Guitarist Mak Grgic to Visit Department of Music

Anthony Avellano

Mak Grgic

The Department of Music is pleased to welcome Grammy-nominated guitarist Mak Grgic for a free concert on April 4 at 7 p.m. at the 21c Museum Hotel in Bentonville. Grgic will be joined by the department's own Jake Hertzog. This concert is part of the department's Bridging Differences series and is co-sponsored by the McIlroy Family Endowment in the Visual and Performing Arts. Visit trilliumsalonseries.com/grgic to reserve your spot to "Expressive Resonance."

As well as the performance, Grgic will be teaching a guitar workshop at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 2, in room 335 of the Billingsley Music Building and an entrepreneur workshop at 12:55 p.m. Wednesday, April 3, in room 115.

Touted as a "gifted guitarist" by the New York Times, two-time Grammy­-nominated artist Grgic [GER-gich] is a star on the worldwide stage. An expansive and adventurous repertoire attests to his versatility and wide-ranging interests. From the ethnic music of his native Balkans to extreme avant-garde and microtonal music, his roles as soloist, collaborator and Grammy-nominated recording artist are fueled by curiosity, imagination and boundless energy. As a testament to his versatility and wide-ranging appeal, in 2018 Grgic was invited by legendary singer-songwriter k.d. lang to perform as the opening act for the North American leg of her Ingénue Redux Tour.

Born in Ljubljana, Slovenia, in 1987, Grgic studied guitar in Zagreb with the revered Ante Cagalj at the Elly Basic Music Academy.  Following an injury to his left thumb, he made the decision to focus solely on a career in music, going on to complete a bachelor's degree with Alvaro Pierri at the University for Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. In the fall of 2017, he began the Artist Diploma program at USC, the first guitarist in the university's history to be admitted to this elite program. Grgic currently holds a full-time teaching position at the University of South Carolina and is a founder and CEO of Notey, a startup mobile music education game.

The Bentonville concert is in partnership with the Trillium Salon Series, bringing artists and audiences together to redefine the classical performance experience. Grgic will be performing with music professor Jake Hertzog in a more relaxed setting at 21c, inviting the audience to break the fourth wall and become a part of the musical performance. Hertzog will be playing music from his solo electric guitar suite "Well Lit Shadow," based on theories and images in particle physics.