The Duo
Formed in 1998, Eric Benzant-Feldra and Michael Kudirka began performing together as The Duo while studying with William Kanengiser at the University of Southern California. They have since performed across United States, Canada, Mexico, and Japan. Their repertoire spans a wide array of styles from arrangements of Jean-Philippe Rameau’s Pièces de Clavecin to neo-Moderinist microtonal masterworks. They have had many new works dedicated to them by composers Jeffrey Holmes, Veronika Krausas, Bryan Johanson, Naomi Sekiya, and Dusan Bogdanovic. Both Eric and Michael received their Master of Fine Arts degrees from the California Institute of the Arts studying with Miroslav Tadić. Currently Eric Benzant-Feldra is serving as a Musician in the United States Army. Michael Kudirka is on the music faculty at Arkansas State University.
Michael Kudirka is a classical guitarist with many interests including collaborations with living composers, chamber music with guitar, and historical performance practice on lute and theorbo. Performing internationally throughout Europe, Asia, and North America he has appeared in many notable concert series, including Other Minds 8, the 43rd Darmstadt Ferienkurse für Neue Musik, Montreal's "Musique Contemporaine", Portland Guitar Festival, Guitar Foundation of America 2011 International Convention, Jacaranda "Music at the Edge", and the L.A. Philharmonic's "Minimalist Jukebox", among many others. He has won first prize at several major guitar competitions including the 2000 Portland International Guitar Competition, the American String Teachers Association Competition, the Pacific Guitar Competition, and the University of Southern California Concerto Competition. He has won grants from the Theodor Presser Foundation, the California Arts Council, and the American Composer's Forum and has held faculty positions at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, Interlochen Arts Academy, University of Southern California, and Idyllwild Arts Academy.
Eric Benzant-Feldra has been a Musician and Soldier in the U.S. Army since 2012. In the Army, Eric has executed hundreds of musical missions performing for top Generals and Officers of the United States, Australia and Japan as well as international morale support for Soldiers and civilians alike. He has served as a Classical, Rock and Jazz guitarist at the famed 25th Infantry Division in Hawaii, the Army's I Corps Band in Washington and is currently stationed at the U.S. Army School of Music in Virginia.
In the Rock field Eric recorded Pity Girl, and R.I.P. with independent Rap/Metal artist Mary Magdalan. Eric's electrifying performance style supported the singer on several national tours from 2007-2011.
Eric Studied Classical Guitar Performance at the University of Southern California and the California Institute of the Arts under William Kanengiser and Miroslav Tadic. It is during this time that Eric earned his BM and MFA and first formed "The Duo" with Michael Kudirka and performed several international tours across the U.S. Canada, Mexico and Japan. The Duo's release of "13 Ways of Looking at 12 Strings" by Bryan Johanson was commissioned for The Duo and released in early 2019.
Michael Kudirka - Guitar
Hailed by the Los Angeles Times as “the excellent guitarist in Henze’s unsettled score”, Michael Kudirka is among the most committed, daring, and diversely talented of the current generation of virtuoso guitarists. An avid and long-time advocate of cutting-edge new music, Kudirka has maintained a close collaboration with Los Angeles-based composer Jeffrey Holmes since 2002, and a retrospective album of Holmes’s microtonal guitar works will be released by MicroFest Records in January 2019. In November, 2017 Michael Kudirka completed his third production run of Thomas Adès's “The Exterminating Angel” at The Metropolitan Opera of New York, following runs at the Salzburger Festspiele (Austria) and The Royal Opera House (UK). Kudirka worked personally with Adès on the composer’s first-ever music written for guitar, and a DVD of The Met's Fall 2017 production will be released by Deutsche Grammophon. Kudirka has also collaborated with 2017 MacArthur Foundation ‘Genius’ Award Winner Yuval Sharon in his production of Veronika Krausas’s chamber opera “The Mortal Thoughts of Lady Macbeth”.
Michael Kudirka performs around the globe as a recitalist and chamber musician, and has appeared at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music (China), Darmstadt Ferienkurse Fur Neue Musik (Germany), Le Chappelle Historique du Bon Pasteur (Montreal), Royal Conservatory of Music (Toronto), Conservatorio de Las Rosas (Mexico), Ono Guitar School (Japan), Palace of Fine Arts (San Francisco), Walt Disney Concert Hall (Los Angeles), Zipper Recital Hall (Los Angeles), REDCAT (Los Angeles), Flatfile Galleries (Chicago), Lincoln Recital Hall (Portland), and many others. He has performed at numerous festivals and guitar societies including the 2011 Guitar Foundation of America Convention, Baldwin-Wallace International Guitar Festival, Portland Guitar Festival, American Guitar Society, Jacaranda – Music at the Edge, Pacific Standard Time’s Stravinsky Retrospective, Austin Classical Guitar Society, New Mexico Guitar Festival, Grand Canyon Guitar Society, Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s “Sunday’s Live”, American Composers Forum, MicroFest, Seattle Classical Guitar Society, Northwest Guitar Society, Other Minds 8, and Music of Changes.
Michael Kudirka's primary chamber ensemble is Duo Amantis, with flutist Tara Schwab. Their debut album, featuring 21st-century music for flute and guitar by Bogdanovic, Holmes, Tadic, and Ourkouzounov will be released by Les Éditions Doberman-Yppan in 2018.
Dr. Kudirka received his BM and DMA from the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music where he studied with William Kanengiser, James Smith, and Brian Head, and his MFA from the California Institute of the Arts where he studied with Miroslav Tadic. He has taught at the Idyllwild Arts Academy, California Institute of the Arts, University of Southern California, Interlochen Arts Academy, Interlochen Summer Arts Camp, and the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. He is currently a faculty member at Arkansas State University.
Eric Benzant-Feldra - Guitar
Eric Benzant-Feldra is an Army Musician (Soldier), currently serving as Supply NCO at the Army School of Music. Eric has worked at America's First Corps Band and the 25th Infantry Division Band.
He also has taught guitar at Pomona College, and studied 20th-century classical music at California Institute of the Arts, and Classical Guitar Performance at University of Southern California.
Eric lives in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
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