Here’s a piece and performance I really like a lot and am excited to share! The duo of Connie Sheu and Adam Pettit originally met in 2003 when both attended master classes by Pepe Romero at the University of Southern California. They later received their Doctorate of Musical Arts degrees from USC, and now they both teach at the Pasadena Conservatory of Music; additionally, Connie teaches at Moreno Valley College and Adam at Orange Coast College, all in southern California.
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The Duo specializes in playing pieces by 20th and 21st century composers, including Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Ronald Pearl, Ssi-Yu Huang, Clarice Assad, Ida Presti, Matthew Denman, Leo Brouwer, and the author of this piece, Andrew York. Virtu was written in 1993 and dedicated to England’s Eastwood-Kilvington Duo, who recorded it on their Here and Now album, released in 1994. (Lorraine Eastwood and Chris Kilvington each wrote many reviews and articles for Classical Guitar over the years. Chris died in 1999; Lorraine has been teaching guitar in France for several years, most recently at the Ecole de musique intercommunale.) The sheet music for this piece can be purchased directly from Andrew York’s website. And if you missed the most recent CG interview with York, in our Summer 2017 issue, you can read it here. —Blair Jackson