Guitarist's deep passion for larger-sized strings

Slava Grigoryan has always been enamoured with deeper-sounding string instruments.

Despite misguided publicity ploys involving bumper-stickers inspired by Foreskin's Lament and press release claims that "Shosta rocks", Chamber Music New Zealand's line-up this year is solid. But will Australian guitarist Slava Grigoryan really "kick ass" when he plays in Auckland tomorrow night with Bach and Albeniz on the menu?

It is not the first time we have had Grigoryan here. In 2003 he was soloist in the vibrant lounge-fest of Jack Body's Carmen Dances with the NZSO.

Grigoryan is a second-generation Australian; emigrating from Kazakstan at the age of 4. He grew up with a "fairly strong Russian background. My brother was born in Australia but did not speak English until he started school".

More importantly, he grew up with music in the house. "The best thing about having a musical education at home is that the family [were] music fans. They loved listening to music, not just playing and learning."

Grigoryan chose to learn guitar and has gained international prestige, recording contracts with Sony and ABC Classics, and performing with everyone from flautist Jane Rutter and rock guitarist Tommy Emmanuel, to the Australian Chamber Orchestra.

Tomorrow night he opens his New Zealand tour with a programme ranging from Bach to contemporary British composer William Lovelady and, yes, there is something special about doing a solo turn.

"I really cherish the freedom and space that one has when there is just you and a very on-the-spot sort of interpretation," Grigoryan confesses.

Opening the concert is Bach's G major Cello Suite, which he himself transcribed for baritone guitar.

"I have always had a fascination with the deeper-sounding instruments. My father is a violinist and mum played the viola. Even when I was 6 I couldn't listen to my dad practising because it was too high for me, but I loved the viola straight away. I have always sympathised with the bottom end players."

His break came when he met Australian guitar maker Graham Caldersmith.

"I told him I was really interested in playing a larger and deeper instrument and he was already developing a new design, a baritone guitar tuned a fifth below a regular guitar. It functions in a different way because of its extra size and resonance and, as soon as I had it in my hands, I knew that I had to look at the Bach Cello Suites."

I am curious about his favourites in the jazz and rock camps and he opts for American Pat Metheny, because of "the incredible language he's created".

"On paper he is a jazz guitarist," Grigoryan explains, "but his music and playing are so varied that in a sense he has created a genre of his own.

"He's generated such an amazing audience, without being overly commercial or seeking popularity in that kind of way. I have seen the Metheny group playing in Italy to 10,000 people, half of whom are under the age of 25 and they are singing along to these very complicated jazz progressions as if they were pop songs."

And as for young would-be guitarists, the Australian feels that youngsters should "soak up everything like a sponge. Obviously you have to put in the hours, but I think it is important not to be caught up in a very particular area because there is so much to learn from all genres."

* Slava Grigoryan, Chamber Music NZ Celebrity Season at the Raye Freedman Arts Centre, Epsom Girls Grammar School, tomorrow night, 7.30pm