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Biography
A richly gifted composer, improviser and guitarist, Dusan
Bogdanovic has explored musical languages that are reflected in his style today- a unique synthesis of classical, jazz and ethnic music. As a soloist and in collaboration with other artists, Bogdanovic has toured extensively throughout Europe, Asia and the United States. His performing and recording activities include work with chamber groups of diverse stylistic orientations including The Falla Guitar Trio and jazz collaborations with James Newton, Milcho Leviev, Charlie Haden, Miroslav Tadic, Mark Nauseef, Anthony Cox and others. He has over fifty published compositions ranging from guitar and piano solo works to chamber and orchestral ensembles (Berben, GSP, Doberman-Yppan et al.), as well as close to twenty recordings ranging from Bach Trio Sonatas to
contemporary works (Intuition, GSP, Doberman-Yppan, M.A. Recordings et al.).
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Biography
Catherina Josepha Pelzer was born in 1821 in Muelheim, on the Rhine. She was the daughter of Ferdinand Pelzer, a leading German guitarist during the early part of the 19th Century. Ferdinand began tutoring his daughter when she was quite young - a task made easier by the fact that young Catherina was quite the musical prodigy. She made her London concert debut at the age of seven. Soon after, her family moved from Germany to England where she received much critical acclaim and gained fame as a performer. Her concerts and recitals inspired people all over to pick up the guitar. Catherina later became much sought after as a guitar teacher, instructing the likes of the Princesses Louise and Beatrice, among others. In 1854 Catherina Pelzer married a renowned flautist and composer, and took the name by which she is more commonly remembered - Madame Sidney Pratten.
After some time as an instructor, she realized that many people were not inclined to invest the necessary effort to master the guitar. Many others simply did not possess the skills to do so. She had the solution, which came in the form of several publications. Her most popular and successful manual, Learning the Guitar Simplified, included easy exercises, each of which was followed by a simple song, along with diagrams of the fingerboard to show where the notes were found. She created another publication that color-coded each note in the diatonic scale. This was known, logically enough, as Colored Diagrams of the Notes of the Fingerboard of the Guitar. And for those who had very little time to practice, she put together Instructions for the Guitar Tuned in E Major. One tuning. No muss, no fuss.
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