r The Springville Arts Commission is pleased to present Swede Larson, a classical guitarist, as our featured artist for the Sunday Concert Series on April 28 at 4:30 p.m. in the Grand Gallery of the Springville Museum of Art. This is an exception to our usual third Sunday schedule as Easter falls on our regularly scheduled day. This concert is free to the public and all are welcome.
Swede holds a Masters’ degree in Humanities with a focus in Philosophical reasoning and has a great ability to connect to his students, particularly from diverse cultural backgrounds. He is working toward a PhD in Cognitive Psychology with an emphasis in instruction and is fantastic at coaching his students to achieving their personal musical goals. He has had many years of teaching and administering at both the collegiate level and K-12 schools in Arizona, Utah and London.
He has an energetic and outgoing personality with an easy vibe and is exceptionally skilled with the guitar. He particularly loves performing classical guitar and has written, produced, and recorded a number of incredible albums. After college, Swede began a project to record the entire contents of Guitar Classics Vol. 1 edited by Jerry Willard, in the span of just one year. During that time, he learned a great deal about what it takes to produce an acceptable classical guitar recording.
In 2015, Swede began teaching guitar at London Studios and took a sabbatical from performing in order to focus on teaching. Throughout his musical career Swede has guided guitarists from many different walks of life, with many different goals in playing. His guidance on the guitar is focused on bringing the highest musicianship and the solid technique of playing regardless of style or genre.
The last performance in the Sunday Concert Series for this season (there will be no concerts during June and July) will be given by Louise Payne, a soprano. Payne has performed various roles in opera and theater. Among them are Maria in “West Side Story”, Milly in ‘Seven Brides for Seven Brothers’, Amahl’s mother in “Amahl and the Night Visitors,” Soprano soloist for “The Messiah,” and Mary Magdalene in “Savior of the World” on Temple Square. She has taught voice lessons privately as well as at The University for Children. She and her husband, Tom, enjoy music together and as a family. They reside in Springville with their five children.
