Professional History

Concerts

   Since his first U.S. tour in 1970, Phillip de Fremery has given more than five hundred concerts throughout the United States, Canada and Central Europe including appearances at Colorado State University, Fisk University, the Philadelphia Musical Academy, Vassar College, Alfred University, Seattle Pacific College, Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, Drew University, University of California at Berkeley and Davis, Immaculate Heart College, Southern Methodist University, Yale University, Williams College, University of Denver, Walter Paepke Auditorium in Aspen, Colorado, Eastfield Junior College, William Paterson College, Arapahoe Junior College, Wesleyan University, California State University at Fullerton, Simon Fraser University, State University of New York at Purchase, Oneonta and Cobleskill, University of Utah, University of British Columbia, Sacramento City College, San Francisco Theological Seminary, North Texas State University, Middlebury College, the Hockaday School in Plano, Texas; and Western New England College.

Soloist with orchestra

Rogue Vallley Symphony
   Ashland, Medford and Grant’s Pass, Oregon, Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez and Boccherini’s Concerto in E Major.  Fredrik Palmer, conductor.

Catskill Symphony
   Oneonta and Cooperstown, New York, Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez.  Charles Schneider, conductor.

Colgate University Orchestra
   Hamilton, New York, Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez.  Charles Schneider, conductor.

Holyoke Civic Orchestra 
   Holyoke, Massachusetts, Boccherini’s Concerto in E Major, Patrick Smith, conductor.

 

Master classes

   Sacramento City College, Simon Fraser University, Immaculate Heart College, California State University at Fullerton, Middlebury College, Southern Oregon College, California Institute of the Arts, Alfred University, Philadelphia Guitar Society, University of Arizona, Dallas Classical Guitar Society, Monroe Community College, University of Utah, University of Denver, North Texas State University, Southern Methodist University, and Yale University, Mannes College of Music (The Ghiglia Legacy)

   World premieres

   (composer)                                   (description)
   Lewis Spratlan  Dance Suite in three movements for guitar, violin, clarinet and harpsichord

   William Valente         Suite in five movements for guitar solo

   Tania French    OREAD for solo guitar, orchestra and SATB chorus

Reviews

“…one of the brightest stars in the classical guitar concert world, possessing unique
mastery of tonal essence and interpretation…a tremendous joy to hear.”
          -Lamar Eskelson, Newsletter of the Intermountain Guitar Society, Salt Lake City, Utah

“…plumbed great depths of expression and created pictures of stunning beauty and
appeal.”

Composition        Music after Lorca, in three movements for solo guitar, written in 1984 for a dramatic reading of Federico García’s Lorca’s Poet in New York

         Star of the County Down, a full three-section realization for solo guitar, 2005

Special appearances at guitar festivals

   Aspen Music Festival                       Master classes, given under the auspices of the  residency of Maestro Oscar Ghiglia, 1972, 1973, 1974 and 1975

   First American Guitar Congress   Solo recital and oral presentation,  Advanced Teaching and Performance Principles, University of Maryland, 1986

Honors and Awards      The Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival named de Fremery its winner for best original music based on his live, improvised soundtrack in Holyoke Community College’s 2012 production of House of Bernarda Alba by Federico García Lorca, directed by Patricia Sandoval.  Earlier, the Community College awarded him the Lani Morrison McKenna Guest Artist Prize for the same production, marking the first time in the College’s history that someone outside the Theater Department has won the award

         Phillip de Fremery also performed incidental music for the five-night run of Lorca’s Blood Wedding at Holyoke Community College, directed by Patricia Sandoval, in 2003

Outreach    Numerous interviews and live performances for radio and television including Vermont and National Public Radio, WAMC Albany, C.C.A.T.V., NOVA, Continental Cablevision and National Educational Television; music for theater, dance concerts, gallery openings, private concerts, the Channel 57 Auction Preview at Stage West, collaborations with poets Joseph Langland, Gjertrude Schnackenberg and Paul Smyth, and a command evening performance for the combined cabinets of the United States and Iran at the Smith Ranch in Aspen, Colorado

References

          “Phillip de Fremery, who has performed with distinction in my master classes of 1966 and 1968, has shown much love for the guitar and he has the good sound.  I am sure that, in time, he will be a fine performing guitarist of the future, and a credit to the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where he received his first training.

                            Andres Segovia
                            Santiago de Compostela, Spain
                            September 1968

         “I highly recommend to your attention the young musician Phillip de Fremery.  As a guitarist he has shown in many an occasion his talent, both in mastering his instrument and in grasping the musical feeling of the works he plays. 
            As a teacher he seems to possess a gift to transmit to his pupils his musical abilities.  I am very pleased to have been one of his teachers and I believe that thanks to his inborn musicality he will soon be recognized as one of the most sensitive performers in the United States.”

                            Oscar Ghiglia
                            Aspen, Colorado
                            July 1969