7pm, 6pm doors

$15 GA / $25 Premier; Door $20 / $30

The Happy Valley Guitar Orchestra is an avant-garde community music ensemble made up of 16 electric, acoustic, classical and bass guitars led by Artistic Director Joseph Ricker who creates the innovative arrangements which form their repertoire--a body of music that is as unusual and revelatory as the ensemble itself. Part garage band, part formal large ensemble, the Happy Valley Guitar Orchestra has been thrilling and surprising audiences in the Pioneer Valley and beyond since their founding in 2009 by archguitarist Peter Blanchette. For this performance, the HVGO will be joined by NYC based Jazz and Afro-Latin drummer Richie Barshay.

In a typically varied program, the HVGO will perform music ranging from G.F Handel's Sarabande in d minor to a selection from Stereolab's 1997 art-pop masterpiece "Dots and Loops" along with a generous helping of music with ties to Spain. As a classical guitarist, HVGO Artistic Director Joseph Ricker has formed a deep love for the music of Spain which is--after all--the birthplace of the guitar. Speaking of Spain and the guitar, Ricker notes "Whether it is the intimate piano compositions of my favorite composer, the Catalan modernist Federico Mompou, the "Danzas Españolas" of the Romantic nationalist Enrique Granados or the "Canciones Antiguas Españolas" collected and arranged by none other than Federico Garcia Lorca, the music of Spain always has a home on the guitar."