Performers/Speakers:
Matthew Grasso- 25-stringed raga guitar, 18-tone 11-limit just intonation guitar
Diane Hubka- 7-string guitar and jazz vocalist
Raja Sivamani- 7-string veena
Parteek Bansal- tabla (Indian percussion)
Adrian Bellue- 12- course harp-guitar
Lars Rosager- Guitar Historian
Matthew Grasso’s Celebration of the 7-String Guitar began on July 7, 2007 and has continued each year on the seventh day of the seventh month, with a start time of 7:07 pm. It’s a wonderful occasion for guitarists, guitar aficionados and music lovers in general to hear a variety of uncommon instruments and learn about their use and construction directly from performers, luthiers and music historians.
This year’s theme is Improvisational Music on Multi-Stringed Instruments. The evening will feature Jazz vocalist and 7-string guitarist Diane Hubka joining us from SoCal; Adrian Bellue introducing the landscape of sounds from the harp-guitar; Matthew Grasso demonstrating the unusual fretting of microtonal guitars; Raja Sivamani performing on the veena, an ancient 7-stringed instrument from India, along with the Nada Brahma Music Ensemble; and Guitar Historian Lars Rosager speaking on the history of the 7-string guitar in Russia and Mexico.