TAKE FIVE: SHARON ISBIN

Thursday, March 8, 2007 | 7:17 a.m.

What: Sharon Isbin

When: 8 p.m. Friday

Where: UNLV's Doc Rando Recital Hall

Tickets: $35, 895-2787

The classical guitar is no easy instrument. It's challenging to learn and difficult to master.

And it doesn't end there. Try getting gigs with a symphony or asking a composer to write a new piece of music for you.

Guitarists hear "no thanks" a lot.

For guitarist Sharon Isbin, that first response was actually, "No, I hate the guitar."

But like everything else she has done over the years, Isbin pushed. And pushed. She wanted a concerto and insisted the composer listen to her perform.

That's all it took. He was convinced and agreed to write a piece.

Isbin was just 17.

"I learned from this early age that 'no' means 'try harder,' " Isbin says via telephone from New York City. "Sometimes you have to break down barriers."

Now 49, Isbin is credited with expanding the popularity of classical guitar among classical and mainstream audiences.

She has created an amplification system that allows her to play the intimate guitar with full symphonies in grand orchestra halls. She is the first guitarist to record with the New York Philharmonic (2005) and the first to perform with the orchestra in nearly 30 years. She spent more than 15 weeks on Billboard's Top 10 Classical Chart and formed a guitar program at the Juilliard School of Music, where she teaches. She won a Grammy Award and has two other nominations - and has commissioned more works than any other classical guitarist, bringing new sounds to the instrument through travels and folk recordings.

Even without her legacy, even without her being the first female guitarist to gain such international adoration, Isbin would still be memorable for her mastery of the instrument.

Melodic and rhythmic perfection, impeccably rich tones are her calling card. She's a critics' darling, and on Friday we'll have a taste when Isbin performs at UNLV's Doc Rando Recital Hall.

Did we say taste? We meant heaping portion.

The lengthy program includes a piece written by Cuban guitarist Leo Brouwer that was inspired by erotic love stories from Africa. "It's his best solo work," she says.

Isbin will also perform music from Spain, Paraguay and Brazil's Amazon Rain Forest. Also on the program is John Duarte's "Joan Baez Suite," a seven-movement piece of Baez's early folk music.

Here is a closer look at the guitarist:

1. "The Departed"

Not only has Isbin brought the guitar to the forefront of the symphonic world, she has eased it into pop culture. Recently she performed Howard Shore's score on Martin Scorsese's Academy Award-winning movie, "The Departed." "The music is very sensual, lyrical, yearning and intimate," Isbin says. "It's a remarkable contrast to the violence. That's why it's so special. The music is what gives viewers insight into characters' minds."

Isbin also appeared on an episode of Showtime's "The L Word," in which she performs at the coffee shop, The Planet, and is referenced throughout the show while her just-released CD with the New York Philharmonic is passed around. "I thought it was a terrific program," Isbin says. "My friends said, 'You should be on it. It would be great if you played at The Planet.' I got to thinking about it, then made a call. I went to Vancouver for filming."

2. Convincing Corigliano

Isbin hounded John Corigliano, a Grammy and Pulitzer Prize winner, for years before getting him to write something for her. Corigliano, who wrote the score for "The Red Violin," associated the instrument with a Spanish sound and wasn't interested until she presented him with the idea of 13th century French troubadours and said she could stroll among the orchestra. "American Landscapes," featuring work written by Corigliano, was recorded in 2002 with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra.

Why do composers have this response to the guitar? "They're scared of it," Isbin says. "They find it's a daunting instrument and they don't understand it."

3. Tan Dun

Chinese composer Tan Dun wrote "Yi2," a concerto for Isbin prior to his "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" fame and the Metropolitan Opera's performance of his work, "The First Emperor."

His piece for her was based on Chinese folk themes and took the guitar into another intriguing realm. "It's amazing how many different avenues are possible," Isbin says.

"The imagination is our ticket to what's creative and inspirational. I'm willing to take that ride, see where it goes."

4. Commanday connection

Isbin had an unusual experience while performing with the Peoria Symphony Orchestra under conductor David Commanday, one of the finalists to become music director of the Las Vegas Philharmonic.

"For the first time in my life a nail flew off into the audience. We had to go around looking for it at the end of the second movement. Couldn't find it. I had to play the third movement without it, then went offstage, repaired it before continuing."

She laughs, recalling the 2006 performance. "You have to go with it because it's just ridiculous."

5. Obstacles

With more than 20 recordings, including crossover work with rock guitarist Steve Vai, it seems as if there is no end to what Isbin will do. Her ideas come to her naturally, she says. "Everything has some sort of organic genesis. It happens from a very natural place. It's what I'm interested in and find really compelling."

She's had tremendous success. Was it for herself or for the guitar?

"It's all those things. I wanted the instrument heard and appreciated as a kid. I had to break through barriers when I was in music competitions where there hadn't been a guitar. I really had to be a crusader for the instrument."