Classical guitarist leaves his qudiences speechless

Few performers start a concert with an apology, and usually it is not a good sign when they do. In Paul Vondiziano's case, the apology spoke more of his humility and supreme love for performing than his ability.\n"The guitar is a very sensitive instrument," Vondiziano said before he began playing. \nAlthough he was referring to the bothersome tendency guitar strings have to fall out of tune, he could not have spoken truer words about the music that followed. For two hours Friday at the John Waldron Arts Center, Paul Vondiziano's playing transported the listeners to a foreign world of subtlety and perfection. Instead of a simple evening of guitar music, the whole performance was an essay on sublimity expressed in beauty and emotion.\n"The performer serves a liturgical purpose," Vondiziano said at his lecture at the Monroe County Historical Museum, 202 E. Sixth Street, Saturday. At his performance the night before, Vondiziano entered from the wings of the small studio and took his place in the chair at center stage. He is a simple man with long, curly hair and soft eyes, but was filled with quiet fire and soft-spoken intensity the moment he began playing. Like an epiphany, his playing began suddenly with a burst of emotion sustained through the entire concert.\nAfter meticulous tuning, the concert began with Fernando Sor's "Second Fantasy." Immediately, the audience was enthralled by the piece's subdued character and harmonious opening. Vondiziano's love for the music was apparent in every gesture.\n"I'm able to connect with his playing on an emotional level," said Mark Bisesi, president of the Bloomington Classical Guitar Society.\nThis concert was the first in a series this year sponsored by the Bloomington Classical Guitar Society and the Bloomington Area Arts Council. Bisesi said they showcased Vondiziano first because of his subtle virtuosity and his deep understanding of the music. Although he writes his own music, he did not perform any of his own pieces.\n"He has given quite a bit of thought to the music," Bisesi said. \nThroughout the concert, even during the most technical passages, Vondiziano held the same faraway look of peaceful intensity. In a world full of melodramatic violinists and clarinetists swaying like small boats in a storm, Vondiziano's subtly emotional expression is quite welcome.\nThe emotional high point of the concert was Vondiziano's interpretation of "Koyubaba" by Carlo Domeniconi. This exotic piece pushes the technical limits of the guitar. By completely retuning the guitar so that the lower strings create a drone effect, the piece evokes the sound of Middle Eastern lute playing. By this point in the concert, tuning had become an almost ritualistic obligation that took place even between movements of a single piece, and was beautiful in its own way. \n"This piece truly speaks my language," Vondiziano said before beginning. \nIt is a language of passion and love that is not only heard but also seen in the plethora of beautiful images evoked by his every gesture.\nAt the conclusion of the concert, he and the audience shared a moment of beauty too intense to sustain. When he finished the final technical movement, before the standing ovation, there was almost a minute of pure silence so that his fragile creation could linger for another few moments, without apology.