Berta Rojas
 | Saturday, April 21, 2012, 8:00pm |
Berta Rojas
Renowned for her flawless technique and innate musicality, Berta Rojas ranks among today’s foremost classical guitarists. She has been praised as “guitarist extraordinaire” by the Washington Post, and by Classical Guitar magazine as an “Ambassador of the classical guitar.” Her warmth and heart touching musical artistry delight audiences wherever she performs.
On the concert stage, Berta moves easily between classical and other musical genres. She continues to captivate audiences and critics from Carnegie Hall to the South Bank Centre in London, selling out performances at venues around the world including the Frederick P. Rose Hall at the Lincoln Center in New York, the John F. Kennedy Center, the National Concert Hall in Ireland with the Irish Radio and Television Orchestra, and as soloist with the Brussels Philharmonic Orchestra for National Belgian Television. She opened the Summit of the First Ladies of the Americas, attended by then First Lady, Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Berta maintains a busy schedule of CD recordings. Her Intimate Barrios is one of the most celebrated recordings of the great Paraguayan, glowing with the insight that only a Paraguayan compatriot could bring to his music. With Cielo Abierto and most recently, Terruño, Berta has continued, to great acclaim, to bring a fresh and exciting new repertoire to the guitar. She has also toured in duo with Carlos Barbosa Lima, a collaboration culminating in the CD Alma y Corazón.
In addition to continuously enriching her own musicianship, and her tireless touring, Berta Rojas is committed to furthering the growth of the classical guitar in the Americas with particular focus on supporting young performers. In the summer of 2009 she created the first online classical guitar competition, the Barrios WorldWideWeb Competition, which generated tremendous interest throughout the guitar world. She was artistic director of the Ibero-American Guitar Festival held at the Smithsonian Institution Museum of the American Indian in Washington DC. Berta also co-founded the young persons’ Beatty Music Scholarship Competition for Classical Guitar whose winners perform at the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington DC.
Berta Rojas is Professor of guitar at George Washington University, Washington DC. She studied with Abel Carlevaro and received a Bachelor of Music degree at the Escuela Universitaria de Musica in Uruguay where she was a student of Eduardo Fernandez. Later, she earned a Master’s Degree in Music from Baltimore’s Peabody Conservatory where she studied under Manuel Barrueco. Berta was acknowledged for her artistic excellence by the Kennedy Center which named her a Kennedy Center Fellow of the Americas. Berta Rojas is Paraguay’s Ambassador of Tourism.