The University of New Mexico-Gallup will present guitarist Michael Chapdelaine in concert on Wednesday, Nov. 7, at 7 p.m., Calvin Hall Auditorium. The concert is free. Chapdelaine, who appeared at UNM-Gallup last year in concert, is a professor of music and head of guitar studies at UNM.
He has won first prize in both classical and fingerstyle genres in top competitions, including the Guitar Foundation of America International Classical Guitar Competition and the National Fingerpicking Championships at the Walnut Valley Bluegrass Festival in Winfield, Kan.
Previously on the faculties of the University of Colorado at Denver and Metropolitan State University, he has given master classes around the world, including in China, Thailand, Malaysia, Peru, Venezuela, Taiwan, Indonesia and at institutions such as the University of Miami, Mannes School of Music, University of Texas, and California State University. Among his teachers was the renowned Spanish maestro, Andres Segovia.
The guitarist has played venues from New York’s Lincoln Center to the Cactus Café in Austin, from Milano to Bangkok, and many others. He performs on steel string and classical guitars, and in styles ranging from blues to Bach, country to rhythm and blues.
Chapdelaine is the two-time winner of the National Endowment for the Arts Solo Recitalist Grant, and took first prize in both the Guitar Foundation of Americas and the Music Teachers National Association’s Guitar Competitions. He also won the Silver Medal in Venezuela’s VIII Concurso International de Guitarra “Alirio Diaz.” He has toured four continents while giving hundreds of performances for Affiliate Artists Inc., and various arts promotion organizations.
In 1992 he recorded the Sonata Romantica CD (now re-released as “Mexico”), which many critics and connoisseurs of classical guitar consider to be one of the definitive recordings for the instrument. In 1994 Chapdelaine turned his attention to pop music, arranging, producing and recording Time-Life Music's Guitar by Moonlight collection, which sold 250,000 copies in its first two years in the stores. In 1998, he once again expanded his musical range and gained instant notoriety and credibility in the “acoustic music” world as a “fingerstyle” guitarist and composer, by winning the National Fingerpicking Championships at Winfield, Kans.