Guitar Festival Wednesday Concert – Duo Agostino

Performer background

RAFFAELE AGOSTINO
Raffaele Agostino is a freelance musician, teacher and an examiner for the A.M.E.B. He has performed in the Musica Viva “Music In Schools” project, appeared for Opera Australia, and as soloist with Sydney Youth Orchestra and the Ku-ring-gai Philharmonic Orchestra. Raffaele has made several recordings for the ABC and Radio Fine Music. He has released a CD “Whispering from the cedar top” of solo guitar music by Australian composers Richard Charlton and Phillip Houghton. He is currently the Artistic Director of the Classical Guitar Society, Sydney.

JANET AGOSTINO
Janet Agostino is currently a Diverse Learners teacher with degrees in Special Education and Gifted Education. Janet conducts the Sydney Classical Guitar Society Orchestra and is also Adjunct Lecturer in Guitar at UNSW, where she directs the UNSW Guitar Ensemble. Collaborative works have been a feature of Janet’s career, having performed and arranged music for numerous mixed-instrument ensembles in addition to guitar ensembles. In 2021, Janet completed a PhD at UNSW, researching the transformation of the classical guitar ensemble through transcription.

DUO AGOSTINO
Raffaele and Janet have been active in the Sydney Classical Guitar scene over the last four decades, beginning with the founding of the Sydney Guitar Quartet in 1981, a group that performed extensively for a period of over 10 years and was the first ensemble of its kind in Australia. They share a strong interest in the development of the guitar as an ensemble instrument and have been the driving force behind the Sydney Guitar Society Summer School for more than 25 years.

Together with fellow guitarist and composer Richard Charlton, they form the “Sydney Guitar Trio”, an ensemble that has performed widely around Australia and overseas. Duo Agostino and the Sydney Guitar Trio have been regular performers at five Darwin International Guitar Festivals,and they have taught and performed in Argentina, Italy, the UK, Vietnam and New Zealand.  Duo Agostino have been featured artists at the Dillington, West Dean, Winchester and World Youth Guitar Festivals in the UK and the Classical Guitar Corner Summer Schools in Boston USA in 2017-2019. More recently, the Duo’s programs have included concerts with cellist Rachel Scott in the popular “Bach in the Dark” concert series,

Raffaele and Janet each hold a Fellowship from the Trinity College of London and have been awarded Life membership of the Classical Guitar Sydney for ‘Significant and Sustained contribution’. Janet and Raffaele play guitars by Greg Smallman.