Winners of the prestigious Guitar Foundation of America International Ensemble Competition 2023, Mēla Guitar Quartet, will perform as the final concert of UNLV Performing Arts Center’s 48th Season—at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 15 at Artemus W. Ham Concert Hall.
The Mēla Guitar Quartet are known for their imaginative, engaging programming, ingenious arrangements and commissioning celebrated original works.
Hailed for their “collective technical brilliance and preternatural ensemble making” --Gramophone, the quartet have released three albums, the complete guitar quartets of composer/author Anthony Burgess, the complete guitar chamber works of Stephen Dodgson, both with Naxos, and the self-released album “Pluck, Strum, and Hammer!”
Notable performances include the Southbank Centre’s Purcell Room, Kings Place Hall One, St. James’ Church Piccadilly, Barbican Centre’s Milton Court, St. George’s Bristol, Westminster Abbey, Soest Germany, and of course Jimi Hendrix’s bedroom. In 2019 the quartet embarked on an eight-concert tour of China, including Shanghai Oriental Arts Centre, Changsha concert hall and Tianjin Grand Theatre.
The quartet formed in 2015 as graduates of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the Royal Academy of Music. They became International Guitar Festival Young Artists 2015/16, then Park Lane Group young artists 2018/19 and Royal Over-Seas League chamber music finalists 2019. Members Michael Butten and Zahrah Hutton joined founding members Matthew Robinson and George Tarlton in 2023.
The quartet are enthusiastically adding to the guitar quartet repertoire through their adventurous arrangements of much-loved orchestral works and their commissions of new music. Laura Snowden’s “My Clock is Broken!” (2019), “The Emperor’s New Clothes” (2023), Michael Finnissy’s “Albion on the Road to Hell” (2019), Stephen Goss’ “Venezuela” (2019) are pieces commissioned and premiered by the quartet.
Tickets are priced at $35 (discounts available), are on sale now, and may be purchased by telephone at 702-895-ARTS (2787), online at pac.unlv.edu or at the UNLV PAC box office from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday.
About UNLV Performing Arts Center
The UNLV Performing Arts Center is the original home for the arts in Southern Nevada; it opened in 1976 and is celebrating its 48th season in 2024/25. A self-sustaining unit of UNLV, the PAC operates like many other arts organizations: costs for shows we produce, some facilities improvements, and other projects we undertake come from ticket sales, rentals, and donations. It hosts a variety of performances and events and is home to self-produced events plus productions of the Nevada Conservatory Theatre, UNLV School of Music, UNLV Dance, the Las Vegas Men’s Chorus, among many other community arts presenters, and various Clark County School District fine arts festivals and concerts. For further information, visit pac.unlv.edu.
