Classical guitarist Ivar Fojas will hold his solo concert as part of the Special Concert Series on November 16, Wednesday at the CCP Tanghalang Ignacio Gimenez (Black Box Theater) at 7:30 pm.
Dr. Ivar-Nicholas Fojas currently works as a guitar professor at the Philippine Women’s University School of Music Graduate School. He mentors masters and doctoral-level guitar students and teaches Ph.D. courses in music and is an associate Professorial Lecturer 5 at De La Salle University Literature Department. He received a Fulbright scholarship to pursue his doctoral studies at the Bolton Guitar Studies Program at the University of Arizona in 2011. He was also a full scholar in his previous studies at the Philippine Women’s University and the University of the Philippines from 2008 to 2011. He taught at the University of the Philippines College of Music and later became a lecturer of humanities at the University of the Philippines Los Baños.
Fojas conducted research on the lute works of J.S Bach that culminated in a lecture. This led him to baroque guitar performances with the Helios Ensemble and Arizona Baroque. He presented numerous solo recitals and performed guitar concertos in the Philippines by Mauro Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Federico Moreno-Torroba, and Joaquin Rodrigo with the Manila Symphony Orchestra and Peace Philharmonic Philippines, among other events.
In 2020, Fojas was featured in an online concert under the Sunshine Classics concert series on October 16-31 together with the Kabataang Gitarista (KG); Fernando Sy-Changco III, David Tiongson, and Edel Mark Bitao who are a group of skilled public high school students.