New USU guitar professor Ben Mathews takes charge of ensembles at semiannual guitar concert

By Ashlie Albrecht


Ben Mathews, a newly-hired guitar professor in his first semester at Utah State University, was in charge of two of the six groups at the semiannual Guitar Ensembles performance on Monday night, held in The Performance Hall. Mathews said his goal was to give the students some power over the songs they performed and, to that end, he featured two original student compositions.

“It was a collaborative effort,” Mathews said in reference to the music selection process. “What happens is I choose a bunch of arrangements for the students to rehearse, but they bring in a couple of arrangements they want to work on too. We decide what gets played from there.”

Lance Ruby was one of the student composers who had an original piece of music played at the concert. His composition was entitled “Knoppe.” Ruby said having Mathews approve of his work and agree to put it in the showcase meant a lot to him.

“Any time you have music you write played at an academic level it’s kind of a big deal,” Ruby said.

Nick Manning was the other student composer. His piece, entitled “North Four,” was not originally intended to be played by a guitar quartet but rather by a jazz one. However, Manning said the transition to the guitar was fun for him to carry out.

“It was nice to hear how it actually sounds so I can tweak and adjust it how it needs to be adjusted,” Manning said.

Mathews was impressed with the pieces of both Ruby and Manning, noting the different styles they had. According to him, “North Four” was a more traditional swing type of number while “Knoppe” was much more eccentric.

“They were really fine works,” Mathews said. “They come from very different places.”

Carly Furlong attended the concert and enjoyed hearing the differing levels of talent as well as the novel student works.

“I thought it was good to include the original compositions because it was different than what you could hear at any other guitar concert,” Furlong said. “It made it more unique and specialized to these students.”

Mathews was pleased with how the performance went and was particularly proud of the teamwork, a value he wanted to emphasize with this recital.

“The point of the ensemble is to get these guys to work together and shine as a group rather than trying to shine as an individual,” Mathews said.