About The Piece...

Prelude and Dance (1998) was written at the request of the composer’s cousin, guitarist Mathew Daniels. At the time of the request, Daniels was performing the music of Bach, Villa-Lobos, and Roland Dyens, among others. The composer thought it might be interesting to synthesize various aspects of all three composers into a single piece. The piece derives its use of a prelude from Bach, even if it sounds nothing like Bach. The Dance was inspired by the Spanish/South American flavors prevalent in the guitar music of Villa-Lobos and Dyens (even though he is French). It even uses the ever-popular diminished 7th sonority in parallel as a kind of homage to (or parody of) those composers.

Click to hear a brief excerpt of Aaron Johnson's
Prelude and Dance  Xð

About The Composer...

Aaron Johnson (b.1970) has received many honors for his music including awards from ASCAP, Southeastern Composers League, College Music Society, and Missouri Music Teachers Association. He has been commissioned to write works for chamber orchestra and string orchestra. Most recently he was commissioned by the University of North Carolina at Asheville to write a set of twelve-tone piano pieces to be used as pedagogical tools in their music theory curriculum. Johnson's music has been performed extensively in the United States as well as in Bulgaria, Greece, Costa Rica, and the United Kingdom. He has served as adjunct instructor of composition at Louisiana State University where he also graduated with his Doctor of Musical Arts degree in May of 2004. He received his Bachelor and Master's degrees from Truman State University. His primary composition teachers have included Dinos Constantinides, Warren Gooch, Stephen David Beck, and Paul Siskind.

About The Performer...

Mathew Daniels (b. 1971), a native of St. Louis, Missouri, began playing guitar at the age of eleven. He has studied many different styles of guitar but has concentrated on the classical repertoire since his undergraduate studies. He attended the University of Texas where he received the Bachelor of Business Administration degree in 1993.

Upon graduating he returned to St. Louis where he studied guitar for a year and a half at the Saint Louis Symphony Community Music School. In 1998 Mr. Daniels graduated from Webster University in St. Louis with a Master of Music in both guitar performance and composition, the first student at Webster University to graduate with both degrees. Daniels has recently returned to St. Louis after three years of private study in London, England with the renowned guitar teacher Michael Lewin. He has also studied guitar with John McClellan, Dan Rubright, and Peter Clemens. His composition studies were with Kendall Stallings. He has performed in master classes with Charlie Byrd and Herb Ellis, David Russell, Goran Söllcher, and the Hill-Wilchinsky Duo.

Apart from presenting many concerts and recitals on his own, Daniels has been a featured performer with the Louisiana State University New Music Ensemble, the National Association of Composers, USA Mid-South Chapter, the Louisiana Sinfonietta, the Tampa Bay Composers Forum, and the Society of Composers, Inc. He has performed in London, Italy, and throughout the United States and will be be included in the prestigious Dame Myra Hesse Memorial Concert Series in Chicago, Illinois in 2005.

Daniels has bee a member of the guitar faculty at the Community Music School of Webster University since 2003.