When Scott Kritzer finished the final chords of his highly-acclaimed Carnegie Hall debut Bernard Holland of the New York times hailed the guitarist as "...intelligent and self-assured...with a sure technique and a musical sensitivity, he created an inner life in his playing , a thinking and caring musician."
Mr. Kritzer made yet another musical splash with debuts in London's prestigious Wigmore Hall, Lutheran Hall and Sapporo, Japan. In 1996 Mr. Kritzer was chosen by Oregon Senator Mark O. Hatfield to represent the entire state of Oregon in a special performance at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.
He has performed on series that have included Itzhak Perlman, Ivo Pogorelic, Cecelia Bartoli and the Emerson and KRONOS String Quartets.
Mr. Kritzer's consummate commitment to technical excellence as the solid structure beneath an unparalleled sense of musicality has since brought him over a decade of accolades from audiences and critics alike, in concert halls in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., New York. He has been featured in Japan's Guitar Magazine, London's Classical Guitar and Guitar International as well as in America's Soundboard and Guitar Player magazines..
A graduate of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Mr. Kritzer studied with Michael Lorimer and Aaron Shearer and in master classes with Luciano Pavorotti, Gustav Leonhardt, Yehudi Menhuin, Alicia de Larocca and Fischer Diska. After graduation he was chosen as an assistant to Mr. Lorimer in a year-long master class held in North Carolina where he also gave a special performance for the late Andres Segovia.
Hailed a "champion of the living American composer", David Maclaine, The Willamette Week, Mr. Kritzer has premiered newly commissioned works for guitar in virtually every major U.S. city. "He possesses an uncanny ability to seek out and commission fresh, invigorating repertoire that he invest with both robust character and poetic nuance. Able to reveal insights without resorting to exaggeration, Kritzer's guitar takes on all the riot and color of the modern life", Neill Archer Roan, California Center for the Performing Arts. He has also served as Artistic Director to one of America's top contemporary chamber groups, The Third Angle New Music Ensemble.
Since 1996 Mr. Kritzer has teamed up with coloratura soprano and star of European Opera Janet Chvatal, Ms. Chvatal also performed the lead role of Christine in Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera for two years in Vienna. Chvatal and Kritzer perform throughout the United States, Canada and Europe, transforming audiences with a romantic style. "Does your love life need a boost, skip the chocolates and flowers and go see Chvatal and Kritzer."
Mr. Kritzer has arranged and recorded for Miramont Records including his Classical Guitar Christmas, and in duo with Ms. Chvatal on Songs of the Americas and In the Blue Hour featuring works for voice, guitar and orchestra.
Mr. Kritzer also maintains an active teaching schedule in Portland, Oregon where many of his past students have won regional, national and international guitar competitions and have gone on to attend such notable schools as The Julliard School, the Royal Conservatory of Music in London, the North Carolina School of the Arts and his alma mater, The San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
Created by: kritzer@lclark.edu
Updated: 7/27/2005