Radford Music Professor in European Summer Tour

Dr. Robert Trent is no stranger to globetrotting, guitar in hand. He's played in Asia, Europe, North and South America in concerts, competitions and festivals. This summer, Trent embarked on a nine day tour of the Iberian Peninsula, performing solo concerts in Aveiro, Portugal, Madrid and Navas de San Juan, Spain.

There, he performed a repertoire of the early romantic period, music of Fernando Sor, Mauro Giuliani, and Ferdinando Carulli,  on an authentic 19^th century guitar of French style construction. One reporter, Elisabeth Ruiz Martinez of the Dario Jaen, wrote that Trent delighted the audience, assessing it as "sublime."

Dr. Trent is a first prize winner of numerous national and international competitions and a Dalton Eminent Senior Scholar Award winner in 2021. He is the Director of Guitar and Lute Studies and the Graduate Coordinator for the Department of Music. He spared some time for a few questions about the tour and why concerts like this matter.

​So how did this musical tour of the Iberian Peninsula come about? Was it something you had done before or is this the first time? If it was the first time, who initiated it?  

I was invited by three presenters, one in each town. I had performed in Spain before, but not in the cities I performed in this summer. The situation is the same with Portugal, having performed there before; however, this time in a new city for me. In the years before Covid-19, I was invited by the director of a festival in Guimarães (the original founding city of ancient Portugal). In another year, I was invited by the director of that festival, who is the director of the present festival in Navas de San Juan.

How did you go about selecting your repertoire? What can you tell us about the selections?

I tend to design a concert program around a central large-scale work that interests me. Next, I think about, or imagine a “companion” work. That can mean different things, such as similar style, contrast in style or key, or something more nuanced. Before I truly realize it, I find that a theme or program is developing. 

And that’s what motivates me: to create an overall concept that is a journey rather than an evening of my favorite “flavors of the moment.”  I find I’m much more engaged in larger pieces and concepts, not only in music, but in epic books, film, and so forth. My next two CDs to be published are likewise built on a single or double topic.  

Those things hold my attention and deepen my engagement and, hopefully, the audience’s as well. 

It also becomes valuable to my students at Radford. Being the active performer keeps me engaged so that on my return I can impart to my students what it takes to perform, tour, teach masterclasses, and lecture to people around the world. And how to prepare! It takes months, if not years, of planning to make it all work. And I learn something new each and every time.

But the most important reason is the way music breaks down barriers which are often present across countries, even when they should not be. Music really does unite and heal the world. Food, music, culture and human interaction bring us together. 

Whether I like it or not, I’m an ambassador, not only for the art and craft, but also for my country and Radford University. It is important to realize that in some countries, I might be the first American they meet. By performing music, it can create a bond and understanding that would not be there otherwise.  

I believe this is very important and if I had the power, I would require and support study abroad for every student. It’s why I use Mark Twain’s observations about travel in my email signature. In The Innocents Abroad, he wrote, “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime."