On the first Thursday of each month, the DC Public Library and the Goethe-Institut Washington present a lunchtime chamber music performance open to the public (formerly known as The Brown Bag Chamber Recital). Standards from the classical repertoire are presented by internationally-known, local musicians Ralitza Patcheva and Vasily Popov and special guests.
This solo recital performed by award-winning guitarist
Oscar Somersalo will include pieces by J. S. Bach, Francisco Tárrega, Willam Walton.
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Award-winning guitarist Oscar Somersalo performs as a soloist and chamber musician in America and Europe. In recent seasons Somersalo has appeared with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra at Finlandia Hall and with Panama National Symphony Orchestra.
Somersalo won first prize at the 2017 Appalachian GuitarFest Solo Guitar Competition in Boone, NC and at the Philadelphia Classical Guitar Competition. He was awarded second prize at the International Guitar Competition
Ciudad de Llerena in Spain in 2009 and as young soloist with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra in 2011. He has performed solo concerts at festivals such as the Kauhava Chamber Music Festival in Finland, the Tuscia Guitar festival in Italy, and the Panama Guitar Festival in Panama, as both performer and master class instructor.
Somersalo’s repertoire encompasses great classics and innovative new compositions. His concerts often include pieces by Bach – such as the Chaconne from the Partita No. 2 – as well as titles like
To build a House by American composer Scott Lee, which Somersalo premiered at a concert sponsored by the Baltimore Guitar Society in 2014.
In addition to solo repertoire Somersalo has appeared in duos together with flute and piano, and guitar duo and guitar quintet. Somersalo has also appeared in larger groups with repertoire such as
Electric Counterpoint by Steve Reich at SibaFest in Finland and in more rare performances such as a concert with the Peabody Symphony Orchestra in Baltimore, performing Mahler’s 7th Symphony, in which the guitar is a part of the orchestra.
Somersalo is also a cellist and emphasizes the importance of experiencing music from different angels in order to build a strong foundation of musicality and diversity. He has a minor in cello performance from the Sibelius Academy and has been an active member of the Hopkins Symphony Orchestra in Baltimore since 2015. Somersalo earned his Master of Music degree and Graduate Performance Diploma from the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, where he studied under international virtuoso Manuel Barrueco. He is also a graduate of the famed Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, where he earned a Bachelor of Music degree.
Vasily Popov (cello) and
Ralitza Patcheva (piano), a husband and wife duo, co-chair the Chamber Music Department at Levine Music.
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