UAA musicians take classical guitar and percussion to a new level

When you think of classical guitar and percussion instruments, one often thinks of them individually creating their own unique sound. But with UAA's production of Mundus Canis, a repertoire featuring both guitar and percussion, the two seemingly opposite instruments blend together in a harmonious exchange of melodic string and percussion beats. Created and performed by UAA Department of Music's Armin Abdihodžić and recent graduate in performance and music education, Eric Bleicher, the pair has successfully fused both instruments seamlessly into a carefully curated seven-piece program.

"A dog's world"

The repertoire is the brainchild of Abdihodžić, who was on the hunt to create a unique program that pulled both the guitar and percussion instruments out of their traditional roles and sounds.

"I try to collaborate outside the guitar world because I think classical guitar is the like the 'ugly duckling' of instruments; you've got your symphonies and bands and guitars, they don't really belong to any of that," said Abdihodžić. "It's always good from a musician's standpoint to challenge yourself with something new."

Originally from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Abdihodžić fell in love with guitar as a boy in elementary school and followed his dreams of pursuing his music education after high school to the U.S. After completing his doctorate, he landed in UAA's Department of Music. Bleicher's path to percussion followed a similar route, as he was introduced to music in late elementary school and pursued it through middle, high school and college. The two inevitably met through UAA's close-knit music department, and Abdihodžić approached Bleicher about a year ago with the idea of presenting a concert mixing classical guitar and percussion music.

"It meant a lot to me, as an undergraduate, to be working with someone of his caliber to be asked [to participate]," Bleicher said. "It was definitely a glimpse of jumping into the professional world, and here's a professional opportunity."

The two musicians spent the next few months combing through classical guitar and percussion pieces to fill out their repertoire, finding easy inspiration in some, like Mundus Canis - the program's namesake piece, meaning "a dog's world," by 20th-century American composer George Crumb. Once they'd found their feature piece, it was all about filling in the rest of the program with pieces from more well-known American composers, as well as more obscure composers that had never been played or performed before.

Besides the challenge of creating a repertoire that fused both classical guitar and percussion seamlessly into a seven-piece program, Bleicher faced an additional hurdle that most percussionists are not accustomed to when participating in an orchestra or band - using more than 30 instruments on stage at once. Not only was it a challenge in his musicianship, but the sheer technicality of choosing the correct instrument to match Abdihodžić's guitar riffs, as well as setting up the instruments, pushed Bleicher past his comfort zone.

"For me, this gave me a chance to do a repertoire that I didn't even really know," Bleicher said. "It also pushed me in my last semester, finishing both my degrees in terms of my musicianship. It took a lot to force myself to go from bang, bang, bang all the time to have to be selective and make detailed decisions from what stick type am I going to use to what type of mallet will I use?"

Studio sound

On a Thursday evening in early November, Abdihodžić and Bleicher debuted Mundus Canis to an audience of about 120 guests in UAA's recital hall. It was a one-time-only concert and the two were pleasantly surprised by the concert's warm reception. Abdihodžić said the audience was diverse, ranging from university students and faculty to intrigued community members.

"I received a lot of emails from people making sure that we do it again," said Abdihodžić. "I think the variety of audience was great, too - not everyone was a musician, so it was a good balance."

Abdihodžić felt so positive about the feedback he'd received that he decided to apply for a faculty development grant for him and Bleicher to take the concert to the next level - a professional recording studio. The two were awarded their grant and set off on the next chapter of their Mundus Canis journey.

"It's pretty sweet to have something like this [a studio recording] to commemorate the project," Abdihodžić said. "That's something pretty monumental."

The two realized that recording was another huge challenge. It's not an easy feat moving 30 percussion instruments from UAA's Music Department on the east side of campus to Surreal Studios, a recording studio located in Anchorage's midtown area. Additionally, there was the concern of being able to fit all the instruments into the studio and spending a day of set up to make sure percussion instruments, like the timpani, wouldn't drown out Abdihodžić's guitar.

But the two are confident in the studio's ability to produce a quality recording for them, saying that the sound studio has recorded musical genres from classical music to death metal and everything in between.

"To have a recording under your belt is a very important thing - even in today's age and time - especially a professional recording of that scope," Abdihodžić said. "It's going to be great."

Most of the pieces in the program have been recorded before, but a few are making their recording debut through Abdihodžić and Bleicher's repertoire.

"I think this recording will be appealing to a lot of professionals - guitarists, libraries and other composers - and any musician who's interested in growing this repertoire and hasn't heard something like this before," said Abdihodžić.

Bleicher adds that, as a recent graduate, having such a high-level professional recording with musical debuts that have never been recorded is exciting and humbling. He also sees the recording as a recruitment opportunity, to introduce young musicians interested in exploring and expanding their musical horizons - possibly at UAA.

Hitting the road

Abdihodžić and Bleicher have started reaching out to the greater Alaska community and even to music schools in the Lower 48 who they think would be interested in showcasing their program.

"I think the recording of it [Mundus Canis] is going to be the transition point where we're going to be comfortable enough with it if we get the opportunity to keep playing it, we'll do it and maybe continue adding to our repertoire as collaborators together," Bleicher said.

Abdihodžić adds that originally the two of them set out to conquer this challenge because they wanted to push themselves and create something musically unique, but since they've received such positive feedback, they're considering pushing the project forward even more.

"Music, in general, is in a tough place today," Abdihodžić said. "Everything is quick and you have access to everything you want, so people don't really invest in something or give it a chance, they usually just go with what's comfortable."

He and Bleicher realize their concert is completely outside the mainstream, and they're asking a lot of themselves as musicians - and also their audience - to push boundaries. But the two feel it's important to introduce a musical repertoire that pushes musical comfort buttons and provides people to experience Mundus Canis differently each time they listen to the pieces.

As the new semester begins in January, Abdihodžić and Bleicher will continue to work on Mundus Canis, sharing ideas, perfecting their program and getting ready for the next big thing. The two speak highly of each other and the line between professor and student dissolved a long time ago, as each sees the other equally. And that's what's made the partnership between Abdihodžić and Bleicher so successful - not only their talents as musicians, but their mutual admiration and respect of each other, and what each person brought to the project.

"I think this type of project is really perfect for the university setting - particularly in this collaboration," Abdihodžić said. "I think it's really a project where both of us contributed equally."

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Written by Catalina Myers, UAA Office of University Advancement