Reade Park Records a Concert for The Omni Foundation

Reade Park recorded a mini guitar concert for the Omni Foundation. Reade Park is a rising guitarist and composer from San Francisco, California. He won first prize at the Guitar Foundation of America’s 2022 International Youth Competition, Senior Division, as well as top prizes at the 2023 University of Rhode Island and 2024 Boston GuitarFest Open International competitions. In 2024, Harvard University awarded Reade its prestigious John Green Prize for Composition. Currently enrolled in the Harvard-NEC Dual-Degree Program, he is pursuing an A.B. in mathematics and an M.M. in classical guitar with Eliot Fisk. His mentors include guitarists Judicaël Perroy, Scott Cmiel, and Mark Simons, as well as composers Robert Chastain and Matthew Cmiel.

Antonio José (1902-1936) spent much of his 20s where he wrote many of the works that first gained him recognition. Offered a job back in his home town in 1929, he became director of the Burgos choir. When Nationalist forces overthrew the government in 1936, they began rounding up their enemies. José, who initially felt himself safe from persecution, was soon engulfed in the wave of politically motivated violence and was shot by a band of vigilantes. His 1933 Sonata para Guitarra, only partially premiered by Sainz de la Maza, is his only work for guitar. Its first complete performance had to wait until 1981 when Cuban-American guitarist Ricardo Iznaola played it for the Spanish radio broadcast Lunes Musicales de Radio Nacional.

Composed in 1901, Prélude in G minor is part of Rachmaninoff’s Ten Preludes, Op. 23, a collection that reflects his signature blend of Romanticism and Russian musical traditions. This particular prelude is one of the most famous and virtuosic pieces in the set, showcasing Rachmaninoff’s masterful ability to balance dramatic intensity with lyrical beauty.