In the first guitar recital at Oberlin Conservatory since the pandemic WITH an audience, first year student, Nik Divall, led us off to a brilliant re-start. We’d worked together the previous year, though strictly on Zoom while he remained home in Australia. Now, finally enrolled in-person, it seems he’s quickly found a large group of well-wishers who happily braved inclement weather and ignored a large headliner concert in the performance space nearby to hear him in his first Oberlin performance. And they weren’t disappointed. Nik played works of Bach, Sor, Brouwer and Garoto, in a clearly effortless display of both impressive technical prowess and poetic musical interpretation. (Full program at the end of the post). At the end of the recital, the audience erupted into an enthusiastic standing ovation and were treated to an encore: a lovely rendition of Debussy’s “The Girl With the Flazen Hair.” Bravo, Nik!!!

Here’s how it looked, as he played and we listened, all fully-masked: