Catgut Flambo

Guitar X2
Harris Becker & Pasquale Bianculli, guitars

MS021699   ~   $12.95

Harris Becker, guitarist and lutenist, has an active career as a soloist, chamber musician and teacher.  His performances have taken him throughout the United States, Europe, Mexico and Canada where he has premiered many new works for guitar.  He has received a Master of Arts degree from Long Island University.  Mr. Becker’s teachers have included guitarists Michael Lorimer, Jerry Willard, Dennis Koster and tutelage with cellist David Wells.  Harris Becker is a Professor of Music and Director of Guitar Studies at the C. W. Post Campus of Long Island University and Founder of the Long Island Guitar Festival.  Mr. Becker has been on the music faculties of the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College and Director of Music for Mixed Ensembles at the International Institute for Chamber Music at the Richard Strauss Conservatory in Munich. Performances have included: Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Bass Museum of Art, Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, the University of Richmond, Florida Arts in Education, Pacific Lutheran University, Long Island Guitar Festival, Westport-Weston First Night, Radio Kerry - Ireland, "A History of the Guitar" lecture-performances in Canada and a private reception for the governor of Connecticut.  In 1997, the Florida Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs selected him to be part of Florida’s Artist Residency Program.  His transcriptions and editions are available through T.D. Ellis Music Publishing. 

Pasquale Bianculli began playing the guitar at the age of 13. His earliest musical influence was his father, Philip, an accomplished woodwind player and jazz musician. He began studies under Joseph Cassano in Brooklyn, New York.  In 1972, he continued intensive studies under Jerry Willard and Edgard Dana at the Guitar Workshop, one of the foremost centers of guitar instruction at the time.  He has also performed in master classes with Angel Romero and Timothy Walker, and received tutelage from Alexandre Lagoya.  He received his degree from SUNY at Stony Brook in 1981. That same year, he was given the honor of performing for Andres Segovia in Spain. 

Since his solo debut at Weill Recital Hall in 1983, Mr. Bianculli has pursued a dual career as performer and teacher.  As a recitalist, he has been heard across the US, Canada, Europe and the Caribbean.  He performs regularly with his wife Kathleen McDonald, a flutist.  In 1989, both he and Ms. McDonald taught at the Jamaica School of Music in Kingston, Jamaica, performing throughout the island in schools, churches, and on television for the JBC. In addition, he has taught at SUNY Stony Brook, and the Rocky Ridge Music Center in Colorado.  Currently, he is on the faculty of United Nations International School and the CW Post Campus of LIU. 

Since 1976, Harris Becker and Pasquale Bianculli have been both friends and musical partners. It was during that year when they performed their first recital as a duo while students of Jerry Willard. This is their first recording together, and the music contained within reflects their combined eclecticism. In addition to classical music, they also enjoy jazz, world music and the Beatles. As Guitar X2, they have been featured artists and teachers in schools and on recital series throughout the New York area.