DIRECTIONS: St Francis Episcopal Church
Guitar Virtuoso Alan Mearns in concert
with a Prelude performance by Meezahn Kemal
Classical guitarist and composer Alan Mearns has performed and presented masterclasses and lectures across the United Kingdom and the U.S. at Yale University, Royal Irish Academy of Music Dublin, Oberlin Conservatory of Music, and the New York Classical Guitar Society, among many others.
His recent Bach recording received wide praise and entered the Billboard Classical Music Chart at No. 8. His forthcoming release, Lorca, highlights his innovative arrangements of Spanish music. Mearns also composes and performs a wide range of non-classical music, including contemporary-traditional Irish music and popular Americana alternative-folk music using the pseudonym Yes The Raven. He has extensive experience as studio musician, arranger, and producer. Among his 12 recordings are four solo CDs as songwriter Yes The Raven, two CDs as band leader with Airspace, and a recording of Irish music with The Belfast Boys and his longtime collaborator, Irish poet Adrian Rice.
Mearns has attracted significant magazine and radio coverage, including interviews and performances for NPR Classical, BBC Sounds UK, Radio Ulster, and Guitar Salon International Los Angeles, video interviews and podcasts, and a recent video feature by YouTube influencer Rick Beato that has received almost 500,000 views.
Born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Mearns began musical studies on the violin at age five, switching to the guitar at ten. After moving to the U.S. in his late teens, Mearns studied guitar with Douglas James at Appalachian State University under the prestigious Fletcher Scholarship and with Stanley Yates at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tenn.
Mearns is also a prolific poet. Readings of his upcoming collection Into The Fields include the Seamus Heaney Center at Queens University Belfast, among other venues.
PROGRAM
Prelude performer Meezahn Kemal
John Dowland: My Lady Hunsdon's Allemande (Poulton 54)
Dušan Bogdanović: Secrets Nos. 3 and 7
J.K. Mertz: Nocturne Op. 4 No. 1
Meezahn Kemal, age 15, has performed in numerous recitals, including at the 2024 Summer Guitar Workshop at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where he studied both solo and ensemble repertoire under David Tanenbaum, Marc Teicholz, and Meng Su. Meezahn has been a student for six years under Bradly Pupa at the California Conservatory of Music. Outside the guitar, Meezahn is a high-school sophomore in Redwood City and has sung in his school choir and been on his school’s cross-country and track teams.
