Artist bios

Christian Chanel

Christian Chanel has studied improvisation and harmony on piano with Edward Salim Michael, and guitar with some of the greatest guitarists of our time including Andres Segovia, Narciso Yepes, Alberto Ponce, Alexandre Lagoya, Oscar Ghiglia, and Jose Tomas. Laureate of the Cziffra Foundation since 1973, he leads an active career spanning three continents. He has organized an Homage to Andrés Segovia at UNESCO in Paris, played a recital at Wigmore Hall in London and given the world premier of his published guitar transcription of the solo suites for cello by Bach. Christian is professor of guitar at the Conservatoire National de Versailles, and has released a number of CDs, including “Occident-Orient” (with Herbert Lashner on oboe) and “J.S. Bach: Six Suites de Danses.”

Marie Chanel-Vignon

Marie Chanel-Vignon has studied the guitar with Alexandre Lagoya, Carel Harms, and Oscar Ghiglia. It was while working with Mr. Lagoya that she met Christian Chanel with whom a guitar duo was formed that has performed concerts for more than ten years (Salle Gaveau, Salle Cortot in Paris, Palais des Rohan in Strasbourg, Institut Français in London, etc.). Her participation in the International Movement of Music Education founded by Edgar Willems has been a major factor in her search for a living approach to teaching both music in general and the guitar. Marie is professor of guitar at the Conservatoire National de Versailles.

Michael Hunter

Michael Hunter studied piano with Myron Myers and has degrees in performance and musical literature from Rhodes College as well as graduate study in musicology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Michael has worked as accompanist and vocal coach in the studio of Marjorie Lawrence, a leading soprano with the Paris and Metropolitan Operas. He appears frequently in chamber music concerts with Matthew Shubin and Paul Schliffer.

Herbert Lashner

Herbert Lashner was a scholarship student at the Julliard School of Music. Later in his career he studied music and the oboe in depth with Marc Lifschey, former principal oboe with the Cleveland Orchestra and the inspiration for the greatest American oboists living today. His career extends from the United States to Europe and he has played principal oboe and English horn with the Israel Chamber Orchestra, the Oregon Symphony Orchestra, the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra and l’Orchestre Philharmonique de France. Herbert’s recent CD “Occident-Orient” was recorded with Christian Chanel.

Cuban-born guitarist, composer, educator, and folklorist José Manuel Lezcano has captivated audiences on four continents. His programs of traditional and South American guitar repertory, his own solo, concerto, and chamber works, and Andean music have taken him from Carnegie Recital Hall and New York City’s North-South Consonance Series to major venues and festivals in Ecuador, Colombia, Peru, Brazil, China, Germany, and the Czech Republic as recitalist, collaborative musician,
and concerto soloist.

Paul Schliffer was a pupil of Robert Willoughby at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and later worked with the renowned flute virtuoso Marcel Moyse. Paul is a founding member of the early Rochester Folk Art Guild music group Three Musicians, and can be heard on their recordings. He often collaborates with acclaimed flutist Carol Wincenc, with Matthew Shubin and the Pittsford Camerata, and Michael Hunter, concertizing widely in the Upstate New York region.

Matthew Shubin was principal bassoonist of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and then joined the Cleveland Orchestra as associate principal. He teaches and plays at the Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music in New Hampshire and is often heard as soloist with the baroque chamber group Pittsford Camerata. Matthew has performed and taught all over the globe, most recently in Chengdu, China, and Quito, Ecuador.