Brandon Jack Acker and Christopher Wilke in concert!

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NOTE: This concert takes place in the Rosenthal Shelterhouse at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park

 

Hear Brandon Jack Acker and Christopher Wilke perform rare duos on historical instruments, including theorbo and baroque guitar!

Brandon Acker is a classical guitarist and specialist on early plucked instruments  such as the baroque guitar, theorbo, lute, and archlute.  His latest  passion has been to run his successful Youtube channel which now has  over 481,000 subscribers and 40 million views.  His channel provides  educational content about historical lutes and guitars, guitar  tutorials, and performance videos. His interest in education has led him  and his wife to found a new online music school for “All things that go  pluck,” Arpeggiato.com.    Since opening it 2020, in reaction to the Covid pandemic, the online  school has taught thousands of lessons on Zoom to students in over a  dozen countries.  The school has also hosted two online student recitals  and raised over $2,000 for music charities. Brandon’s performance  career has varied from starting out playing electric guitar in metal  bands to his current main focus researching and performing on early  plucked instruments from the Renaissance and Baroque periods.  He has  toured extensively through England, Canada, Scotland and Wales, and  performed with notable groups such as Apollo’s Fire, the Leipzig Baroque  Orchestra, Piffaro, Joffrey Ballet, the Chicago Philharmonic, the  Newberry Consort, Haymarket Opera Company, Music of the Baroque, Third  Coast Baroque, Opera Lafayette and Bella Voce.

Dr. Christopher Wilke integrates modern and historical performance on guitar and lute with  his interests in composition and research. He is director of guitar  studies at the University of Cincinnati-College Conservatory of Music  (CCM). In September 2022, the CCM guitar program celebrated its 50th  anniversary with a Gala Concert featuring an alumni guitar orchestra  under Wilke’s direction which gave the premiere of his composition, Double Shot.

Wilke  holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music (historical plucked  instruments under Paul O’Dette), Mt. St. Joseph University (guitar and  composition), and the University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of  Music (classical guitar). He has had recordings released on Centaur  Records (USA), original compositions published by Les Productions d’Oz  (Montreal, Canada) and editorial work printed by Le Luth Doré (Paris,  France). He’s lectured or published articles for the American  Musicological Society, The Lute Society of America and the Guitar  Foundation of America.

Recent  performances include a special solo concert for members of the  Congressional Caucus on the Arts in the US Capitol Building (Washington  DC), the European Lute Festival in Füssen (Germany), the Central Coast  Guitar Society (CA), the Boston Early Music Festival (MA), the Austin  Peay State University Guitar Festival (TN), the Indianapolis Guitar  Society (IN), the Xavier University (OH) International Concert Series  and with Opera Notre Dame at the University of Notre Dame (IN). He’s  also performed with Flying Forms Baroque Ensemble in St. Paul (MN) and  made appearances with the Columbus (OH) and Sarasota (FL) and as soloist  with the New Horizons Symphony (NM) in May 2023. He recently composed a  piece entitled, “Strange Myth,” the first-ever duo for baroque guitars  written in modern times, written for and premiered with Xavier Jara. As a  scholar, he has presented lectures for the American Musicological  Society, the Guitar Foundation of America, the University of Notre Dame,  Stony Brook University and the Indiana University Jacobs School of  Music 2021 Historical Performance Conference.

He  formerly served as president of the Lute Society of America and  currently serves on the board of the Greater Cincinnati Guitar Society.

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