performing the standard classical guitar repertoire. He believes each artist has a responsibility to create something that never existed before.
The Pilgrim Forest is a musical novel, a wordless story told in music of a traveler who has strayed from the main road in search of truth. Although conceived as an hour-long cycle, each piece also stands alone.
Scores in the public domain edited by Christopher Berg, teaching handouts, and selected writings. Many of these are available through Gumroad’s secure onsite overlay when you select the “Get” button, or Christopher Berg’s product page at Gumroad where you can create a bundle. LeanPub offerings available as PDFs, ePub, and mobi files.
Scores of Christopher Berg’s compositions from The Pilgrim Forest are gradually becoming available. “Lullaby Blue” and “Pavane for All Souls” are currently available through Gumroad’s secure onsite overlay when you select the “Buy” button, or Christopher Berg’s product page at Gumroad where you can create a bundle.
Mastering Guitar Technique is packed with information about what constitutes good positioning and movement and how best to cultivate these. Giuliani Revisited re-imagines Giuliani’s famous 120 right-hand exercises. The Classical Guitar Companion is an anthology of essays and study pieces unprecedented in its organization.
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Christopher Berg and Andrés Segovia Los Angeles, 1981
Classical Guitar at the University of South Carolina
Excellence in Performance and Pedagogy
The University of South Carolina Classical Guitar Program has dedicated itself to attracting accomplished young guitar students from across the country, in addition to talented South Carolina residents, and providing them with superior training as performers and teachers. USC guitar students and recent graduates have distinguished themselves as recipients of major grants and awards, Emmy nominations, artists-in-residence for southern arts commissions, soloists with regional symphony orchestras, faculty members at U.S. universities, colleges, and conservatories, and as winners and finalists in major national and regional competitions: MTNA Collegiate Artist Auditions, Society of American Musicians Young Artist Competition, Augusta Symphony Paganini Competition, South Carolina Philharmonic Orchestra Young Artist Competition.
