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TALLAHASSEE.COM ❚ SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2018 ❚ 9D

For the first time in Tallahassee, 60guitarists from all around the state willstrum together and present music likecomposer Sergio Assad’s seminal work,“The Walls” as a classical guitar orches-tra.

Ben Lougheed, a Ph.D. candidate inmusic guitar performance at FloridaState University and director of theFlorida Guitar Festival, is at the helm ofthe upcoming event, which will takeplace Oct. 5-7 at FSU’s College of Music.

Though it began four years ago as asmall series of performances arrangedby community members, Lougheed hasseen the festival grow into a nationallyand internationally attended event.

He is excited to present this newcomponent as guitar orchestras aregrowing in popularity. The compositionthey will play, “The Walls,” is a five-movement piece that explores the gui-tar via famous walls throughout theworld. Lougheed says it will be the firsttime it has been played in Florida, andonly the second time worldwide.

“Every culture throughout historyhas some kind of plucked string instru-ment, and the guitar can emulatethose,” says Lougheed. “There’s onethat emulates the Chinese pipa and an-other that emulates a hora. It’s a phe-nomenally incredible work.”

Lougheed grew up surrounded bymusic in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He lis-tened to Mozart in the womb and at age6 started playing the guitar. He went onto attend the Johns Hopkins PeabodyInstitute in Maryland where he receivedinstruction from world-renowned mu-sicians like Julian Gray. It was duringthis time that he transitioned from play-ing guitar as a hobbyist to becoming aprofessional, and learning how to pre-pare, practice, memorize and presentpieces.

He credits his hometown instructorMary Lou Roberts for giving him thefoundational knowledge he needed tosucceed on the instrument. Robertstaught him from age 6 through highschool. Around his sophomore year,Lougheed took a lesson from a guitarprofessor and by the end of the sessionwas offered scholarship money and aspot to start in the fall.

“I said, ‘No I can’t drive yet, that’swhy my mom is here,’” laughs Lough-eed, who was only 15 at the time. “But,that got me more seriously thinking thatit could be a possibility.”

Though he’s dabbled in other genreslike rock, pop, and country for gigs andcocktail hours, Lougheed remains en-chanted with classical guitar music. He

says the emotional depth of the compo-sitions are both fulfilling to listen to andplay as a performer. At the moment he’stackling Astor Piazolla’s “Invierno Por-tena,” arranged for solo guitar by SergioAssad.

Before he even picks up the guitar,Lougheed will notate his finger place-ment on the strings, a time consumingmeasure that helps him to play morequickly and with more accuracy later

on. Then it will be a couple weeks ormonths of playing at slow tempos, exer-cising muscle memory, listening to oth-er players via CD or online and gettingthe feedback from his instructors or re-cordings in order to improve.

“The guitar is one of those instru-ments that can change its color,” saysLougheed, describing the sound’s tonalqualities. “It can get very dark to verybright, almost like from a viola to atrumpet. Knowing when to implementand use those colors in the piece canhelp it to progress.”

Teaching is where his passion trulylies. Lougheed shares his love of classi-cal guitar with students at FSU as wellas locally in private lessons and Talla-hassee schools. When it comes to phi-losophy, his ideas around guitar arestrung together from the many instruc-tors who nurtured his own progress.The underlying theme he hopes to passalong to students is cultivating an atten-tion to artistry. Lougheed emphasizes arelaxed, upright posture and correct fin-

ger positions to promote longevity inplaying guitar.

Borrowed from his FSU mentor,Bruce Holzman, Lougheed hopes stu-dents will carefully listen to their ownplaying so that they can distinguish cor-rect sounds from one another; and fromhis teachers at Peabody, it’s aboutknowing there’s more than just thenotes, too.

“Even with my youngest kids, I wantto make sure that they’re making theirmusic musical so it has dynamics andwhen they’re finished that they standup and smile and take a really nice bow,”says Lougheed. “I’m very big on makingsure that there’s no gaps in a student’slearning and they’re given things thatwill challenge them and help them grow,so that they’ll succeed along their jour-ney of learning.”

In terms of methodology, Lougheedlearned through the Suzuki method anduses it when he teaches. The methodtrains the ear so that people learn musicthe same way they learn language—through immersion. He’s been inspiredand surprised by standout studentswho come into their lessons having al-ready learned the piece he’s assigned inaddition to a few songs ahead of him inthe book after experimenting and lis-tening to them on their own.

Lougheed hopes attendees to theFlorida Guitar Festival will find a similarpositive energy and environment.

“A lot of times competitions and fes-tivals like this can feel cutthroat,” ad-mits Lougheed. “A lot of people canleave in a downtrodden mood becausethey didn’t play as well as they wantedto.”

As festival organizers, Lougheed saysthey have made it their to coordinate notonly an informative weekend, but anenjoyable one, too. From concerts by so-lo performers, master classes, lectures,and the competition, there is no short-age of free-to-attend events for thoseinterested in learning more about theclassical guitar. Lougheed says the onlyticketed event will be the final perfor-mance on Sunday night at OppermanMusic Hall.

“I like sharing the music,” saysLougheed. “I don’t want to sit by myself,I want to share it with my students, withthe classical guitar community, theclassical guitar world, and those in Tal-lahassee who haven’t heard a classicalguitar orchestra. It’s so important andmeans so much to me.”

Amanda Sieradzki is the featurewriter for the Council on Culture & Arts.COCA is the capital area’s umbrellaagency for arts and culture (www.talla-hasseearts.org).

Florida Guitar Festival all about joys of musicAmanda SieradzkiCouncil on Culture & Arts

Ben Lougheed, director of the Florida Guitar Festival, is at the helm of theupcoming event, which will take place Oct. 5-7. PHILIP LOGAN

If you goWhat: The Third Annual Florida GuitarFestival

When: Oct. 5-7, times vary

Where: Florida State University Collegeof Music, 122 N. Copeland

Cost: Free except for final concert

Contact: For more information, call734-845-2474 or visit https://flori-daguitarfestival.wordpress.com/.

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