Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco was a 20th Italian composer of Jewish descent who was becoming a celebrity in the late 1930’s when he had to escape the fascist regimes of Itaiy and Germany. He is very familiar to guitarists and guitar audiences, but less well known in other circles where he excelled. Once safely arrived n the U.S. in 1939, the great violinist Jascha Heifetz helped him land a job writing film scores for Western films from the 1940’s until his death in 1968. His music will be familiar because of his many film scores, and his influence and mentorship of other great American composers such as Nelson Riddle, Andre Previn, Henry Mancini, and the unparalleled John Williams.
Tedesco completed the first guitar concerto just before he escaped Italy in 1939. It truly represents an important life transition, no less than one of survival. The premier was done by Andres Segovia in Montevideo, but the composer had to wait eleven years before he heard the work performed by Segovia and the L.A. Philharmonic in 1950. Because Tedesco was able to live safely and happily in the U.S. he contributed significantly to the repertoire for the guitar. The music for the instrument would be much poorer without Tedesco’s work and collaborations with Segovia and other major guitarists of the 20th century.
Concert In your Living Room was launched in 1998 with the first such concert to raise funds for a church in Sudbury, MA. Since then, concert guitarist Dave McLellan has delivered private recitals of beloved works in the solo classical guitar literature in an intimate setting such as the living room of a private home. Our clients have included Habitat for Humanity, Greater Boston Food Bank, Animal Rescue League of Boston, Leukemia Lymphoma Society of New England, Be Like Brit Foundation, Worcester Chamber Music Society, University of Hartford, Boston Children’s Museum, Charity: water, Blue Dragon Children’s Foundation, Pan Mass Challenge, many churches and humanitarian organizations.
Dave McLellan has performed in the U.S., South America, Great Britain, and Europe since 1976, including debut and chamber appearances in Jordan Hall, Carnegie Hall, Merkin Hall, and Wigmore Hall (London). Beginning in 1981, he lived a double life as software engineer and concert guitarist with duo partner Neil Anderson. The Anderson-McLellan Duo gave several hundred concerts throughout the 1980’s, including two concert tours of Great Britain, and festival performances in the US and South America. Supported grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the D ’Addario Foundation, they gave their farewell performance in November 1989 in Merkin Hall, New York, in a program of American duo guitar music, including 3 premiers performances. Mr. McLellan’s collaborators include the late guitarist/composer Frank Wallace, the Serata Quartet, soprano Rebecca Grimes, soprano Rebekah Alexander, contralto Emily Marvosh (Handel & Haydn Society, Lorelei), flutist Tracy Kraus, violinist Judith Eissenberg, and guitarist Edward Flower.
Mr. McLellan has served on the faculties of The Hartt School and the University of Connecticut, where he also performed regularly with Edward Flower. In addition to serving on the faculty of the Performing Arts Center Metrowest, he served on the Town of Harvard Artist in Residence program. He is a self-taught free-lance timpanist and mallet percussionist and has appeared with community and professional orchestras in the Metrowest Boston area. He is the timpanist, publicist, and guitar soloist of the Lincoln-Sudbury Civic Orchestra, in residence at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School.
Having been raised by a pathological philanthropist, Mr. McLellan is committed to using music to change lives and help charitable causes. In 1998, he founded and continues to perform in Concert in Your Living Room, a service dedicated to helping non-profits raise funds. In 1996, he established the David S. and Margaret McLellan Endowment for Performance Outreach at The Hartt School. While he served on the Hartt School Board of Trustees in Audience Development (2015-2021), he created and curated the first six seasons of the popular Hartt@Home program, an initiative that brought Hartt students, faculty, and alumni performers into private homes for intimate performance experiences. Hartt@Home served over 2300 listeners in its six seasons, one living room (or Zoom call) at a time. He currently serves on the Boards of Directors of the Boston Classical Guitar Society and the Performing Arts Center Metrowest in Framingham.
Nikolaus Hunt is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts,with a B.M. in Piano Performance. There, he was a recipient of the Chancellor’s Talent Award and a winner of the DownBeat Student Music Awards. In addition to his bachelor’s studies, Mr. Hunt has studied classical and jazz piano, including at the New England Conservatory of Music Preparatory School. Mr. Hunt has performed as an accompanist in several public school districts in Massachusetts and as a soloist and band member throughout New England. He is also a professional arranger, and his work has been featured at Scullers Jazz Club in Boston, Massachusetts. Mr. Hunt has been teaching privately since 1994 and is currently serving as a music educator and choral accompanist at The Bromfield School in Harvard, Massachusetts.