2018 NEW ZEALAND ASPIRING GUITARIST
(NZAG)

We are proud to present the 2018 NZAGs:

​Joel Baldwin and Cameron Sloan

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Joel and Cameron will play at the TCGSS on 
Friday 19 January, 12.00pm
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Joel and Cameron also each received a 30 min masterclass with the
​critically acclaimed, British guitarist Gary Ryan 

​In 2013 Gary became the first guitarist to be awarded a Fellowship of the Royal College of Music since John Williams (1983)  in recognition of his contribution to the instrument.
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JOEL BALDWIN

Joel Baldwin is an award winning Classical Guitarist based in Wellington, New Zealand. He has a focus on performance of both music of the 18th century and contemporary New Zealand works. In 2016 he made his public debut as a soloist - at the Tairawhiti Museum in Gisborne as part of the Jack C. Richards concert series, and was a finalist in the open division of the New Zealand Classical Guitar Competition. Baldwin studies at the New Zealand School of Music Te Kōkī under the tutelage of Dr. Jane Curry. 

In 2018, Baldwin intends to continue into post-graduate studies in guitar performance. In addition to this, he is working on several compositions, including a suite of baroque dances and a tone poem based on an episode from Samuel Beckett’s novel Erewhon. He is working on guitar transcriptions of Douglas Lilburn’s piano music, to be performed by Te Rere Duo. Baldwin is also looking forward to a busy year of public performance. 

Baldwin performs alongside fellow guitarist Emma Sandford in the exciting new chamber group Te Rere Guitar Duo. The duo has had a successful year performing concerts around Wellington and Auckland as part of Rod Capper’s guitar series, and Gisborne, as part of the Jack C. Richards concert series. Baldwin and Sandford aim to expand the guitar duo repertoire with New Zealand music, both transcriptions and new compositions, and to perform as much of this music across the country as they can.
 
Baldwin has performed a wide variety of pieces from the guitar repertoire, from the renaissance to new compositions. However, transcriptions of late baroque music are where he is most at home. Music critic Lindis Taylor wrote of a performance of Bach’s E-minor lute suite that Baldwin “gave them most persuasive accounts, interpreting them as if conceived originally for the guitar, as if Bach himself was a master of the instrument.” i 

Baldwin moved to Wellington from Auckland in 2015 to devote himself to the study of Classical Guitar, after spending several years as a software developer. Prior to music, Baldwin studied philosophy and computer science and had a recording/touring career as an electric guitarist. He was the recipient of the New Zealand School of Music Director’s Scholarship on the strength of his application audition. Classical Guitar is now the focus of his creative efforts. 

2016 was a strong year for Baldwin. On the strength of his mid-year performance examinations he was selected to perform in the Jack C. Richards concert series. He also performed guitar accompaniment alongside Note Bene with both the choir and soprano soloists in Cloud Capped Towers directed by Peter Walls. He placed third in the open division of the New Zealand Classical Guitar Competition. 

Highlights of 2017 include nationwide performances with Te Rere Guitar Duo, premiering an exciting new composition by Emma Sandford, and celebrating the completion of C.K. Stead’s term as NZ Poet laureate by performing Douglas Lilburn and other New Zealand music at the National Library. 

His former teachers include Patricio Nuño, Federico Quercia, John Wakelin and Cheryl Grice. He has had public masterclasses with Johannes Möller, Vladimir Gorbach, Daniel Nistico and Lynn McGrath, and received private lessons from Marek Pasieczny and Andrey Lebedev. Baldwin also teaches privately and as part of the Raroa Music Centre. 
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Joel Baldwin plays on a guitar made by the Australian luthier Kim Lissarague.
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i http://middle-c.org/2016/04/student-guitar-talents-offer-entertaining-replacement-concert-at-st-andrews/ 

CAMERON SLOAN

Cameron Sloan is a classical guitarist with a deep love of the instrument and its repertoire. He holds a Bachelor of Music with 1st Class Honours from Te Kōkī New Zealand School of Music, where he studied with Matthew Marshall and Dr. Jane Curry. He is currently working toward a Master of Music at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music under the tutelage of ARIA award winning classical guitarist Tonié Field. 

In addition to his solo playing, Cameron is a dedicated chamber musician. In 2015 he toured regional Victoria, Australia with the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music Guitar Quartet, with funding from Arts Victoria. He was a founding member of the New Zealand School of Music Guitar Quartet, has played in guitar duos with Jamie Garrick and Yunjia Liu, and has worked extensively with Wellington-based singer Griffin Nichol. 
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Cameron has taken masterclasses with some of the world's leading classical guitarist, including Alieksey Vianna, Ricardo Gallen, Xufei Yang and Miguel Trapaga.

To see who the NZAGs were in 2016 click here