Irish guitarist-composer Alan Mearns is internationally recognized for performances of exceptional musical imagination, technical virtuosity, and expressive depth. Born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Mearns pursued advanced musical studies in the United States, where he was the first guitarist to be awarded the prestigious Fletcher Scholarship for his undergraduate work with Dr. Douglas James at Appalachian State University. He later completed his graduate degree under the mentorship of renowned artist, performer, and scholar Stanley Yates at Austin Peay State University, whose influence is reflected in Mearns’ approach to musical interpretation, structure, style, and creative expression.
Alan continues to expand the expressive range of the classical guitar not only as a performer and arranger but also as a composer. Among his recent works are Oración and Lorca, the latter featured on his newly released album of the same name, a project that he describes as "flowers at the tomb of Federico Garcia Lorca, the poetic soul of Andalucía."
Alan has also presented masterclasses throughout the United States and the United Kingdom, including at Yale University, the Dublin Conservatoire of Music, Oberlin Conservatory, the University of North Texas, and the New York Classical Guitar Society, as well as at numerous guitar festivals and concert series.
In addition to his career as a classical musician, Alan maintains a parallel songwriting career under the name Yes the Raven, releasing multiple albums rooted in folk and Americana traditions. While distinct from his classical work, this songwriting voice informs his expressive impulse as a classical musician.
Alan Mearns’ artistry bridges tradition and individuality, scholarship and intuition. Whether interpreting Bach or presenting original works, he brings a compelling and unique voice to the classical guitar shaped by curiosity, expressive depth, and a commitment to musical creativity. His recent performance of the Bach Chaconne at the Guitar Foundation of America Convention was described as “amongst the greatest performances of the work I’ve ever heard. To say the audience went wild at the end would be a tremendous understatement.” (Soundboard Magazine)
Acclaimed virtuoso David Leisner wrote of Mearns’ New York debut, “I’m impressed and moved by his daring original take on things and his virtuosity. The Albéniz was especially spectacular, maybe the best I’ve ever heard.”
Alan’s critically acclaimed recording Sei Solo, works by J.S. Bach brought international attention and entered the Billboard Classical Music Charts at No. 8. The album has been praised for its originality and artistic conviction by numerous leading musicians and scholars:
“Bach-Godowsky, Bach-Busoni, Bach-Leonhardt. And now, Bach-Mearns, for no transcription of Bach deserves a hyphen more than the guitar transcription presented here. It is a fearless examination of the potential of Bach on the guitar, the originality of which is not to be underestimated.”
Mark Delpriora (The Juilliard School)
“I haven't been as nicely surprised for many, many years! What an achievement!”
Sergio Assad (multi-Latin-Grammy-winning composer/guitar virtuoso)
“Simply brilliant!"
Steve Goss (Royal Academy of Music)
“…a revelation. Mearns reveals himself a singular artist of extraordinary imagination… truly a next-generation phenomenon.”
Stephen Aron (Oberlin Conservatory of Music)
“Mearns’ virtuosic recording is a thrilling adventure for the hands and ears… reminding us of how exciting the guitar can be as a solo instrument when it suggests something greater than itself.”
Jonathan Leathwood (editor, Soundboard Scholar)
Learn more: https://www.alanmearns.com/
Adam del Monte is widely recognized as one of the leading flamenco and classical guitarists and composers of his generation. His work is defined by a lifelong dedication to both genres, shaped by deep traditional training and an openness to global musical influences. His compositions and performances reflect a unique voice—rooted in flamenco heritage while continually evolving through cross-cultural exploration and innovation.
Del Monte recorded the featured flamenco guitar part in Osvaldo Golijov’s Ainadamar (Deutsche Grammophon, 2006), a double Grammy Award-winning opera starring soprano Dawn Upshaw and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Robert Spano. He has since toured internationally with the production, performing at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, the Los Angeles Opera, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Barbican Centre (London), the Colorado Music Festival, the Chicago Symphony, Teatro Real in Madrid and other prominent venues.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, del Monte composed and co-produced Relampiños, a Virtual Guitar Orchestra piece performed by 117 guitarists worldwide—including Angel Romero and Eliot Fisk—marking the largest known collaboration between classical and flamenco guitarists. On February 16, 19, 21 & 23, Del Monte premiered Llantos 1492, a flamenco opera commissioned by Opera Southwest, which ran to four sold-out performances in Albuquerque, NM. This groundbreaking work integrates flamenco with classical operatic form—musically, aesthetically, and rhythmically. A pre-debut workshop performance of select scenes was presented at the Tucson Desert Song Festival in January 2019. Del Monte has represented the United States at the Euro Strings International Guitar Festivals in Hungary and Bosnia, with support from the U.S. Embassy. He has also collaborated with celebrated Persian vocalist Homayoun Shajarian and the Pacific Symphony under conductor Carl St. Clair.
His international performance career includes appearances in Hong Kong, China, and Australia with the Altamira Guitar Festival. In 2019, he was invited to perform at the Shanghai Guitar Festival. Del Monte’s second flamenco guitar concerto, Paisajes, was commissioned and premiered by the St. Monica Symphony in 2012. It has since been performed with the Moscow State Symphony at Tchaikovsky Hall and the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra in Caracas, Venezuela. His first concerto, Ensueño Flamenco, was premiered by the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, conducted by Gil Rose. He has contributed to several major film scores, including Munich (John Williams), Knight and Day, Mr. & Mrs. Smith (John Powell), and Toy Story 3 (Randy Newman). He has also performed with flamenco greats Enrique Morente and Lole y Manuel, as well as the Madrid Symphony Orchestra.
Throughout his career, del Monte has been committed to pushing the boundaries of flamenco, drawing from jazz, classical, and world music to shape his personal approach. His original flamenco work Cambio de Aire was commissioned by the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, and he has collaborated with jazz innovator Yusef Lateef and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra at the National Black Arts Festival. His debut flamenco album, Viaje a Un Nuevo Mundo (Sonifolk, 1998), was praised by leading Spanish music critics including Ángel Álvarez Caballero (El País), Miguel Mora (El País), and Alfredo Grimaldos (El Mundo). Other releases include a Mel Bay Artist Video Series, a classical and flamenco recital, and Ezordio, a classical CD released by GSP.
Del Montes' early training began with his father and continued with flamenco masters such as Pepe Habichuela, Paco Cortés, Niño Miguel, and Gerardo Núñez. His classical studies included training with Menashe Baquiche in Israel and Gordon Crosskey at Cheatham’s School of Music and the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, England. He studied at the Thelma Yellin High School for the Arts in Tel Aviv.
He has performed at a wide range of venues, including the Mark Taper Forum, the Wilshire Theater, Disney Hall, the Hollywood Bowl, Teatro Real and Conde Duque in Madrid, the Manuel de Falla Auditorium in Granada, and international festivals in Israel, France, Brazil, Argentina, India, Malaysia, and the United States. Del Monte was the first prize winner of the 1997 Stotsenberg International Classical Guitar Competition and has since maintained a career at the forefront of flamenco and classical guitar performance. He has taught at the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music since 2000, where he specializes in flamenco and classical guitar.
Adam Del Monte performs on custom-made classical and flamenco guitars by Israeli luthier Erez Perelman.
Learn more: www.adamdelmonte.com
After decades of performing in many of New England’s most notable symphony orchestras as soloist and section member, performing in and directing various chamber music groups and concert series, serving as educator and mentor for many now accomplished flutists, conducting master classes and directing flute choirs, Linda Bento-Rei’s versatility and passion for fresh and diverse projects lead her to record her first album entitled The Jongen Project, released in 2014, which contains the music of Belgian composer, organist and educator, Joseph Jongen (1873-1953). Following a series of acclaimed chamber music concerts which included Jongen’s, “Concert a Cinq” with the principal string players and retired principal harpist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Bento-Rei was inspired to record Jongen’s relatively unknown music. A deep passion was born. After researching the composer, a number of pieces which include flute in solo and chamber music settings were unearthed. Her profound connection to Jongen’s music is brilliantly expressed in this extraordinary and masterful recording.
“The Jongen recording is just beautiful. Your playing throughout the CD is just beautiful and a pleasure to listen to. I wish all CD’s were this inspiring." - Sir James Galway
"I believe your performance in The Jongen Project is very elegant, refined into every detail and you play it in a beautiful intimate way. It sounds very natural and with a lot of "joie de vivre" - Robert Waelkens
Bento-Rei released her second CD, Invocation, in 2015, which is an eclectic chamber music collaboration containing the music of Peter Schickele, Andre Jolivet, Leos Janacek and Mike Mower. In 2016, she released Noel~ Reinvented Holiday Classics. This is a duo collaborative with Boston Symphony Orchestra Pianist, Vytas J. Baksys of traditional holiday tunes rearranged by composer, Robert Nieske.
“Invocation is an absolutely outstanding recording, which I will replay many times. The excellences one looks for in flute playing are here - Ms. Bento-Rei’s intonation is impeccable, as is her articulation. There are passages of dazzling virtuosity, especially in the Schickele. And there are other virtues present which are beyond the expected. Her tone in strong passages is rich and full while in softer passages, especially in the Janacek, has a nice delicacy. Her playing has, when she needs it, quite an extraordinary authority. And none of this comes at a price: there are, to my ear, no moments of compromise, no places where, for example, emotion is sacrificed for mechanical precision, or sound for speed. The playing throughout has great integrity: all its virtues are in the service of a larger musicality.” – Harry Schroeder, Key West Citizen
“Noel~Reinvented Holiday Classics” is the third CD recorded by flutist Linda M. Bento-Rei and pianist Vytas J. Baksys, and consists of arrangements by jazz composer, teacher, and performer Robert Nieske. The recording’s seven selections utilize multiple styles and strike a balance between the contemplative and extroverted aspects of Advent and Christmas. The playing of Bento-Rei and Baksys is beyond reproach, with admirable unity of articulation and phrasing. Their handsome performances are what win the day. This is a multi-faceted, well-played, and elegantly engineered Yuletide collection. – Geoff Wieting, Boston Musical Intelligencer
In 2020, Bento-Rei and Vytas J. Baksys released a duo collaboration entitled Un-Known, containing the repertoire of obscure and under - performed 21st century composers including a commissioned and world premiered “Sonata for Flute and Piano”, written by Robert Nieske, and a chamber music collaborative entitled Radically Traditional, which contains the music of Astor Piazzolla, Heitor Villa-Lobos and Andy Scott. All CD’s have been recorded at WGBH, Fraser Performance Studio in Boston by master engineer Antonio Oliart.
Bento-Rei has served as principal flutist with the Venice Symphony Orchestra (FL) since 2014. She also frequently performs with other Florida and New England orchestras. In addition to her recording and orchestral careers, Bento-Rei and her husband co-founded the non-profit chamber music organization, Sarasota Musica Viva in which Bento-Rei serves as Artistic Director and performer. Since 2015, she has organized and presented over fifty chamber music programs throughout the west coast of Florida and New England featuring nationally acclaimed, local and guest musicians.
Bento-Rei received a Bachelor of Music, cum laude from the Boston Conservatory of Music and a Master of Music in Performance as a Merit Scholar from the New England Conservatory of Music. Her principal teachers were Lois Schaefer and William Grass with additional coaching from John Heiss, Randy Bowman, and Fenwick Smith.
Pianist Vytas J. Baksys received his DMA and MM degrees in performance at S.U.N.Y. at Stony Brook. He earned his Bachelor’s degree with Distinction from the New England Conservatory of Music where he was also elected Phi Kappa Lambda. Other awards include Outstanding College Student of America, Extraordinary Performing Arts Student of America, and a nomination for inclusion in a recent edition of the International Who’s Who In Music. His principal teachers were Angel Ramon Rivera, Victor Rosenbaum, and Gilbert Kalish.
Among his many accomplishments, Vytas lists extensive performances of various styles and genres throughout North America, Europe and Asia, having worked with many well known artists, conductors and composers, among them: Arthur Fiedler, Seiji Ozawa, Bernard Haitink, Sir Roger Norrington, Leonard Bernstein, Sir Simon Rattle, Leonard Rose, Gary Karr, Yo-Yo Ma, Mstislav Rostropovich, Gil Shaham, Joseph Silverstein, Elliott Carter, Henri Dutilleux, Olivier Messiaen, film composer John Williams, Stanislaw Skrowicesky, Oliver Knussen, Rafael Frübeck de Burgos, Dawn Upshaw, Chris Brubeck, John Harbison, James Levine, Peter Schickele, Anne Sophie Mutter, and Andris Nelsons.
For nearly 20 summers since 1989, Vytas has served as faculty pianist working with the Fellowship Conducting Program at Tanglewood. He has similarly collaborated for five years with the Conducting Program at Yale School of Music. An active freelance collaborator, Vytas performs a variety of recitals, competitions, and other functions. He has worked with a number of area choirs including the Boston Secession, Arlington Street Church Choir, Somerville Community Chorus, and New England Classical Singers; made occasional appearances with the contemporary ensemble Boston Musica Viva; performed with various groups such as the Concord Chamber Music Society, Boston Artists Ensemble, South Coast Chamber Music Society, Pentamerus, and the Boston Symphony Chamber Players among others. Recent collaborations/endeavors include the Studio 7 Piano Trio, Moving West Dance Theater (Framingham, MA), West Stockbridge Chamber Players, the Philbrick Trio, Sarasota (FL) Musica Viva, Ensemble Chamarre, and the Terezin Music Foundation. He is the faculty accompanist at The Rivers School Conservatory; is a frequent keyboardist with the Boston Symphony and Boston Pops Orchestras, and occasionally participates with the Portland Symphony (ME) and Boston Landmarks. In recent years, this kind of scheduling has resulted in an annual output averaging more than 150 performances of 100 different programs.
He has participated in recordings for RCA, CRI, Golden Crest, Sony Classical, Deutsche Grammophon, Warner Brothers, Nonsuch, Reference Recordings, Terezin Music Foundation, Naxos, and BSO Classics labels. His recent chamber music recordings include four CD albums with flutist Linda Bento-Rei (one featuring the works of Belgian composer Joseph Jongen), and a CD of music by Czech composer Viktor Kalabis. As orchestral keyboardist, he can be heard on the complete symphonies of Shostakovich with Andris Nelsons and the BSO, a Pops CD of John Williams’ film and television music “Lights Camera Music”, and the Jeffrey Beal soundtrack for the 2017 documentary “Boston”. Being of Lithuanian descent, he has made frequent appearances at ethnic cultural centers including the Baltic American Society.
As a composer, Vytas’s works include several short piano pieces, a piano concerto, a piano quintet, two microtonal works, and several transcriptions of works by Beethoven, Braggiotti, Foote, Glinka, Pärt, Schönberg, Scheidt, Sibelius, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Stravinsky, and others.
On the lighter side, Vytas considers himself to be a connoisseur of music humor. While in the Long Island area, he served eight seasons as co-founder/director of the Stony Brook Anti-Musica, an ensemble dedicated to promoting concert spoofs. His diverse compositional output includes such works as Oratorio: Ground Hog, Variations On A Surprise, The “Big Oh!” Medley, Chaconne Grandissimo, and the Underture to The Dentist of Milan, all inspired by such practitioners as Gerard Hoffnung, Victor Borge, and Peter Schickele.
Born in Cali, Colombia, Ricardo Cobo is the son of Lebanese immigrants who came to America during the early 20th century. His mother, a classical pianist and avid visual artist, taught him to play the piano and read music as a young boy. His father, a brilliant surgeon, devoted concertgoer, and lover of classical music, instilled a passion for guitar music in Cobo during many hours of listening to Flamenco and classical recordings. He began taking guitar lessons at 8, on a twenty-dollar souvenir guitar, a gift from his uncle. Quickly outpacing his lessons, Cobo’s parents enrolled him in the Antonio Maria Valencia Conservatory at age 12. His professional career began at the early age of 17 at a live televised performance with the Orquesta Filarmónica de Bogotá. This performance was viewed by an audience of over nine million people. Cobo’s career took flight at that point and is still soaring today. Following high school, Cobo attended the Peabody Conservatory where he became a protégé of Aaron Shearer. He received his Bachelor of Music from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and a Master of Music from Florida State University. While at FSU, Cobo pursued postgraduate studies under the late Bruce Holzman as a Graduate Assistant and University Doctoral Fellow.
While completing his degrees, Cobo won many international competitions, a host of academic excellence awards, and numerous scholarships. Competitions included the 6th Guitar Foundation of America International Competition (GFA), the 9th Alirio Díaz International Competition in Caracas, and the 9th Casa de España Competition in San Juan. As the first Hispanic/Latino to win the GFA competition, he embarked on a highly auspicious tour that covered over 70 American cities, followed by debut appearances throughout Europe, Ukraine, and Asia. Following this tour, Cobo was awarded an extraordinary ability visa by the United States while he continued to pursue a Doctor of Musical Arts at FSU.
Cobo has been collaborating with composers to develop new music based on Latin America's rich literary and cultural legacy. Chilean composer Javier Farías dedicated his “Romanzas de Rihoacha,” based on Gabriel García Marquez’s stunning autobiography, to him. This piece was premiered in Washington, DC in 2015. Cuban American composer José Lezcano, Colombian composers Franz Castillo, Hector Gonzalez, Fabio Salazar Orozco, and many others have dedicated new pieces to Cobo.
Celebrated for his passionate and mesmerizing performances worldwide, Cobo is in demand as a soloist, chamber musician, lecturer, and recording artist. His versatility can be heard on his award-winning ESSAY, NAXOS, Ellipsis Arts, Angel/EMI, Cambria Records, and ESSAY/Allegro recordings. Many include his remarkable arrangements of Latin American standards. Cobo will soon release new music under his own recording label.
A long-time resident of Las Vegas, Cobo is a dedicated and avid supporter of music education and often hosts master classes for students of all ages. He also enjoys the outdoors and walks with his Boston Terrier, Gizmo. For additional information, please visit ricardocobo.com and follow him on Facebook and Instagram.
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