UrbanGuitar.com

Main Stage :: Electric Alchemist

Electric Alchemist

Marco Oppedisano concocts a hypnotic blend of electro-acoustic music

October 17, 2006

Although his musical education began with electric guitar, Marco Oppedisano was drawn towards the allure of classical music early on in his musical journey. He soon found himself studying classical guitar and composition at Brooklyn College Conservatory of Music and the Queens College Aaron Copland School of Music. Upon graduation, however, Marco found himself turning back to electric guitar, and has since developed a unique style that combines his refined classical training with an rock ‘n roll edge. His music has been recorded and performed by Fireworks Ensemble and the Glass Farm Ensemble, as well as by guitarists Oren Fader and Kevin Gallagher. He has recorded on Capstone Records, and can be found performing frequently with Josh Weinstein and the Petty Alchemy Band.

Urban Guitar: You started off playing electric guitar, but you've had classical training. Can you talk a little about your experience in the electric world vs. the classical world?

Marco Oppedisano: I started playing guitar at the age of 12 and with the exception of a few private lessons, was primarily self-taught. My youth was spent listening to hard rock and metal, but later was exposed briefly to jazz and classical. I became very interested in fingerstyle guitar and wanted to study music seriously, so I entered undergraduate studies at Brooklyn College as a classical guitar performance major. During my studies I never stopped playing electric guitar, but since it was not taught or visible at all in the conservatory, I focused on classical guitar.

Currently, I write little for classical guitar, but have written a few solo pieces throughout the years, including a classical guitar duo and classical guitar quartet. Primo Volo (2003) was written for Oren Fader and was included on his solo classical guitar disc entitled First Flight. I also produced, edited and mastered the disc. So I am not entirely out of the classical guitar loop, I just don’t do it as often anymore.

Urban Guitar: When and why did you make the transition to composition? Or has that always been a part of your musical life?

Marco Oppedisano: I have always been interested in being creative. During my youth I composed short fingerstyle pieces, wrote a bunch of rock riffs and did a lot of jamming with friends, but never had any formal training in composition. About 2 years into classical guitar studies at the conservatory, I could no longer commit to the amount of time required to be a serious classical guitarist. I loved it and still do, but it wasn’t what I really wanted to do. In 1992 when Charles Dodge (composer and electronic music pioneer) was teaching a twentieth century theory class at Brooklyn College, he saw potential in my theory assignments and suggested I consider studying composition. This was a major turning point in my musical life as my focus turned away from classical guitar and on to contemporary classical composition. I first studied with Noah Creshevsky and then went on to study with Tania Leon and Charles Dodge. In graduate school at Queens College, I studied with Thea Musgrave and Henry Weinberg.

Throughout these early years of composition I wrote acoustic music for the standard classical instruments. I also wrote a few pieces for classical guitar. In 1995, I wrote my first ensemble piece with electric guitar, Three Short Pieces for flute, clarinet, trombone and electric guitar (1995). It was around this time I discovered the guitarist Bill Frisell and was very much influenced by his guitar playing and the various combination of instruments in his music, particularly his album This Land.

Ironically enough, throughout my formal training, I never wrote an electroacoustic work. It wasn’t until I finished graduate school in 1998 that I began to think about electronic music and the best way for me to do is with the instrument I know best - The electric guitar.

Within the last couple of years, I have written compositions for solo electric guitar and in combination with other instruments: Urban Mosaic (2002), a four movement work for solo electric guitar written for Kevin R. Gallagher, a couple of electric guitar quartets, a Concerto for Electric Guitar and Percussion Ensemble (2003), a work entitled Move (2004) for bar. sax, marimba, electric guitar and piano for the Glass Farm Ensemble and _Suite for Angelface (2005), a mixed ensemble work with electric guitar for The Fireworks Ensemble.

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | NEXT PAGE