Guitarist Hartzell Guest Recital March 3

Award-winning classical guitarist Valerie Hartzell, a teacher at the Moores School of Music at the University of Houston, will present a recital at 7:30 p.m. Monday, March 3, in Kemp Recital Hall at Illinois State University.  Admission is $5.  She will present a free master class at 1 p.m. in Kemp.

At the tender age of 3, Hartzell began her classical guitar studies on a half-size Ramirez.   At the age of 6, she studied with maestro Alexandre Lagoya at the Académie Internationale d’Eté in Nice, France.  She has participated in master classes with several internationally acclaimed artists, including Ako Ito, Castellani-Andriaccio Duo, David Russell, Antigoni Goni and Elena Papandreou.

Hartzell was a prizewinner at the Portland Guitar Competition, the East Carolina University Competition and Festival and the Appalachian Guitar Festival and Competition.  She has won first prizes at the 10th International Guitar Competition “Simone Salmaso” in Viareggio, Italy, and at the Concours de Guitare Classique Heitor Villa-Lobos in Nice, France.

As a teen, Hartzell made her debut in 1991 performing Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s “Concerto for guitar and orchestra” with the New Philharmonic Orchestra of Irving, Texas.  Three years later, she made her international debut in San Mamete, Italy, at the Festival del Piccolo Mondo.   She has performed in Europe, Canada and the United States.  A year ago, she performed with studio members of the Houston Grand Opera at the Rienzi Recital Series.

Hartzell was awarded the highest undergraduate scholarship for the classical guitar at the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University, earning her bachelor’s degree in 1997.  She was awarded a Graduate Teaching Fellowship at Radford University with Robert Trent and was placed as Adjunct Faculty while studying for her master’s degree in Music.  She received her performance degree in May of 1999.