• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Classical Guitar Corner

Learn Classical Guitar Online

  • About
    • Team
    • About Simon
  • Learn
    • Practice
    • Technique
    • Repertoire
    • Sight Reading
    • Theory & Musicianship
    • Beginners
  • BOOKS
  • BLOG
  • PODCAST
  • ACADEMY
  • CONTACT
  • Log In

Member Spotlight: Bruce Donehower

posted on April 18, 2018

For this month’s CGC Academy Member Spotlight we’re featuring longtime member Bruce Donehower. Bruce was one of the earliest members of CGC and has been involved in so much of what’s been going on at CGC over the last several years. Below is a video of Bruce playing “Romanza” by Robert Schumann, arranged by Francisco Tárrega (sorry for the desync between the audio and video).

Bruce “retired” to the classical guitar in 2014 after his wife said he couldn’t bring a piano into the house and that if he wanted to do music he had to play guitar again. He quit playing classical guitar completely for a little more than 20 years prior to the return. Bruce found CGC at that time and connected with Simon. He participated in both Guitorberfests and the first CGC Summer School. His goals right now are to relearn the old repertoire that he once knew but forgot; to learn new pieces; and to learn to record and make better videos for friends and family. The Schumann piece is one that he worked on with Simon in 2017 at the CGC Summer School.

This transcription by Tárrega actually was quite difficult to track down because it is located in the middle of a longer piece (and was misprinted in earlier editions as having been from a different work by Schumann). This little romanza comes from Robert Schumann’s “Novelleten” (Op. 21) for solo piano and is found in two of the seven sections from No. 1 in F Major (this section appears twice in that piece: in the second section in F Major, and then again at the end in A Major, the key Tárrega uses for his transcription). Tárrega added the (quite appropriate!) title “Romanza.” Here’s a stunning performance of the whole piece by Claudio Arrau. – Dave Belcher

Filed Under: Classical Guitar Blog, Member Spotlight

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. John

    April 18, 2018 at 4:58 pm

    Beautifully played Bruce. Lovely sound from such a simple recording setup :)

    Reply
  2. Kari

    April 18, 2018 at 5:34 pm

    Thank you so much for sharing your work, Bruce. There were so many special moments in this piece. Keep up the great work!

    Reply
  3. Johan Gebben

    April 18, 2018 at 6:25 pm

    Very beautifully done, Bruce. My goal is to be able to play as well after a while.

    Reply
  4. David Norton

    April 18, 2018 at 7:01 pm

    A bit of trivia: this same piece was the opening selection of Julian Bream’s first public recital, at Cheltenham, England, 17 February 1947. Bream also performed it four months later as part of his first BBC broadcast.

    Reply
  5. Drew Burgess

    April 18, 2018 at 9:22 pm

    Wonderful playing Bruce! Thank you for this beautiful expression.

    Reply
  6. Mark Campbell

    April 18, 2018 at 9:39 pm

    Your body language always conveys how deeply you feel the music Bruce, and that sensitivity shines through in your music making. Wonderful!

    Reply
  7. joannes

    April 18, 2018 at 10:26 pm

    Thanks for sharing this beautiful music with us Bruce.
    a pleasure to hear you playing this ‘Romanza’.

    Reply
  8. Richard Croad

    April 19, 2018 at 6:00 am

    Beautifully played Bruce; you get a great sound–very resonant in the upper registers of the guitar which makes the Romanza so attractive.

    Reply
  9. Linda Tsardakas

    April 19, 2018 at 6:47 am

    Beautiful playing and I love the mood you create with this music Bruce. Thank you to Simon for putting a spotlight on Bruce!

    Reply
  10. Roger Ramirez

    April 19, 2018 at 7:46 am

    Beautifully played!

    Reply
  11. Donna Zitzelberger

    April 19, 2018 at 11:50 am

    So expressively played – absolutely beautiful.

    Reply
  12. Shannon Ann

    April 19, 2018 at 5:25 pm

    Beautiful!

    Reply
  13. Armando Baltra

    April 20, 2018 at 9:15 am

    Wow! Bruce, that was REALLY nice.

    Armando

    Reply
  14. Lynda

    April 20, 2018 at 4:22 pm

    Beautiful, Bruce. Thank you for sharing.
    Lynda

    Reply
  15. Martha

    April 20, 2018 at 11:20 pm

    Bruce, Thank you to your wife for encouraging you to return to classical guitar (even if you wanted a piano). This is beautiful.
    Martha

    Reply
  16. Daniel Shugrue

    April 23, 2018 at 9:05 am

    So rich! So dark! I love it. Thank you Bruce.

    Reply
  17. Gino

    April 23, 2018 at 4:47 pm

    Very gentle and beautiful, Bruce! Thank you! And Dave, I love the historic notes!

    Reply
  18. Marg Sherringham

    April 23, 2018 at 8:39 pm

    Beautifully played Bruce, totally engaging. Thank you for sharing your playing, and I think your wife is a very wise woman, to steer you back to the guitar. You have a natural feel for the instrument, enjoy many happy hours rediscovering your old pieces in your retirement.
    Best wishes,
    Marg.

    Reply
  19. Richard Goldblatt

    April 25, 2018 at 3:06 pm

    Bravo Bruce! I hope i can play like that one day.

    Reply
  20. Bruce

    April 27, 2018 at 4:57 pm

    Thank you, everyone, for your kind and supportive comments. I’m glad you enjoyed the music. Just as an aside, the guitar I’m playing here, the Cordoba C10, cracked hugely on my last trip to Portland, Oregon — despite being in a Visesnut case. I know some folks are interested in anecdotes about travel with guitar. I’ve always had good experiences, and I’ve traveled with this guitar many a time, to Asia and to Europe and across the US — no problem. But this time — whoa! I have to run it over to the local luthier to see if it’s cost effective to repair. But even with the huge crack, it sounded just fine and I played it for the family in Portland. Not sure what I’m going to take to Endicott yet. By the way, the Visesnut case is undamaged.

    — Bruce

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Take a Free Course

.

Recent Posts

  • 2021 Musical Goals
  • CGC Member Spotlight: Armando Baltra and Scott Brandenberg
  • CGC 104 : CGC’s 10-Year Anniversary!
  • Member Spotlight: Rick Lord
  • CGC 103 : Uroš Barič

Recent Comments

  • David DiPietro on 2021 Musical Goals
  • Richard Goldblatt on 2021 Musical Goals
  • Doug Peterman on CGC Member Spotlight: Armando Baltra and Scott Brandenberg
  • Lidia Baltra on CGC Member Spotlight: Armando Baltra and Scott Brandenberg
  • Armando Baltra on Member Spotlight: Rick Lord

Footer CTA

Join the CGC Academy

Get Started Now

Get 3 Free Lessons

Copyright © 2021 · Log in