Vera Danilina is one of the most accomplished guitarists of her generation, and a player who moves easily between the core repertoire and music written this decade. You can read more in our profile of Vera Danilina, and hear her in Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez.
Here she plays something very new: Yarn by Michael Abels, a solo guitar work composed in 2025.
About Michael Abels
Michael Abels, born in 1962, is one of the most widely heard American composers alive — though many who know his music could not name him. He wrote the scores for Jordan Peele's films Get Out, Us and Nope, work that redefined what a horror score could sound like. In 2023 he received the Pulitzer Prize for Music for the opera Omar, co-composed with Rhiannon Giddens.
His concert catalogue runs alongside the film work: pieces for the Kronos Quartet, the Grammy-nominated Isolation Variation for Hilary Hahn, and performances by the New York Philharmonic and the Chicago Symphony. That a composer of this standing has now written for solo guitar matters — the instrument's repertoire grows precisely when composers from outside its circle take an interest.
About Yarn
Yarn is a recent addition to the literature, written in 2025 and lasting a little under six minutes. The title works in two directions at once — a thread that unspools, and a story told — and both readings suit an instrument that can spin a single line and imply a whole narrative around it.
Music this new has no performance tradition behind it. There are no recordings to lean on, no received wisdom about tempo or colour; the player decides everything. That is a rarer kind of responsibility than playing a canonical work well, and it is one reason recordings of new pieces are worth following closely.
The Guitar: Siccas Luthiers Recital Contemporary
Danilina plays the Recital Contemporary from our own workshop line, a cedar-topped instrument combining double-top construction with lattice bracing — a design built for response and projection, and well suited to music that asks for a wide dynamic range and quick colour changes. Our article on fan-braced, double-top and lattice guitars explains what these constructions do differently, and you can explore the whole line in our Siccas Luthiers overview.
Watch the Performance
For more of today's repertoire, see our article on classical guitar in contemporary music, and browse our overview of famous classical guitar pieces.
