Guitar Workshop

Anne Waller has toured the United States and Europe for over 30 years as both a soloist and as a member of the Waller and Maxwell Guitar Duo performing on both modern and historical instruments.

Ms. Waller has  been presented in a wide variety of festival and concert venues including Guitar Foundation of America Festivals, Mid-America Guitar Ensemble Festivals, the ASTA National Conference in Detroit, the Rantucci International Guitar Festival, the New York Guitar Festival at Mannes, the Royal Irish Academy of Music in Dublin, and the Festival Les Arcs as well as by guitar societies in Dallas, Chicago, Minneapolis, Memphis and North Carolina. In addition, she has performed, lectured and taught master classes at colleges and universities throughout the United States and in Europe. Ms. Waller has been featured regularly in live broadcasts on both commercial and public radio including the “Studs Terkel Show”, “Eight Forty-Eight”, “Live from WFMT” and “Live from Mayne Stage”.

As a member of the Waller and Maxwell Guitar Duo, Ms. Waller has toured extensively in Italy under the auspices of the Associazione Giovanile Musicale.

Waller and Maxwell hold the Diploma di Merito for their duo performances in Oscar Ghiglia’s master classes at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, Italy. The Accademia awarded them the Società Italiana Autori ed Editori prize and has sponsored them in many performances throughout Tuscany. In 1982 Ms. Waller was invited to perform for Andrés Segovia in his historic master class at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Her most recent recording, Grand Pot-Pourri, Volume 10 of the Music from Northwestern series, features the terz guitar duos of Mertz and Giuliani on historical instruments.

Mark Maxwell has been on the faculty at the DePaul University School of Music as its classical guitar instructor since 1986. Sought after as a chamber player and soloist with orchestras such as Concertante di Chicago, Mr. Maxwell's performing activities have chiefly centered around the duo formed with his wife and Northwestern University guitar professor Anne Waller. The Waller and Maxwell Guitar Duo has explored the repertoire for two guitars and contributed to it through their arrangements of works for other instruments. Also they enjoy sharing their interest and advocating for nineteenth century guitar duo music performed on original instruments. Soundboard magazine wrote of Anne Waller and Mark Maxwell, "Great playing! This duo delivers the goods from moment to moment, and piece to piece."

Since joining forces in 1981, the Waller and Maxwell Guitar Duo have been presented in a wide variety of concert venues including the Phillips Collection in Washington D.C.; Guitar Foundation of America festivals; the Mid-America Guitar Ensemble Festivals; The Rantucci Festival in Buffalo, New York; Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts and Mostly Music, Inc. in Chicago as well as by guitar societies in Dallas, Chicago, Minneapolis, Memphis and North Carolina. In addition, they have been featured in live broadcasts on both commercial and public radio including the "Studs Terkel Show" and "Live from Studio One" on WFMT in Chicago.

Waller and Maxwell have performed extensively in Italy under the auspices of the Associazione Giovanile Musicale where they were praised for "their absolutely sublime touch" (La Sicilia) and for "strong playing, but at the same time delicate and clean" (Libert). They hold the Diploma di Merito for their duo performances in Oscar Ghiglia's master classes at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, Italy. The Accademia awarded them the Societ Italiana Autori ed Editori prize and has sponsored them in many performances throughout Tuscany.

Born in Athens, Elena Papandreou studied the guitar with Evangelos Boudounis (with whom she received her diploma in 1985 from the National Conservatory with the highest mark) and with Oscar Ghiglia. She also studied with Gordon Crosskey at the Royal Northern College of Music, England, on a British Council scholarship, obtaining the Diploma in Advanced Studies in Musical Performance (1986). She played in master classes of Alirio Diaz, Julian Bream, Leo Brouwer and Ruggero Chiesa. 

She has won the First Prize in three International Competitions, “Maria Callas” (Greece 1984), “Gargnano” (Italy 1985), “Alessandria” (Italy 1985) and the Second Prize in the “Guitar Foundation of America” Competition (1995). In the latter she was also awarded the “NAXOS” Prize, which gave her the opportunity to record two personal CDs with this company. In the past she had released five other records while now she collaborates with the Swedish BIS where she recorded three CDs (music by Roland Dyens and by Nikita Koshkin). In 1992 she was honoured by the Academy of Athens with the “Spyros Motsenigos” Prize – a most important prize that is awarded to one outstanding performer every two years.

Papandreou has performed in most European countries, as well as in the U.S.A., Canada, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, China, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan. Within the “Rising Stars” program of the “European Concert Hall Organisation”, she gave concerts in some of the most prestigious halls in Europe, the Vienna Musikverein, the Koelner Philharmonie, the Birmingham Symphony Hall and the Athens Concert Hall. She has also played in the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall in Moscow and the Queen Elisabeth Hall in London. In 1998 she gave her debut in Carnegie Hall in New York. 

She has collaborated with outstanding musicians, among which, the guitarists Oscar Ghiglia, Alirio Diaz, Roland Dyens, Nikita Koshkin, Evangelos Boudounis, the violinist Leonidas Kavakos and the cellist Leonid Gorokhov. Elena Papandreou has played as a soloist with the State Orchestras of Athens and Thessaloniki, the Camerata Orchestra, the Orchestra of Colours, the Orchestra of Patras, the Orchestra of Alessandria, Italy, the Istanbul Chamber Orchestra, the Bucharest Philharmonic, the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, the ESMDM orchestra in Monterrey Mexico and with conductors such as Daniele Gatti, Lan Shui, Paul Chiang, Cristian Mandeal, Miltos Logiadis, Vassilis Christopoulos, etc.

Papandreou is a professor in the University of Macedonia in Thessaloniki and teaches in the summer course of Incontri Chitarristici di Gargnano, Italy.

Brian Torosian, a faculty member at Northeastern Illinois University, is an active soloist and chamber musician on guitar, lute, and mandolin. In addition to the standard six-string guitar, he plays baroque guitar, Terz guitar, and 10-string guitar replicas, the latter two made for him by R. E. Bruné after 19th-century Viennese instruments. Concert performances include appearances with Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Grant Park Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Opera Theater, His Majesties Clerkes, and Classical Symphony Orchestra.

Dr. Torosian completed his doctoral studies at Northwestern University with Anne Waller, and also studied with Oscar Ghiglia at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, Italy where he received Diplomas of Merit, and an honorary scholarship. He has taken numerous master classes with Eliot Fisk, Paul O'dette, Pepe Romero, Manuel Barrueco, Robert Guthrie, Sérgio and Odair Assad, David Starobin, Mark Maxwell, Nigel North, Eduardo Fernandez, and David Russell as well as early music and continuo studies with Mary Springfels and David Schrader. Brian is the current president of the Chicago Classical Guitar Society.

Long an exponent of the music of nineteenth-century virtuoso guitarist and composer J. K. Mertz, Torosian's doctoral dissertation, Mertz in America, chronicles the music of Mertz in the United States in the early twentieth century. Brian's published editions include Mertz's Opern-Revue, Mertz's trio for violin/flute, viola, and guitar, Divertissement, Op. 32 (DGA Editions); an anthology of operatic concert works entitled Selected Operatic Fantasies of Mertz (Mel Bay); as well as new editions of Mertz's selected works published by Chanterelle Verlag, Heidelberg. His recordings include a track on the harp guitar compilation Christmas Present and a collection of Mertz’s guitar and piano duos, which features premiere recordings of newly-discovered concert works. Brian is also an accomplished electric guitarist, with over 100 compositions in contemporary popular styles.

An Tran is an internationally acclaimed Vietnamese Classical Guitarist and winner of over 13 international competitions and awards. Based in Chicago, USA, An has been praised for his “gorgeous playing” and “flawless technique” by the KnoxTNToday, and received many accolades for his dynamic artistry including being hailed as a “Vietnamese guitar virtuoso” by Austin Classical Guitar. Crafting his signature style by merging world cultures with Vietnamese classical music he, was invited to teach, perform and judge at various festivals includingthe Milwaukee Latino Arts Guitar Festival, Latin-American International Guitar Festival, New Orleans International Guitar Festival, Hamilton International Guitar Festival (Canada) and Lone Star Guitar Festival (Texas).

Building on the momentum of his many successes, An collaborated with Vietnamese composers Nguyen The-An and Dang Ngoc Long for his latest 7-track solo album entitled “Stay, My Beloved”, which was described by Classical Guitar Magazine as “to make the year-end Top Ten list of my favorite classical guitar albums of the year.” Released on Frameworks Records in 2020, the album portrays varying elements of traditional instruments expressed by An’s virtuosic guitar playing. Taking listeners on an emotional journey through the rich soundscapes of Vietnam, An is set to grace the stages in Germany, France and Spain on his upcoming European CD release tour.

An has captivated audiences throughout North America and Asia, including concerts for Bangkok Guitar Society, Toronto International Guitar Series and will be performing at the prestigious Segovia Classical Guitar Series in Chicago. He won several International Guitar Competitions in Berlin, New Orleans, Rhode Island and the Society of American Musicians in Chicago, among many others.

Gaining inspiration from the interconnectedness of music, cultures and people, An developed and refined his skills and techniques for over two decades and studied in masterclasses with many world-renowned guitarists. He received his B.A. in Music and the Distinguished Young Alumni Award from North Park University, studying with Julie Goldberg and Tom Zelle and his Master of Music along with the Southeast Asia Studies Fellowship from Yale University, studying with Benjamin Verdery. Currently a Dorothy and Carl Johnson endowed Doctor of Musical Arts candidate at Northwestern University studying with Anne Waller, An continues to transcend boundaries with his music.

An Tran is an exclusive artist of D’Addario and managed by Jean Schreiber Management/Classics Alive Artists in Los Angeles, USA. An performs on guitars made by Stephan Connor in Boston, USA.