For guitarist Payam Larijani, Bach is the new Pearl Jam.
Larijani, a UCLA alumnus, will play a free classic guitar
concert at 4 p.m. today in the Powell Library as part of Powell
Music Concerts in the Rotunda.
Larijani is a full-time graduate student on a partial
scholarship at Claremont, studying under Jack Sanders. Beyond his
scholastic efforts, he performs at many weddings by himself and
occasionally with his jazz band.
Currently, Larijani is working on his jazz guitar, playing with
a neighbor after earning his master’s in commercial guitar
from California State University, Los Angeles, with an emphasis on
a traditionally rock instrument, the electric guitar.
This will be the guitarist’s fifth year performing in the
classical style at Powell, and he plans to use the venue to
spotlight pieces from such diverse composers as Bach and
Villa-Lobos.
“There is this one spot on (the) second floor where the
ceiling is like a big dome and you get this really nice
echo,” Larijani said, referencing the acoustics that make the
Powell Rotunda an ideal spot for concerts.
Other on-campus performers who have taken advantage of the
library’s performance space include the Musica Humana Early
Music Collective and UCLA musicology graduate student Eric
Wang.
While musically fulfilling, his diverse guitar playing is also a
source of income.
“(For) one wedding, we learned a bunch of Pearl Jam songs.
So we are pretty versatile,” said Larijani, who played about
20 weddings last summer.
Larijani, who is currently working on his doctorate at
Claremont, got a late start at playing guitar because he preferred
sports to music during high school.
“It wasn’t cool to be a musician then,” said
Larijani, who played on his high school basketball and water polo
teams. “Eventually, the politics (of high school sports) got
to me.”
It wasn’t until he was 16 that Larijani actually started
playing the instrument he’s studied for the past decade,
choosing guitar over other instruments because of its expressive,
emotive qualities.
“It’s a simple instrument ““ a piece of wood
with six strings. It’s not even heavy, but I can somehow
express (the music) a certain way and people can feel the same
enjoyment that I feel while I am playing,” Larijani said.
The time he spent playing the instrument at UCLA had a profound
impact on the musician, who used to carry his guitar around campus
and even hosted a UCLA Radio show one quarter.
One of his major influences is his former professor of studio
guitar, Peter Yates.
“He let each person find their own voice with the music.
He didn’t try to force people into a certain mold of
guitar,” Larijani said. “Being at UCLA gives you that
little extra boost. It opens the door for you. Maybe it makes you a
bit of dreamer, but sometimes that’s what it
takes.”
While a student at UCLA, Larijani attended many of the concerts
in Royce Hall and found the respect shown for the performers
inspiring.
Observing other musicians allows Larijani to learn new tricks,
picking up things he enjoys from the performances of others to use
for his own live show. Pieces originally written for piano or
entire orchestras translate well onto guitar format, and various
voices can be played at once, according to Larijani.
“A pop song is essentially three or four sections that
repeat. … A classical guitar (piece) is just a lot more
notes,” he said. “It is harder to get a riff in your
head or sing a melody.”
As a performer of popular music as well as classical work,
Larijani hopes people used to the more common steel-string guitar
will find the different sound of classical guitar refreshing.
“I tried to pick songs that will be interesting to an
advanced listener or a first time listener who has never seen
classical guitar before,” he said. “Classical music
kind of leaves you a little more ambiguous. There are no lyrics, so
it’s open to your own interpretation.”