Stephen Aron is a world-renowned classical guitarist who founded Oberlin’s Classical Guitar program in 1992. He is a groundbreaking figure in the world of classical guitar recordings, publishing the first-ever complete solo guitar recording of Chopin’s Mazurkas. He has also adjudicated numerous national and international music competitions and has been a frequent guest performer and lecturer at top guitar festivals across the world. Additionally, Aron maintains one of the most-frequented online classical guitar blogs, where he has hundreds of posts ranging from techniques to social events to spaces on campus best for guitar, and often featuring his students’ accomplishments. Aron will be performing a faculty recital Tuesday, Nov. 18 at 7:30 p.m. in Fairchild Chapel.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
What was the process of founding Oberlin’s classical guitar program like?
I came to Oberlin having already worked for 10 years at a nearby institution, the University of Akron, where I was a full professor. When the program began there, it had three students. I think they imagined that it would be one afternoon a week, but I had built the program at the University of Akron from nothing up to a juggernaut. We had just hosted the biggest convention in the Western Hemisphere at the University of Akron for classical guitar, so I knew how to build it.
It seemed like Oberlin was a perfect environment to create a guitar culture. I set about doing what I normally do, and within about two or three years, I had as many students here as I had at my full-time program, which also includes master’s degree students. The reputation of the Conservatory helped, of course, but I have friends throughout the guitar community. When they heard that there was guitar being offered at Oberlin, and everybody was familiar with me from having hosted that big convention and other activities, it caught on. We had a big studio very quickly.
Over the course of your time teaching, how have you seen it evolve?
The program itself hasn’t changed markedly. But what’s happened over the years is that the guitar has become more deeply ingrained in the life of the Conservatory because I encourage my students to play chamber music with other musicians. As a result, they get to know the other members of the community in a deeper, more meaningful fashion. My colleagues on the faculty appreciate the guitarists because they’re bringing some unfamiliar and interesting repertoire.
And of course, we do a lot of performing. The Guitar students, like most Conservatory students, are required to do two recitals to graduate, but the Guitar students almost always give four full recitals, one each year. We’re just blessed here with a remarkable array of performance spaces. So the students graduate with a lot of performing experience.
What inspired you to first start blogging about classical guitar and your students?
It was a new thing 10 years ago when I started that. It was a feeling that the things I was saying to my students weren’t being met with adequate enthusiasm, and I started to feel that I wanted to put this out to the world. So, I wrote a number of articles about technique and how to practice.
At the same time, I thought it was a nice way to spotlight what the students were doing. From that point forward, every time a student was giving a recital, I would do a blog post about it with photos and the program. By doing so, I created a window into the students’ activity at the institution, which is remarkable looking back. You can see what the students looked like at their freshman recital, and by the time they’re a senior, they’ve grown up. We also have guest artists every year and see them interacting with the guests, and you can see them playing with other musicians. So the blog is a platform for just sharing all the events that the students are engaged with here.
What would you say is most important in your pedagogy when teaching classical guitar?
We work on technique, but really I feel like what I’m engaged most in is cultivating their individual musicality and artistic voice. We look for repertoire that speaks to them that is level-appropriate, and no one is ever playing the same piece as anyone else. Consequently, they really start to sound like themselves. With all the performing that they do and all the repertoire they cover, they really have an opportunity to develop and discover themselves.
What is something you’re looking forward to with your upcoming faculty recital?
This particular program is dedicated to Romantic period music. A few years ago I arranged Romantic piano music — Chopin, Schumann, Mendelssohn — for the guitar. I found a way to make this music sound like guitar music, which was a great joy. But what I’m doing in this program is putting that repertoire side by side with conventional guitar music from that same period. In a way, it’s a little compare-and-contrast exercise.
The guitar composers that really only guitarists are best familiar with — for instance, Johann Caspar Merz and Giulio Ragandi — will now be side by side with Schumann and Chopin. You might be able to say, “Well, this one is obviously better or that one is more interesting,” but it’ll be a very subjective conclusion that you’ll draw because people might differ in the way they hear it. So, it’s not obvious who wins this contest — I say that kind of in humor because I’m not really thinking of it in a contest way, but it’s a pleasure for me to do a deep dive in 19th-century music.
Is there anything else you would like to share?
The pleasure of being on this faculty just never ceases for me. My colleagues are remarkable here, and I just always feel incredibly lucky to be among them. And the students are always fascinating to me. I learn more from them than they could ever learn from me.
