Hideki Yamaya, recently of Los Angeles, has moved to Bend and has joined the Cascade Community School of Music Faculty. Yamaya is a virtuoso guitarist and lutenist who has been active as a performer and teacher in California for over 10 years. “It is so exciting to have a musician of Hideki’s caliber join us” says Dillon Schneider, CCSM Director, “he is way beyond anyone else in the area on classical guitar, not to mention the lute. We’re going to build a first-rate guitar program around him”.

With advanced degrees from UC Santa Cruz and UC Irvine in Ethnomusicology, Guitar and Lute Performance, Yamaya is, in Schneider’s words, the “real deal”. He has performed in Canada, Japan, Great Britain, and Italy. His specialties are classical, flamenco, and various Latin American styles as well as the music of the Renaissance and Baroque periods.

Hideki is also a specialist in early music and performs on the lute and other early plucked strings. He has studied lute at the prestigious Accademia Internazionale della Musica in Milan, Italy with Paul Beier and was featured as a soloist in the Santa Cruz Baroque Festival. He has also collaborated with many notable performers and ensembles, including Nicholas Isherwood (bass), John Schneiderman (guitar and lute), California Gamba Consort, Lux Musica, and Stanford University Opera.

Hideki’s first public performance in Bend will be on March 18, 7PM in the wonderful acoustics of the Spiritual Awareness Center on Franklin St. in Bend. He’ll be performing with CCSM faculty member Shannon Devir on flute as “Duo Ascente”. Tickets are $11/ $9 student and seniors, and are available at the door or by calling CCSM at 382-6866.

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