Aaron Haas From Duo Apollon Records Two Solo Videos With Music By J. S. Bach

Not that long ago, we wrote about Duo Apollon's world premiere of Brad Richter's "Frost Songs" which took place on our YouTube channel. Duo Apollon is one of our favorite guitar and voice ensembles. Aaron Haas (guitar) and Anastasia Malliaras (soprano) have been playing together for a few years already since they established their duet while being students at the USC Thornton School of Music.

On the occasion of visiting GSI as a member of Duo Apollon, Aaron also recorded Frank Koonce's arrangements of two movements from "Violin Sonata No. 1, BWV 1001" by Johann Sebastian Bach. First, Aaron performed for us the third movement, "Siciliana". Siciliana as a form is only loosely associated with Sicily. It's a slow movement that evokes a pastoral mood and it's usually in a minor mode. Aaron decided to record this movement on a 2021 Paula Lazzarini "Granada winner" CD/IN - this is the same guitar that won the prestigious 4th International Antonio Marin Montero Guitar Building Competition in Granada, Spain.

In the second video, you'll hear the fourth, and final movement, "Presto" from the same sonata. For this video, Aaron picked a 2008 Kenneth Brogger SP/MP guitar. It's a stunning instrument that features a gorgeous set of flamed maple for the back and sides. This instrument has the same power and volume as Brogger's rosewood guitars yet, retains the additional warm glow of the maple. The guitar is reminiscent of the charming maple guitars of the early Madrid school.

Check out Aaron's two videos below!