Johann Sebastian Bach:
Violin Partita No.1 in B minor BWV 1002
Cello Suite No. 3: Sarabande
Prelude from Cello Suite No. 1 in G major, BWV 1007
Peter Blanchette, archguitar
Guitarist, composer, arranger and conductor Peter Blanchette is known around the world as the inventor of the 11-string archguitar. His extraordinary repertoire of internationally acclaimed arrangements and compositions spans from the medieval, renaissance and baroque music to World Music, New Music, and his own original pieces. He performs and records in solo recital, and together with Mané Lareggla (of Madrid, Spain) as Archguitar Duo. Blanchette and Archguitar Duo also record and perform with selected other instrumentalists to form the Virtual Consort. Blanchette has been heard on hundreds of recordings, film and television scores, public radio in the US, Canada, Europe and across Asia, on his own 17 archguitar albums for the Dorian label and his own imprint, Archguitar Music.
Since his late teens, Blanchette has been devoted to the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. He has made archguitar arrangements of hundreds of the Bach's music composed originally for solo violin, solo 'cello, and lute , as well as archguitar duo arrangements of keyboard and orchestral works.
Kirsten Swanson wrote in the CVNC Charlotte Journal about Peter Blanchette's performance at the Bechtler Museum of Contemporary Arts' Concert Series:
"The ornamentation and rhythmic intricacies in the Courante were so creative that they gave the impression that Blanchette was composing the music on the spot. Each phrase was a new delight. He highlighted and danced rhythms that I had never heard before in the music. After a short pause wherein Blanchette joked about how hard the Courante is (the entire concert was performed by memory), he continued with the Sarabande, which left me crying and speechless from its serene beauty."
Blanchette is a veteran performer at such high profile venues as NPR’s “A Prairie Home Companion,” and The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and has performed in nearly all countries in Western Europe, from Norway to Portugal.
