8/17/08 - In the press, in Paris, in heaven! - Recently I was featured in South Jersey magazine as part of a story by writer Doug Otto on graduates in the arts from my hometown, Haddonfield, NJ. There are a good amount of famous folks who come from Haddonfield and the article seeks to answer the question, "Why might this small, historic town be the primary bredding ground for creative talent in all of New Jersey?" The article includes a lot of interesting information about Haddonfield - for example, the actor Scott Patterson (Luke in Gilmore Girls, my roommate made me watch it I swear) is from Haddonfield - they also include recent Haddonfield graduates who are pursuing careers in the arts, including a nice feature on yours truly! I've included the first two pages for your viewing pleasure here and here.

In other news, Maud and I have a brand-new duo website in French and English here: http://www.duotransatlantique.com We also recently kicked off our string of performances in France this fall with one for the Jeunes Talents (Young Talent) association during the "White night" in Paris, where many museums stay open all night and the arts are celebrated throughout the city. We played at the National Archives - apparently thousands of people came to see a huge variety of musicians throughout the night, both inside and in the courtyard. Luckily, we played inside for about 200 people. The day after that we played an outreach concert at an assisted living center for the association Coeur en Fete, and I've included a photo after our performance. Also, we're being interviewed for an article and we're going to appear on a demo CD in the next issue of Guitar Review magazine in November. More info on that as I get it! Well, that's all for now - I hope you are doing well, and that my music brings you happiness! If you haven't heard me play, then maybe you will soon! :) Until next time,

Ben

8/17/08 - Buffalo, San Francisco, Paris and Lille - What a great summer it's been! It started off with a bang with my performance with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. A reviewer wrote of my performance: "Benjamin Beirs of the USA performed the Castelnuovo-Tedesco Concerto in D major for Guitar and Orchestra, Opus 99 with intense musicality and no sign of any nerves, for it being his first-ever performance with an orchestra." –Julia Crowe, Mel Bay’s Guitar Sessions Webzine. For the link to the full article, click here. After that, it was time to prepare for the well-known, intense Guitar Foundation of America competition. I'm happy to say I made the semi-final round with a bunch of great guitarists, but didn't make the finals. That's ok - more time for me to tour around San Francisco! Straight from San Francisco it was on to Paris, where I took a train direct to Lille, where I am staying for the moment with Maud Laforest, my guitar duo partner, to work for a while before I go to live in Paris for four months to study with Roland Dyens at the Conservatoire National Superior de Musique et de Danse de Paris! I want to put some pictures up here from this summer, but that will have to wait for now. In any case, check my schedule for some upcoming concerts with Duo Transatlantique!

7/9/08 - Joann Falletta International Concerto Competition in Buffalo - I had a really wonderful time at my most recent competition, but unfortunately have not had the time to write about it. So as I wrote before, I was picked as a semi-finalist for the Falletta competition. I then performed for the semi-finals, which were broadcast live on their website, which is here, and also live on public radio. From there, I was accepted with two other guitarists, Marco Sartor and Laura Klemke, to play in the finals with the Buffallo Philharmonic. It was such a thrill to play with the orchestra and to work with someone as wonderful and talented as Joann Falletta. I ended up placing third, with Laura Klemke winning second prize and Marco winning the grand prize. Congratulations Marco! In other news, I've been traveling around a lot and playing some of my singer-songerwriter stuff. I hope to write an entry about that soon! I hope you are well :) -Ben

Marco Sartor, Laura Klemke, and me at the awards ceremony.

5/3/08 - Concerts and Competitions - I've had a very busy and very productive semester this spring. I guess that's why I haven't been updating so much! So let me share some good news with you all. First of all, last night I gave my degree recital at Peabody, one of two recitals I'm required to give for my graduate performance diploma. I feel a weight has been lifted off my shoulders and I'm very happy with the way it went. I'm also appearing in a concert tonight in Columbia, Maryland with Columbia Pro-Cantare, a choral group, in their "Latin-American Spring" concert. I will be playing Bachianas Brasileiras no. 5 by Hector Villa-Lobos with very talented soprano April-Joy Gutierrez, as well as "Misa Criolla" by Ariel Ramirez.

In other news, I've been very busy with competitions. I won second prize at the Schadt string competition in Allentown, Pennsylvania in early March. In April I took part in the Appalachian State guitar Festival and competition, where I'm pleased to say that I won first prize. In other good news, I was accepted as a semi-finalist in the Joann Falletta Concerto Competition. I was one of 10 guitarists selected from six countries to perform in this most excellent celebration of the guitar and the concerto. I'm definitely very honored. You can read more about this upcoming competition by following this link. Until next time, Ben

2/18/08 - First solo recording and a busy new year I'm happy to announce the release of my new solo CD, titled "Distant times & different places." It's a collection of some of my favorite works for the guitar, ranging from the baroque to the 20th century. It's available here: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/benjaminbeirs. Right now I'm gearing up for a few small projects. One of them is to record some of my original songs and covers of favorite acoustic songs this very weekend. I'm excited about that and will be collaborating with some friends to bring my ideas to fruition. Also, I'm going to be performing a concert on Tuesday, March 4th in Easton, MD at the Academy Arts Museum - this "Night of guitar" features Hor d'oeuvres at 5:45pm, Dinner: at 6pm, and the Concert: at 7pm. More info can be found here: http://www.art-academy.org/programs.htm (it's near the bottom of the page.) Also, directly before this, I'm going to be competing with many fine guitarists at the Schadt String Competition in Allentown, PA for a chance to perform a concerto with the Allentown Symphony Orchestra in 2009. What else? If you live in or around Baltimore and are interested in seeing two free recitals at Peabody, then mark these dates down: Saturday, April 19th at 2 PM in Griswold Hall, and Friday, May 2nd at 8 PM in Goodwin Hall. The first is a recital by my good friend and Sarah Hershman, who is a very talented soprano. We have been working together this year and will perform a really great work called "Letters from composers" by Dominic Argento. Her recital promises to be a really great one, and it's free! And then the recital in May is my own recital at Peabody, also free, and will include Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco's Concerto No. 1 in D major among other works. So if you're in Baltimore and perhaps you've never been to Peabody, why not hear some really good music for free?? Until next time, Ben :)a

1/17/08 - Living in 2008 Well, I've been busy, that's for sure! During the Fall of 2007 I went out to the GFA in Los Angeles, recorded my first solo album, and had a successful little tour with duo partner Maud Laforest in Baltimore and Philadelphia. Speaking of our duo, if you haven't bought our CD yet, it's easy to - just go here -http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/duotransatlantique. I will be posting the address of my solo CD as soon as I finish it. Let's see...what else - I'm planning on recording a bunch of different pieces in about a month. I will also hopefully have time to record some of my own singer-songwriter type songs. I'm playing a concert this Sunday with Ji Hye Jung, Marimba. She won first prize in the Yale Gordon and I won second and we're splitting this program. The link for the concert is http://www.migh.org/sched.aspx. One last thing - it's still in the planning stages, but it looks like I'm going to be studying for a semester in the Fall of 2008 at the Paris Conservatoire with Roland Dyens. Yummy. Hopefully during that time Maud and I will play a lot of concerts together as well. That's all for now folks - hope you're getting through the winter ok and thanks for stopping by and reading about my musical life!

Peace, Ben

7/31/07 - A fine summer Sorry for the lack of updates for anyone who actually reads this little journal! I've been having an amazing summer, as usual - maybe it's because of the amount of work I usually do at Peabody, or maybe it's because my birthday is the first day of summer, but I always, always love my summers. I had a really wonderful visit to France playing some concerts with Maud. We played a couple of concerts in the Paris area including our usual concert at the American Cathedral as well as an outreach concert for the musical outreach group "Coeur en Fete." We also played one concert in central France for a music festival that takes place at a 12th-century church in Rochepot as well as another festival in Brittany, where I got to swim in the other side of the Atlantic (though it was quite cold). Here are a few pictures:







Then, as soon as I returned back I went to the National Guitar Workshop where I competed with many other fine guitarists. I am pleased to say that the judges awarded me with 1st prize. I will put a picture up of all the finalists as soon as I have one. Thanks for stopping by!
Ben

3/22/07 - Yale Gordon Concerto Competition I'm happy to say that yesterday I won 2nd prize in the Yale Gordon Concerto Competition. This very interesting annual competition is probably the biggest instrumental competition at Peabody, and it rotates every year between bowed strings, piano, and "other." So, apparently I fall into the "other" category, along with marimba, flute, french horn, oboe, bassoon, saxophone, and anything else you can think of that's not a piano or bowed string (wood block, toy whistle, etc.) It was a whole lot of fun to prepare for and play in this competition and I was very lucky to have the beautiful and talented pianist Irene Kim as accompanist (she was the orchestra for me while I played the concerto.) To view a nice little collection of before and after photos my dad put together, please click here. I have a few concerts in April coming up in the Baltimore area, including a joint recital with the amazing artist Jorge Amaral at Harford Community College, a short drive from downtown Baltimore. Also, my graduate degree recital is on April 20th at Peabody. Please visit my calendar page for all my upcoming concerts. If you are in the area and have the time please come!
Ben

3/9/07 - Still busy, but maybe not as much? It is with great pleasure that I announce that...all 4 of my auditions are complete. Now it's simply a waiting game. Also, Maud and I put down all the tracks in the studio so our CD just needs to be edited now. That was one crazy week - it was a crazy stress-sandwich with the duo recording for bread and my Yale audition in the middle (which includes me being sick and riding on Amtrak for a total of 10 hours... my suit still smells like an Amtrak train...) but I think I accomplished everything I was supposed to. If that sandwich thing doesn't make sense I can try to explain it another way: Wednesday Maud and I recorded. Thursday I woke up at like 4:30 am, auditioned at Yale and got back at around 7 PM. Friday Maud and I recorded for 3 hours in the morning. Mmmmm mmm good. We also gave a concert that Sunday for some wonderful Peabody donors at the Evergreen House and got to chat with them a bit afterwards. Anyway, tonight I had a fabulous masterclass with Fabio Zanon, and now I'm just gearing up for the Yale Gordon Concerto Competition. I'll keep you posted. Thanks for stopping by and don't forget that happiness lies in the palm of your own hand (it's a lesson I need to remember)!

Ben

2/25/07 - Auditions, Competitions, and Recordings A little more than a month has flown by in the blink of an eye, and the speed of it all doesn't seem like it will decelerate (is that a word?) until...May? June? I have three of my four auditions done: San Francisco Conservatory, Cleveland Institute of Music, and Peabody Conservatory. I have one more next week, which is Yale. Tommorrow, Maud (http://www.maudlaforest.com) will be arriving and we are going to record a bit of a CD at Peabody. In other good news, today I won the guitar division of the 2007 Baltimore Music Club competition. It seems like hard work might indeed pay off! Well, until next time, please get in touch if you want, and come to my concerts if you please! Take care,

Ben

1/14/07 - Tulip Planting (Pre-emptive MLK Day Service) I was fortunate enough to be on the right mailing list to receive a plea for help during this past Saturday and Sunday. A retired Kindergarten teacher who is involved in community service bought 6,000 bulbs at a very good price planned an event where the neighborhood kids would pair up with an adult and plant the tulips to improve the neighborhood. My dad and I answered the call and planted a few tulips. As the organizer kept saying, it's a small gesture, and mostly symbolic, but I definitely enjoyed working with the earth and planting seeds for the future. You can view a few pictures here. In other news, the semester is starting very soon...and I just watched Forrest Gump...and that's all I have to say about that.

Ben

1/7/07 - Happy New Year! After having a nice, restful break at home in Haddonfield, I'm back in Baltimore, "the greatest city in America," as it says on our benches. I'm really looking forward to this semester for a number of reasons. First, I am auditioning for a performance-intensive degree at four music schools: Cleveland, San Francisco, Yale, and Peabody. Second, I am performing a piece for violin, guitar, and baritone called "Haunted by an Angel," by Peabody composer Ying-Chen Kao. Third, Maud (my guitar duo partner) will be visiting for a week in late February/early March for some concerts (more info soon). Fourth, I will be playing chamber music with the amazingly talented soprano Elisabeth Halliday. Fifth, I will be competing in the Yale Gordon Concerto competition at Peabody in March, and sixth, I'm giving my master's degree recital this semester! Wow! And that's only this semester. I think 2007 will have many great things in store, including a three-week stint in France this summer when Duo Transatlantique lives up to its name!

Oh, and I got my hair cut really short, and not so much on purpose, so if you see me, don't be too surprised. I will be putting up all my performances in my calender page as usual, so please be sure to check them! There will be plenty!

Happy New Year! I wish you all peace, love and success in 2007.

-Ben

11/14/06 - BCGS Concert and Ben in the news Our concert for the BCGS' "Young Talent" series was a lot of fun! Chris Gainey's piece went over really well. We are working on putting a recording together of a whole bunch of our concert rep as well as Chris's piece. I also have some "in the news" type links for you. Simply click on the picture to go to the actual website.

Duo Transatlantique in the JHU Gazette?!? Duo Transatlantique featured in the JHU Gazette


Ben places 2nd at NGW solo competition! National Guitar Workshop Results


11/14/06 - An original poem for you
somehow i again don't know what to say
i am dumbstruck and in awe of
just about anything!
this week i avoided misery and self-pity
by thinking about my visits to the hospice:
as i drive there in my car, i quietly ponder
how i would feel with the knowledge that i am dying
and then i instantly appreciate how it feels to be in my body
and how comfortable these clothes are
and this view, this extraordinary view of
fall leaves and tall trees and trucks and clouds
if i were dying
i'd drink that down like a glass of chocolate milk
and my troubles - ah, what joy!

11/3/06 - Knowledge for the World Our performance at the Johns Hopkins University "Knowledge for the World" Gala was a blast! Not only that, but starting in 2000 the university has raised 2.3 BILLION dollars! Wow! And we had the privelege of playing for most of those donors!! Catch a snippet in this quicktime movie.