About

A dedicated musical collaborator and insightful soloist, Jamie Balmer has recorded and toured extensively with fellow guitarist Joseph Ricker as half of the visionary guitar ensemble Duo Orfeo. With Orfeo, Jamie has concertized widely and recorded several critically acclaimed albums. Notable among these are 2012’s I sing the body electric, praised by one reviewer as “a milestone record,” and featuring world-premiere arrangements of music by Cage, Satie, Silvestrov, Mompou, and Arvo Pärt - with the latter composer collaborating in the arrangement of his Spiegel im Spiegel for two electric guitars. Jamie has premiered new works for guitar duo by Joel Roston and Thomas Schuttenhelm, and he collaborated with kinetic sculptor Arthur Ganson on the multimedia performance installation Machines. Jamie has also performed with clarinetist Ismail Akmuradov, archguitarist Peter Blanchette, and dancer/choreographer Ilya Vidrin. These wide-ranging collaborative experiences have long served as an important creative compliment to Jamie’s work as a guitar soloist.

His first album of solo guitar music, "American Threads," features major works by Frederic Hand, Frank Wallace, and Phillip de Fremery, as well as his arrangements of selections by Elliott Smith, Duke Ellington, Edward MacDowell, and Leonard Bernstein (from West Side Story). It will be released January of 2017.

A graduate of Hampshire College, where he received the Alan Garely scholarship, Jamie's studies with Phillip de Fremery - a student of Andrés Segovia and devoted curator of his legacy - remain a wellspring of inspiration for his work as a musician. That work incorporates teaching as a corollary to performance, and Jamie has given music workshops and masterclasses at Mt. Vernon Nazarene University, Endicott College, Stratford Academy, Shippensburg University, and the Annapolis Key School. He maintains a large teaching studio in greater Boston and is on the music faculty of the Solomon Schechter School of Boston.

Music

Rennaissance:
Francesco da Milano (1497-1543) - selected Fantasias & Ricercari
John Dowland (1563-1626) - selected fantasias & dances

Baroque:
J.S. Bach (1685-1750) - Suites BWV 995, 996, 997, Prelude BWV 999, Violin Partita in D minor BWV 1004, Suite in E 1006a
Johann Jakob Froberger (1616-1667) Suite No. 2 in Dminor
Silvius Leopold Weiss (1687-1750) - selected works

Classical:
Fernando Sor (1778-1839) - selected works

Spanish:
Francisco Tarrega (1852-1909) - selected works
Andrés Segovia (1893-1987) - selected works
Miguel Llobet (1878-1938) - Canciones populares Catalanas
Antonio Jose (1902-1936) - Sonata for Guitar
Federico Mompou (1893-1987) - Suite Compostelana, Cançó i dansa No. 10 (Sobre dos Cantigas del Rei Alfonso X)

Latin American:
Agustín Barrios (1885-1944) - selected works
Ignacio Figueredo (1899-1995) - selected arrangements
Antonio Lauro (1917-1986) - waltzes

Contemporary:
Leo Brouwer (b. 1939) - Etudes Simples, Fuga No. 1, Cancion de Cuna, Danza Característica "Quítate de la Acera"
Phillip de Fremery (b. 1946) - Music After Lorca
Frederick Hand (b. 1947) - Trilogy
Carlo Domeniconi (b. 1947) - Koyunbaba
Frank Wallace (b. 1952) - The Stubborn Oak
Kevin Callahan (b. 1958) - Three River Moments
Thomas Schuttenhelm (b. 1975) - Epyllion
Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990) - selections from "West Side Story," arranged
Elliott Smith (1969-2003) - selected songs, arranged

Videos

Audio