What if you could see a song, or hear a painting? Join Bill Feasley as he introduces students to music via the beauty and intricacy of classical guitar, using not only his instrument but including visual art as well. This is a truly multidisciplinary program, with connections for music, art, as well as social studies and literature!
 

	"William Feasley is one of those virtuoso musicians who, while not deliberately setting out to 'wow' the audience, succeeds in doing just that."
	--- Politika Ekspress Belgrade, Yugoslavia

About the Program

The string family of instruments is an essential part of the Core Content, and we like to work with one of its most accessible members: guitar! Bill Feasley is an internationally known artist with a passion for teaching; having grown up in Spain with a family interest in art history, it's no surprise that Mr. Feasley would integrate visual art and music in order to teach about concepts that appear in both, such as line, form, color, composition, and rhythm. Equipped with Power Point presentation capacity, Bill provides a multisensory educational program that really connects the terminology to the art, and builds bridges between music and art by talking about inspiration and the role of art/music in society. With programs K-12, this is an artist that can address several of your A&H needs at once, focused upon Latin language and culture (elementary) and the transmission of culture from the Old World to the New World (MS), including everything from to the origins of our national anthem (do you know where it came from?) to Dvorak and Stephen Foster – this program got rave reviews in 2006-2007. Bill’s Echoes of Goya program gives HS students an opportunity to explore the intimate connections between a great visual artist and his influence on great musicians in the context of their historical experiences – literally, a program for everyone!

Availability:	October 2008, February/March 2009
Costs for programming:	$840/day $420/half-day*
Program format:	Assembly
Audience limit:	150 Elementary / 150 High School
* Prices above reflect significant subsidy from New Performing Arts' fundraising with arts education supporters statewide and nationally.

About the Artist

William Feasley is rapidly becoming recognized as one of today's top classical guitarists. The first guitarist to be awarded the Peabody Conservatory's coveted Artist Diploma, Mr. Feasley has since been the recipient of numerous prizes and awards: a gold medal in the 1987 Panhellenic Guitar Competition in Athens, the 1990 and 1995 Baltimore Chamber Music Awards and a 1996 Governor's Citation for Outstanding Achievements in the Arts in Maryland. Selected to play for Andrés Segovia at the master's historic last class at the University of Southern California in 1986, he was later featured on the CBS special Eulogy of Segovia.

Since making his debut in 1980 with the San Francisco Ballet, performing Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez for Lou Christenson's ballet, Don Juan, William Feasley has maintained an active international touring schedule. He has appeared in the Ohrid Spoleto Festival in Macedonia and venues such as St. Martin in the Fields in London, the National Gallery of Art, the Phillips Collection, the Washington National Cathedral and Yale University. He has toured with the Russian Chamber Orchestra, Music Viva (Alexander Rudin, Conductor), performed live on ABC International Radio in Australia, and with New York's Bachanalia Ensemble under the direction of Nina Beilina and Washington's 20th Century Consort. Recent tours have included Spain, the Caribbean, Greece, Yugoslavia, New Zealand, Australia, the United Kingdom, and Iceland.

William Feasley has released two critically acclaimed discs for the Sonora label: Simplicity with his partner in the D'Amore Duo, oboist Vladimir Lande, and American Sketches -- musical Americana with rags, Gershwin and Coplandesque landscapes. Another unusual program is Echos of Goya -- a multimedia presentation on the life of the famous painter and his impact on several generations of composers. Mr. Feasley in currently Artist-in-Residence at the University of Maryland Baltimore County and is the faculty of the Levine School of Washington, D.C.

The work of Francisco Goya is among the many multidisciplinary resources used: