Music Scene
Classical guitarist grew up jamming

By Derek Paiva
Advertiser Staff Writer

•

Antigoni Goni At Hawai'i Guitar Festival 2001 Performance 7 p.m. Saturday Orvis Auditorium, University of Hawai'i-Manoa $15 ($13 students, UH-Manoa faculty/staff, seniors) 956-5666 Classical guitar workshop 1-4 p.m. today University of Hawai'i-Manoa Music Building, Room 108 $30 956-7221 (Registration accepted today if openings are available. Must register before class.) Also: As part of the guitar festival, Gene Bertoncini and Byron Yasui jazz guitar performance, 8 p.m. today, Orvis Auditorium, $15 ($13 students, UHM faculty/staff, seniors), 956-5666. Lyle Ritz conducts a jazz 'ukulele workshop, 1-4 p.m. Saturday, UHM Music Bldg., Room 108, $30, 956-7221. (Registration deadline is today.)

"I guess they were musical," says Goni, giggling. "They're just not professionally musical."

Born, reared and trained in the art of classical guitar in her home city of Athens, Goni was raised in a Greek family and community for whom simply playing music was more important than how professionally music was played.

"Both my parents have beautiful voices and they love to sing," says Goni, in an enchanting Greek accent. "They would sing beautiful ballads, folk songs and popular songs from Greece. I grew up in an environment where classical music was around me most of the time. The guitar would come out on weekends when friends came over."

It came as no surprise to anyone who knew Goni when she picked up the guitar at age 10, when she was big enough to hold a full-size model.

The guitar "had been a very familiar sound from the beginning," says Goni, via telephone from Panama City, where she is visiting friends a week before her Honolulu performance. "My memories are of falling asleep on the couch in somebody's arms while they were singing."

A year later, Goni began training at the National Conservatory of Athens with classical guitarist Evangelos Assimakopoulos, whom she still considers the greatest influence on her playing. Goni gave her first solo classical guitar performance in Athens at age 12, and continued to perform under Assimakopoulos' tutelage during her teenage years. Seeking further musical growth, she moved to London in 1989 at age 20.

"One of my idols and artists that I admired most was British guitarist Julian Bream," says Goni. "The only school that he gave master classes at was the Royal Academy of Music in London. I decided to move there based on that."

Goni moved to New York City in 1991 to pursue a master's degree at the Julliard School, training under Sharon Isbin. She "won" her professional debut — a 1994 appearance at Carnegie's Weill Hall — after taking first place in an international classical guitar competition while still enrolled at Julliard.

Goni's breakthrough into the lofty realm of internationally-lauded classical guitar masters came in 1995, when she won first prize at the Guitar Foundation of America's International Competition. The award led to a recording contract and a 65-city concert tour of North America that essentially launched her career and locked her status alongside the world's best classical guitarists.

In addition to tomorrow's concert as part of Hawai'i Guitar Festival 2001, Goni will conduct a guitar workshop today at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa Music Building.

Goni's O'ahu performance will mark her first visit to Hawai'i. After a few days off for sightseeing, Goni will fly to the Czech Republic for the first of several European guitar festivals she'll perform in this summer.

Though she tours internationally throughout the year, Goni has headed Juilliard's pre-college guitar department since 1995, training talented high-school age students in classical guitar. She took a faculty position at New York City's Columbia University last year as an associate professor of classical guitar.

"What I like about teaching is it keeps me balanced," says Goni, laughing. "A soloist tends to hole themselves in the practice room and live in their own world. Teaching takes me out and gives me a great experience communicating what I'm learning."