VINCEA MCCLELLAND

 

Classical Guitar

Canada

Throughout a career spanning five continents and more than two decades, Canadian guitarist Vincea McClelland has given concerts in a wide variety of venues from the Beijing Concert Hall to Stockholm's Music Museum, from Cleveland's Convention Center Music Hall, where she performed with the Festival Orchestra, to the Théâtre Villette at the Paris International Music Fair. Her playing has been consistently praised for its virtuosity and clarity, dynamic style, great sensitivity and remarkable tone described as "luminous" (Guitares, Belgium), "pristine" (Halifax Chronicle Herald, Canada) and "golden...heavenly" (Dorset Guitar Society, England). Vincea has been a featured soloist at numerous international guitar and music festivals such as the Paris International Guitar Weekend, the Classical Guitar Festival of Great Britain at West Dean, the International Guitar Festival of the Americas in Stockholm and the Guitarras del Mundo International Festival in Argentina.

Vincea's Canadian appearances are frequently broadcast nationally on both the English and French networks of the CBC. They include a concert recorded live in the Rideau Chapel of the National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa), the CBC/McGill Concert Series in Montreal and two invitations to perform at Prince Edward Island's Indian River Festival. Recitals and concert tours have also taken her to the U.S.A., Britain, France, Italy, Portugal, Holland, Switzerland, Germany, Luxembourg, Sweden, Argentina, Brazil, Egypt, Morocco and China. In addition to her solo concerts, she has performed in numerous chamber music ensembles and has recorded for television and radio in Switzerland and Germany and for Radio France, CBC Radio-Canada and Chinese State Radio.

In September of 1988 Vincea McClelland and her husband, French guitarist and lutenist Raymond Cousté, received an invitation from the Chinese government to tour the People's Republic of China. Making their international début as a duo, the artists were named "Honorary Advisors" to the Guitar Societies of Shanghaï and Beijing and Vincea also became the first Canadian to teach the classical guitar in mainland China. In November, 2005 Vincea was invited to represent Canada at the 10th International Strings Festival in Rabat, Morocco and also performed a recital for an audience of government officials and diplomats at the official residence of the Canadian ambassador.

Vincea's CDs Guitar Originals, Intermedio and Classique!have been widely acclaimed for their high quality, choice of repertoire, energetic musicality and beautiful sound. They are regularly reviewed in international guitar and music magazines in France (Guitare Classique), Belgium (Guitares), Italy (GuitArt), Germany (Staccato), Poland (Swiat Gitary), England (Classical Guitar Magazine), Canada (WholeNote) and the USA (Soundboard). An all-duo album entitled Guitar Duo was released in 2011.

Born in Montreal and now based in Paris, France, Vincea McClelland obtained her Bachelor of Music in Performance degree at the University of Toronto where she studied with famed guitar professor Eli Kassner. Later she studied with Oscar Ghiglia at the Banff School of Fine Arts and with Alexandre Lagoya in France, both in Paris and at theAcadémie Internationale in Nice. She has won scholarships and awards including two Canada Council grants and the Floyd S. Chalmers Performing Arts Award from the Ontario Arts Council. Her many pedagogic activities have included giving masterclasses and workshops worldwide as well as teaching on the guitar faculties of the Toronto Board of Education, the Royal Conservatory of Music of Toronto, the University of Guelph (Ontario) and the Paris Central Conservatory. Founder of the International Guitar Festival of Rueil-Malmaison in France, she acted as artistic director from 2000 to 2005. She has published articles in Classical Guitar (Britain), Soundboard (USA), Les Cahiers de la Guitare (France), Guitar Classique (France) and for the Guitar Society of Toronto. Vincea McClelland holds a Professor of Music diploma from the French Ministry of Culture and teaches in Paris at the Conservatoire Maurice Ravel de Levallois.