Roberto Agosto

574 MUL 1010 9:30-10:45

Reaction to Johannes Moller Being a guitar player, I was really interested in hearing Johannes Moller perform his original pieces. The event where Moller performed was held on January 13th, at the Dale Mabry Campus, inside the Student Services Auditorium. The auditorium was fairly large and had comfortable seats to sit back from and enjoy the show. While my date and I waited for the event to commence, we read through the entire Program. We found out at that Johannes is a Swedish guitarist and composer whom performed for audiences starting at the age of thirteen. Johannes is a top performer with a number of awards and recognitions won in musical competitions. At the age of twelve, Moller was a self-taught composer whose works was recorded later on with some top instrumentalist. Johannes has a Bachelors of Music with Honors obtained from the Royal College of Music stationed in London. He later completed a Masters degree from the Royal Conservatoire and much later got a second Masters at the Conservatoire in Amsterdam. Learning about Mollers past helped me to musically understand this fantastic performer and composer. ` The Program started with Dale Mabry SGA Guitar Series staff member giving a big

thanks to Ken Turley for his support of the Guitar series. He was given a gift which he opened to find a cozy looking blanket with memorabilia photos embedded into it. The hosts (Mark and Kathy) then introduced Johannes Moller onto the stage. Guitar in his hand, Moller walked into the spotlight greeted by a wave of applause from eager listeners. The Swedish guitarists opened the concert with one of his original compositions by the name, Song to the Mother. This piece was written in 2009 and is my personal favorite song of the entire concert. I really enjoy soft,

Roberto Agosto
574 MUL 1010 9:30-10:45

slow guitar music and this piece really touched me. The song has beautiful, intricate melodies that captured my interest immediately. The next song that was played was a theme from the opera Der Freishchutz, composed by K.A. Craeyvanger. The next song that caught my attention was Asturias (Leyenda) from Suite Espanola Op. 47, composed by Isaac Albeniz (1860-1909). I am familiar with this piece and enjoyed listening to Johannes play this fiery piece of music. So far I have been pleased with the concert and Johannes performance which is without flaws. The last song Moller played before the intermission was one of his own called, A star in the sky, a universe within... This song was quite interesting and really made me realize how small we are compared to the vastness of the universe. After the intermission, Johannes immediately began to play Lamento-Scherzo which is a piece written by Dennis Gougan whom is still alive being born in 1951. Moller continued by playing Un Sueno en la Floresta, Poem to a Distant Fire, then concluded the concert with his own composition dedicated to the Hindu culture, Ananda. The final song was beautiful and full of emotion that can be seen in Johannes facial expressions. In entirety, I fully enjoyed the concert and took interest in each song that Moller decided to play that night. Johannes playing was very inspiring and made me want to buy a Classical guitar because of the lovely sounds that Moller was able to produce with his Gregory Bryers guitar. I am very glad I was able to experience such sheer talent and passion from Johannes Mollers guitar performance.