By JULES SHINKLE
BG Independent News
Lyra Carmer wants you to tango to her guitar. In her July 11 performance at Myla Marcus Winery, the Portland, Oregon musician will interpret the works of an array of Latin American composers. This free event at 7 p.m. at the winery at 133 S. Main in downtown Bowling Green is the culmination of a residency with Bowling Green’s The Music Thief during which Carmer will teach and collaborate with local guitar students of Thomas Wheeler.
Before her study of the Spanish classical guitar tradition, Carmer learned from the virtuosos of hard rock, which proved divisive in her household.
“As far as my history with the guitar, I didn’t start as a classical musician. When I was growing up, I started playing black metal, technical death metal, heavy metal, all that good stuff…but it absolutely repulsed my grandparents and most of my family. I’d continue to subject them to it, but I eventually ended up finding the music of Francisco Tárrega. From there, I found Agustín Barrios. I had an idea for this set many years ago, when I first started playing guitar. So it makes me extra excited to be able to perform something hopefully unique and nuanced about the music of South America and Central America.”
This passion for the 19th century Romanticist stuck — five years ago, she recorded a live performance of Tárrega’s music for the Lincoln City Cultural Center in Oregon. From Astor Piazzola to Manuel Ponce, Carmer’s repertoire includes a broad swath of the classical guitar canon.
Another composer to be heard at Friday’s concert is Heitor Villa-Lobos, who represents the influence of Brazilian street musicians and folk melodies on the classical tradition.
Carmer’s talent is founded upon a love for her instrument. “The guitar has so many rich, wonderful colors that make for really interesting interpretive possibilities with music. It creates a unique and special landscape of sonorities that I personally find to be absolute magic.”
Carmer is being brought to Bowling Green by Thomas Wheeler, who teaches a plucked instrument studio in Bowling Green. She will be giving lessons and speaking to Wheeler’s students in the days preceding the concert.
The two met online over a discussion of Carmer’s ambitions to arrange Mahler’s symphonies for the guitar. “I’ve never seen a person play guitar like Lyra. There’s nobody else doing it the way she’s doing it,” says Wheeler.
A featured stop on this musical tour includes a dance native to South America, the tango. “The vast majority of this repertoire is going to be dance music — dancing is absolutely encouraged.”
