New Word Guitar Trio was an eclectic, contemporary ensemble founded by David Patterson (guitarist)

David Patterson (guitarist)

David Patterson is an American guitarist. He was the founding member of the New World Guitar Trio and is recognized as a solo performer and arranger.- Biography :...

 in 1988. After its inception, the Trio quickly gained notoriety for its highly-charged and refined performances which often defied the standard conceptions of the classical guitar repertoire. As the group’s musical director and arranger, Patterson earned exceptional praise for his innovative programming and his "ingenious transcriptions of solo piano, chamber, and orchestra works" (Guitar Player magazine). The ensemble had no first, second or third guitarists, but rather, a fluid exchange of leading and supporting roles, tailored to each player’s style. This flexibility allowed for individual freedom of expression, resulting in the exceptional dynamism that characterized the Trio’s acclaimed performances.

Between 1988 and 1997, the members of the Trio included David Patterson, Thomas Noren, and Dean Harada. Harada left the group and was replaced by Thomas Rohde in the spring of 1997. After 15 years of success, the Trio members disbanded in 2003 to pursue individual projects.

Performances

The group performed worldwide in diverse venues including: Boston’s Jordan Hall

Jordan Hall

Jordan Hall is a 1,019-seat concert hall in Boston, Massachusetts, the principal performance space of the New England Conservatory. It is one block from Boston's Symphony Hall, and together they are considered two of America's most acoustically perfect performance spaces...

, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts, is one of the largest museums in the United States, attracting over one million visitors a year. It contains over 450,000 works of art, making it one of the most comprehensive collections in the Americas...

, Taipei’s National Theater, Rio de Janeiro, Lincoln Center, the Kathryn Bache Miller Theater at Columbia University, Five Spot

Five Spot

The Five Spot Café was a jazz club located at 5 Cooper Square in the Bowery neighbourhood of New York City.-History:In 1937, Salvatore Termini purchased what was then known as the Bowery Café, a working-class bar located under the Third Avenue El. In 1946, two of Termini's sons, Joe and Ignatze ...

 jazz club, CBGB's gallery, and the 92nd Street Y

92nd Street Y

92nd Street Y is a multifaceted cultural institution and community center located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States, at the corner of E. 92nd Street and Lexington Avenue. Its full name is 92nd Street Young Men's and Young Women's Hebrew Association...

 in New York. The Trio frequently appeared on national radio as part of the NPR

NPR

NPR, formerly National Public Radio, is a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to a network of 900 public radio stations in the United States. NPR was created in 1970, following congressional passage of the Public Broadcasting...

 series "Performance Today

Performance Today

Performance Today is a Peabody Award-winning classical music radio show, currently hosted by Fred Child. It is the most listened-to daily classical music radio program in the United States, with 1.2 million listeners on 237 stations...

" and "All Things Considered

All Things Considered

All Things Considered is the flagship news program on the American network National Public Radio. It was the first news program on NPR, and is broadcast live worldwide through several outlets...

", "Around New York" (WNYC), and the Young Artist Showcase on WQXR

WQXR-FM

WQXR-FM is an American classical radio station licensed to Newark, New Jersey, and serving the New York City metropolitan area. It is the most-listened-to classical-music station in the United States, with an average quarter-hour audience of 63,000...

. They also appeared on television and radio throughout Asia and South America.

Commissions and recordings

In addition to performing original arrangements, the New World Guitar Trio had a history of commissioning new works. In 1996, the group premiered Oceana under the direction of Helmuth Rilling

Helmuth Rilling

Helmuth Rilling is an internationally known German choral conductor, founder of the Gächinger Kantorei , the Bach-Collegium Stuttgart , the Oregon Bach Festival , the Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart and other Bach Academies worldwide, and the "Festival Ensemble Stuttgart"...

, a commission from Osvaldo Golijov

Osvaldo Golijov

Osvaldo Noé Golijov is a Grammy award–winning composer of classical music.-Biography:Osvaldo Golijov was born in and grew up in La Plata, Argentina, in a Jewish family that had emigrated to Argentina in the 1920s from Romania and Russia.Golijov has developed a rich musical language, the result of...

 by the Oregon Bach Festival and written for vocalist Lucianna Souza and the Trio. Other premieres included Dana Brayton’s The Preacher (2000), David Leisner

David Leisner

David Leisner is a classical guitarist, composer, teacher at the Manhattan School of Music and one of the leading authorities on focal dystonia, due to being impaired by the injury for 12 years and recovering through methods that he developed and now teaches his students.-Biography:David Leisner...

’s Roaming (1994), Claudio Ragazzi’s Exiled in Buenos Aires (1997), Fernando Brandão’s Procissão (1999), and Chiel Meijering

Chiel Meijering

Chiel Meijering is a Dutch composer. He studied composition with Ton de Leeuw, percussion with Jan Labordus and Jan Pustjens, and piano at the Amsterdam Conservatory of Music....

’s Who’s Hot and Who’s Not, premiered in 1997 with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project

Boston Modern Orchestra Project

The Boston Modern Orchestra Project is a full professional orchestra in Boston, Massachusetts, and is widely recognized as the premiere orchestra in the United States dedicated exclusively to commissioning, performing, and recording new music of the 20th and 21st centuries...

.

The ensemble also received high praise for its recordings: "Indeed, what’s remarkable...is how fluidly and fluently the New World Guitar Trio makes this program seem idiomatic to three guitars, while providing a refreshing new perspective on the music itself" (Audio Magazine on the Trio’s debut release in 1995). Their 2000 CD release, Exiled, also offers a unique collection of works, with the Trio’s arrangements of works by Charles Ives

Charles Ives

Charles Edward Ives was an American modernist composer. He is one of the first American composers of international renown, though Ives' music was largely ignored during his life, and many of his works went unperformed for many years. Over time, Ives came to be regarded as an "American Original"...

, George Gershwin

George Gershwin

George Gershwin was an American composer and pianist. Gershwin's compositions spanned both popular and classical genres, and his most popular melodies are widely known...

, and Carlos Paredes

Carlos Paredes

Carlos Paredes, ComSE, was a virtuoso Portuguese guitar player, born in Coimbra, son of the equally famous Artur Paredes. He is credited with popularising the medium internationally during the 20th century, being frequently considered to be the most talented Portuguese musician in the 20th century...

as well as commissions from Brandão, Leisner, and Ragazzi.