MANUEL BARRUECO
Manuel Barrueco is internationally recognized as one of the most important guitarists of our time. His unique artistry has been continually described as that of a superb instrumentalist and a superior and elegant musician, possessing a seductive sound and uncommon lyrical gifts.

He began playing the guitar at the age of eight, and he attended the Esteban Salas Conservatory in his native Cuba. He immigrated with his family to the United States in 1967, as political refugees. Later, he completed his advanced studies at the Peabody Conservatory of Music, where he now shares his love for music with a small number of exceptionally gifted young guitarists from all over the world

His career has been dedicated to bringing the guitar to the main musical centers of the world. During three decades of concertizing, he has performed across the United Sates from the New World Symphony in Miami to the Seattle Symphony, and from the Hollywood Bowl with the Los Angeles Philharmonic to New York’s Lincoln Center. He has appeared with such prestigious orchestras as the Philadelphia Orchestra and with the Boston Symphony under the direction of Seiji Ozawa, in the American Premiere of Toru’s Takemitsu’s To the Edge of Dream. In addition, he appears regularly with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and with San Francisco Performances.

Barrueco’s recording catalogue includes over a dozen recordings for the EMI label. His recording of Joaquín Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez with conductor and tenor Plácido Domingo and the Philharmonia Orchestra was cited as "the best recording of that piece" in Classic CD Magazine, while his CD "¡Cuba!" was called "an extraordinary musical achievement" by the San Francisco Chronicle. 

"Nylon & Steel," a collection of duos with guitar greats Al Di Meola, Steve Morse (Deep Purple), and Andy Summers (The Police), demonstrates Barrueco's outstanding versatility and imaginative programming. His 2008 release, "Concierto Barroco", with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia and conductor Víctor Pablo Pérez, received a Latin Grammy nomination for Best Classical Recording. Other recordings encompass many of the works from the Spanish and Latin American repertoire, as well as Bach and Mozart, Keith Jarrett and Chick Corea. He collaborated with soprano Barbara Hendricks and flutist Emmanuel Pahud in "Cantos y Danzas", with The King’s Singers on a Strauss album, and with the London Symphony on "Manuel Barrueco plays Lennon & McCartney".

Barrueco's commitment to contemporary music and to the expansion of the guitar repertoire has led him to collaborations with many distinguished composers such as Steven Stucky, Michael Daugherty, Roberto Sierra, Arvo Pärt and Toru Takemitsu, whose last orchestral work Spectral Canticle was a double concerto written specifically for Manuel Barrueco and violinist Frank Peter Zimmerman.

Manuel Barrueco has appeared on a wide array of American television programs including "CBS Sunday Morning", A&E's "Breakfast with the Arts", and "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" on PBS. His work in music also inspired Michael Lawrence’s biographical documentary: “Manuel Barrueco: A Gift and a Life” which has been aired by PBS stations around the United States. He music was also featured in a Lexus car commercial. Barrueco’s performances have been broadcast by television stations around the world such as NHK in Japan, Bayerische Rundfunk in Germany, and RTVE in Spain.

Recent CD releases include two recordings featuring the music of Astor Piazzolla: Solo Piazzolla and Tango Sensations, the latter in collaboration with the Cuarteto Latinoamericano.

THE LOS ANGELES GUITAR QUARTET

Celebrating their twenty-seventh year on the concert stage, the members of the Grammy-winning Los Angeles Guitar Quartet continue to set the standard for expression and virtuosity among guitar ensembles, while perennially redefining themselves in their musical explorations.

Recognized as one of America’s premier instrumental ensembles, the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet is one of the most charismatic and versatile groups performing today. Popularly known as the LAGQ, these four dynamic virtuosi bring a new energy to the concert stage with their eclectic programs and dynamic musical interplay.

With over a dozen recordings over the past two decades, they have established themselves as masters of the classics, as well as the creators of the unique syntheses of world-music and contemporary styles that have made the "LAGQ-sound" a favorite around the world. Their first recording for Telarc International, "LAGQ: Latin," was nominated for a Grammy for Best Classical Crossover Recording in 2003, while the second, LAGQ's “Guitar Heroes”, won a Grammy in this category in 2005.

The three founding members John Dearman, William Kanengiser and Scott Tennant welcome long-time friend Matthew Greif into the group, showcases his agile musicianship, cultured sound, and mature jazz skills. In its new incarnation, the tradition of refined chamber-music making and category-defying innovation that made LAGQ famous is sure to continue to thrive for years to come.

The LAGQ is already actively planning its next recording project, a Bach celebration, and is working to expand its repertoire with new concerto commissions by Sergio Assad and Carlos Rafael Rivera. Their active touring schedule takes them throughout North America, Europe, and Asia, and their restless curiosity will continue to inspire them to explore new musical directions.

William Kanengiser
Acclaimed soloist, recording artist and professor at the USC Thornton School of Music, William Kanengiser is one of the few guitarists to have won the Concert Artists Guild New York Competition.

His solo recordings on the GSP label display his unique approach to programming, ranging from the music of the Old World to the Caribbean to his recent disc "Classical Cool," an exploration of jazz currents for classical guitar.

He has earned critical acclaim for his imaginative arrangements for solo guitar and guitar quartet, and for producing two instructional videos for Hot Licks. Kanengiser may be best known as the classical guitarist in the 1986 film "Crossroads."

Scott Tennant
Celebrated as a world-class performer, author and teacher, Detroit-born Scott Tennant has been concertizing since the age of twelve.

Much in demand as a solo artist, Scott has recorded for Delos International and is currently completing a recording project of the complete solo guitar works of Joaquin Rodrigo.

He is the author of the best-selling book and video “Pumping Nylon”, a technical handbook for the classical guitarist, and the five-part series "Scott Tennant's Basic Classical Guitar Method." He has taught at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and is now on the faculty at the USC Thornton School of Music.

John Dearman
Originally from Minneapolis, John Dearman is a versatile guitarist whose repertoire ranges from samba to bluegrass and from flamenco to classical.

He enriches the sound of the LAGQ by performing on a unique seven-string guitar with extended upper and lower registers. John is currently the Director of Guitar Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Matt Greif
Matthew Greif is the newest member of the Quartet. In addition to being a classical guitarist, he has an extensive background playing in other styles, such as jazz, rock, flamenco, and bluegrass.

Matt's recordings include "Permanent Transition", which features duo improvisations with Andrew York and Dusan Bogdanovic. Matthew was named Outstanding Graduate of the U.S.C. guitar department, where he studied with William Kanengiser, James Smith, and Scott Tennant. He also studied jazz with Joe Diorio, Mark Pratt, and Frank Potenza. Matthew has taught at several colleges and universities throughout Central (Cal Poly) and Southern California.

CARLOS BARBOSA-LIMA
Carlos Barbosa-Lima has long been a masterful interpreter of a wide range of melodic music. A brilliant guitarist, Barbosa-Lima gives taste and feeling to works that range from Gershwin to Bach, Jobim to Debussy.

While still a child, he was performing in public and he made his recording debut when he was just 12. He first toured the United States in 1967 and performed in London, gaining a worldwide reputation.

Barbosa-Lima was born in 1944 in São Paulo, Brazil. He began studying the guitar at the age of seven and made his concert debut five years later in Sao Paolo and Rio de Janeiro. He began his recording career while still in his teens, continuing to appear regularly in concert and on Brazilian television. Carlos studied with Isaias Savio, father figure of the modern Brazilian guitar movement, and later with the legendary Andrés Segovia.

Since his U. S. debut in 1967, he has enjoyed a global concert career marked by numerous distinguished recordings. He has also performed with many of the world's great orchestras and has been the featured performer at several prestigious music festivals.

The breadth of his repertoire and his unique ability to integrate diverse musical styles--from Classical and contemporary to Brazilian and jazz--are strong features of his work. From Scarlatti and Debussy to Gershwin, Jobim and Brubeck-- Carlos Barbosa-Lima delivers inspired, satisfying performances that have catapulted him onto the world stage.

Many important composers have written music for him, and he has premiered such landmark works as Alberto Ginastera's Sonata, opus 47.

Carlos taught for many years at the Manhattan School of Music.
He now resides in Puerto Rico, touring and recording worldwide. Although his approach to music is classical, his playing combines many styles - classical, Brazilian, popular and jazz. He explains: "Perhaps it was because of my own development in Brazil, where we do not have this airtight division between classical and popular, that I always felt a great affinity for the popular style treated in a classical way." 

The ease with which Carlos moves from one style of music to another enables him to do incredible transcriptions for the guitar. He has transcribed compositions by Scarlatti, Bach, Handel, and even Joplin and has successfully arranged works by Gershwin, Sondheim, Cole Porter and many Brazilian composers. His recording have found him exploring the music of Antonio Carlos Jobim, George Gershwin, Scott Joplin, Luiz Bonfa, Cole Porter, Leonard Bernstein (songs from West Side Story) and a variety of lesser-known Brazilian composers. He has recorded 11 CDs for Concord Jazz, and has co-authored numerous books with John Griggs. 

BERTA ROJAS

Berta Rojas is a musician who moves easily from classical to other musical genres. Rojas has captivated music-lovers in the Americas, Europe, and Asia. 

Most notably, she's appeared at the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall and the Frederick P. Rose Hall, home of Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York. She sold out her performances at both the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington, DC and the South Bank Centre in London.

In 2004, she opened the International First Ladies Summit in Paraguay with special guest Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Praised by the Washington Post as a "guitarist extraordinaire," and by England’s Classical Guitar Magazine as "Ambassador of the Classical Guitar," her musicianship and cordiality make her an audience favorite.

The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts has recognized Rojas' artistic excellence and named her a Fellow of the Americas. She holds a Master's Degree in Music from Baltimore's prestigious Peabody Conservatory.

Beyond her own musical talents, Rojas is committed to supporting South American artists. She has served as the Artistic Director for several competitions including the John and Susie Beatty Competition, the Ibero-American Guitar Festival in Washington DC, and the Cardozo Ocampo Competition in Paraguay. She is Paraguay's Ambassador of Tourism and a Professor of Guitar at George Washington University in Washington DC.

"Only once in a great while does a classical artist come along who is so impeccable in every aspect of professionalism – heart touching musical artistry, interesting repertoire, and excellent technical production. Paraguayan guitarist Berta Rojas is one of these." 
... Soundboard Magazine

"The performance Paraguayan guitarist Berta Rojas gives is always very entertaining and top-class from beginning to end. Her phenomenal, seemingly effortless technical ability allows her the luxury of presenting some very difficult works with finesse and beauty. Mrs. Rojas’ concert was 90 minutes maintained at the highest level of performance and interpretation." 
... Classical Guitar Magazine

Mrs. Rojas' mere arrival onto the concert stage enthralled all present with her beauty and graceful manner...her interpretation of "La Catedral" was the best ever heard by this reviewer. The fabulous and effortless manner of her playing coupled whit the sensual quality of her phrasing provided convincing evidence that Barrios truly wrote for her alone to perform.
... Guitar Magazine

DAVID LEISNER
David Leisner is an extraordinarily versatile musician with a multi-faceted career as an electrifying performing artist, a distinguished composer, and a Master Teacher. 

Regarded as one of the world's leading classical guitarists, his superb musicianship and provocative programming have been applauded by critics and audiences around the world. He has been acclaimed as "a triple-threat performer" by The New York Times and a "serious, exploratory and imaginative musician" by The Boston Globe.

Primarily self-taught as both guitarist and composer, he briefly studied guitar with John Duarte, David Starobin and Angelo Gilardino and composition with Richard Winslow, Virgil Thomson, Charles Turner and David Del Tredici.

Mr. Leisner's career as a guitarist began with top prizes in both the 1975 Toronto and 1981 Geneva International Guitar Competitions. In the 1980s, a disabling hand injury, focal dystonia, interrupted his performing career and plagued him for 12 years. Through a pioneering approach to technique based on his understanding of the physical aspects of playing the guitar, Leisner gradually rehabilitated himself. In the mid-90’s, completely recovered, he once again resumed an active performing career, earning accolades wherever he plays.

An innovative three-concert series at Weill Recital Hall in Carnegie Hall, included the first all-Bach guitar recital in New York’s history. 

A featured recording artist for Azica Records, Leisner has released 5 highly acclaimed solo CD’s of music by Bach, Villa-Lobos, Mertz and Schubert, Contemporary composers and his own compositions. A recent release is the Naxos recording of the Hovhaness Concerto with Gerard Schwarz and the Berlin Radio Orchestra. His collaborations with Boston Symphony Orchestra flutist Fenwick Smith have been recorded on the Etcetera and Koch labels, with music by Rorem and Pinkham, and his most recent chamber music recordings of Hovhaness and Haydn are with harpist Yolanda Kondonassis on Telarc and the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival on Koch. And the Mel Bay company recently released a solo concert DVD called “Classics and Discoveries.”

Also in great demand as a chamber musician, he has performed chamber music at the Santa Fe, Rockport, Vail Valley, Cape and Islands, Bargemusic, Bay Chamber and Angel Fire Festivals, with Eugenia Zukerman, Kurt Ollmann, Lucy Shelton, Ida Kavafian, the Vermeer Quartet and many others.

Celebrated for expanding the guitar repertoire, David Leisner has introduced many important new works and has been a tireless advocate for neglected gems of the past. He has premiered works by many important composers, including Virgil Thomson, Ned Rorem, Philip Glass, Richard Rodney Bennett, Peter Sculthorpe and Osvaldo Golijov. He was also a pioneer in the rediscovery of Johann Kaspar Mertz (1806-1856), whose music he recorded on "The Viennese Guitar" and edited for publication by the Theodore Presser Company, as well as "Wenzeslaus Matiegka (1773-1830)", whose music he recorded on an Azica CD and released in 2008.

Mr. Leisner has also become a highly respected composer noted for the emotional and dramatic power of his music. Fanfare magazine described it as “rich in invention and melody, emotionally direct, and beautiful”. Guitar Review wrote, “Not many composers manage to be equally satisfying to the hands, the ear and the mind as Leisner has.” 

Recent commissions and premieres include A Timeless Procession for baritone Wolfgang Holzmair and string quartet, Of Darkness and Light for the Stones River Chamber Players, Vision of Orpheus for the St. Lawrence String Quartet and Leisner, Embrace of Peace for the Fairfield (CT) Orchestra, which was described by the Westport News as reflecting "a brilliant intellect in combination with brilliant sensitivity," and Battlefield Requiem for cellist Laurence Lesser and the New England Conservatory Percussion Ensemble. 

David Leisner is currently co-chairman of the guitar department at the Manhattan School of Music and taught at the New England Conservatory for 22 years. Mr. Leisner is a graduate of Wesleyan University.

DAVID TANENBAUM
Recognized internationally as an outstanding performing and recording artist, a charismatic educator, and a transcriber and editor of both taste and intelligence, David Tanenbaum is one of the most admired classical guitarists of his generation.

He has performed throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe, Australia, the former Soviet Union and Asia, and in 1988 he became the first American guitarist to be invited to perform in China by the Chinese government.

He studied guitar with Rolando Valdez-Blain, Aaron Shearer and Michael Lorimer, attending the San Francisco Conservatory and Peabody Conservatory. Further studies included work with pianist Jeanne Stark-Iochmans and harpsichordist Laurette Goldberg. He participated in the, now famous, 1981 New York Masterclass with Andres Segovia.

In 1989, as President of the Second American Classical Guitar Congress, he commissioned five new works, including Rosewood by Henry Brant for a large guitar orchestra. He has subsequently conducted Rosewood more than a dozen times on four continents.

While his repertoire encompasses diverse styles, David Tanenbaum is recognized as one of today's most eloquent proponents of new guitar repertoire. Among the many works written for him is Hans Werner Henze's guitar concerto An Eine Äolsharfe, which he premiered throughout Europe and recorded with the composer conducting, Terry Riley's first guitar piece, Ascención, four works by 1998 Pulitzer Prize winner Aaron Jay Kernis, two pieces by Roberto Sierra, and a suite by Lou Harrison. He is currently working with Terry Riley on a series of 24 guitar pieces. He has toured extensively with Steve Reich and Musicians, he was invited to Japan in 1991 by Toru Takemitsu, and has had a long association with the Ensemble Modern. He is currently a member of the World Guitar Ensemble, which regularly tours Europe.

David Tanenbaum has over three dozen recordings, which reflect his broad repertoire interests. His 2002 recording as soloist with Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Los Angeles Philharmonic in John Adam's Naive and Sentimental Music was nominated for a Grammy as the Best New Composition.

He has produced many editions of guitar music, including the “David Tanenbaum Concert Series.” He has also written a series of three books, “The Essential Studies,” which analyze the etudes of Sor, Carcassi and Brouwer and compliment his recordings of those recordings and his chapter on “The Revival of the Classical Guitar in the 20th Century” appears in the Cambridge Companion to the Guitar.

David Tanenbaum is currently Chair of the Guitar Department at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where he received the 1995 Outstanding Professor Award, and he has been Artist-In-Residence at the Manhattan School of Music. He is in demand for Masterclasses worldwide.
... JUST ADDED to David's Festival concert:
For David Tanenbaum's 2nd set, he will premier a new composition, "Repentance," by the renowned Russian composer, Sofia Gubaidulina.   This piece, for quintet, will have three guitars, cello and bass.  The quintet artists are:  David Tanenbaum, Antoniy Kakamokov and Paul Psarras, guitars;  Nancy Nagano, cello and Clifford Swanson, bass.
Don't miss the festial's Opening Night at 6:30 on Friday, September 25th! (followed by Carlos Barbosa-Lima and Berta Rojas).

JÉRÉMY JOUVE
Jérémy Jouve, 2003 First Prize winner of the prestigious Guitar Foundation of America’s International Guitar Competition, enjoys an international concert career.

Born in 1979, Jouve began studying the guitar in Chambéry, France, and obtained at the early age of 13 the "Premier Prix" of the Grenoble Conservatoire National de Région. This prize enabled him to be admitted to the studio of Eric Franceries, who was to become extremely important to Jouve's early musical development.

Moving to Paris at 18, he studied with Maestro Alberto Ponce at the Ecole Normale de Musique/Alfred Cortot and at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique, where he was a student of Maestro Roland Dyens. After graduating with degrees in guitar and in amber music, Jérémy decided to broaden his musical horizons. He elected to join an advanced training course under the guidance of Laszlo Hadady, oboe soloist of the Paris-based Ensemble Intercontemporain.

Already an award winner at several international competitions, in 2002 Jouve won First Prize at the Tychy International Guitar Competition (Poland) followed by First Prize at the 2003 Guitar Foundation of America’s International Guitar Competition. Following this success, he embarked upon a 40-city concert tour of the United States, Canada and Mexico during 2004-2005.

Jérémy Jouve has always been active in a diverse array of musical projects. Among his many interests are jazz, Indian classical music and contemporary music, which has found him concertizing on the electric guitar in various ensembles. A seasoned chamber musician, he regularly performs in several chamber music groups, in association with Sébastien Droy (tenor, nominated for French National Classical Music Award 2007) and Judicael Perroy (winner of the GFA competition in 1997), with whom Jouve has formed a duo currently enjoying widespread attention.

"Without a doubt one of the bright lights of the young generation of classical guitarists."
... Univers Guitare, January 2005

CARLOS PÉREZ
Carlos Pérez was born in Santiago de Chile and his interest in guitar playing started at an early age through his father. He graduated with top honors from the Arts Faculty of the University of Chile where he studied under Ernesto Quezada. 

He was awarded top prizes in major international competitions in Europe and America, winning first prize in: X “Alirio Díaz”, Venezuela 1996; XX “René Bartoli”, France 1997; VI “Printemps de La Guitare”, Belgium 1998; III “Forum Gitarre”, Austria 2000; XIV “Fundacion Guerrero” Spain 2000 and the Joaquín Rodrigo Competition in Madrid, Spain 2006.

He has issued five CDs and recorded at several European radios. His first DVD was issued this year by Mel Bay Inc, USA. He has given recitals in more than thirty countries in North, Central, and South America as well as Europe, and has played with orchestras from England, Belgium, the United States, Spain, Russia, Portugal, Poland and Chile.His performance with Orquesta Sinfónica de Radio y Televisión Nacional de España was transmitted in live for 27 countries by European Broadcasting Union.

Carlos has participated in prestigious Guitar Festivals such as: Guitar Foundation of America, Volos, Vienna, Esztergom, Bratislava, Mikulov, Fabritio Caroso, Caracas, Saltillo, Martinique and others, and has given master classes and lectures in many Universities and Schools of Music in North, central and south America.

Editions Henry Lemoine of France, Productions d’Oz of Canada and Grenzland-Verlag Theo Hüsgen of Germany have published some of his arrangements and compositions.

Classical Guitar Magazine of England praises this outstanding musician with these acclaims: "He gets to the point of everything he plays"..., "A master guitarist with true star quality" 

THE ALTURAS DUO
The Alturas Duo is recognized as one of the most entertaining ensembles performing in the chamber music world today. The only group of its kind, the Duo formed with the idea of playing South American and classical music by bringing together the unusual combination of the viola, charango and guitar, creating fiery programs that move at ease between Johann Sebastian Bach, South American folk rhythms and new music commissioned by the Duo.

The Alturas Duo is Carlos Boltes, from Santiago, Chile, who plays the charango and viola and Scott Hill, a native of Ontario, Canada, plays the guitar and other varied and unusual stringed instruments.

The Duo has performed and lectured across the United States, Canada, Chile and Bolivia including performances at: Carnegie Hall, the Music Mountain Chamber Music Series, the Smithsonian Institute; the Latin American Art Week in New York, The Museum of Bolivian Folkloric Instruments in La Paz, the "Entre Cuerdas" guitar festival in Chile, and the Chilean and Venezuelan embassies in Washington D.C.; the 34th International Viola Congress, the Québec City and Connecticut Classical Guitar Societies. In addition, Mr. Boltes and Mr. Hill are founders and artistic directors of the Simsbury Chamber Music Festival and are members of the Connecticut Commission on the Arts and Tourism's "Directory of Performing Artists Roster".  

JUDICAËL PERROY
Judicaël Perroy was born in Paris in 1973. At the age of 7 he began guitar studies at the Paris Academy of Music.

During the period from 1983 to 1988, Judicaël studied with Delia Estrada, then Raymond Gratien at the National School Academy of Aulnay-sous-Bois. An acknowledged prodigy by the age of 11, he played two Vivaldi Concertos conducted by famous French musician André Girard in 1984 and won the Second Prize of the International Competition of the Ile-de France at 14 years of age. In 1988 he was awarded a unanimous First Prize with a Special Mention at the Academy of Aulnay-sous-Bois. Perroy's studies continued under the tutelage of Roberto Aussel and Daniel Lavialle.

In 1992 he won a unanimous First Prize and the Prix du Publique at the René Bartoli International Competition.

In 1994 Judicaël earned his diploma at the Ecole Normale of Paris in the class of Alberto Ponce and that same year won the 7th International Competition of Bourg-Madame. In 1996 he graduated from the Paris National Conservatoire of Music, earning the highest placement in his class. In 1997, Perroy won the Guitar Foundation of America International Solo Competition. He subsequently took GFA’s "Winner's Tour of the Americas" performing over 60 concerts in 1998.

Since then, he extensively tours in France (including multiple performances for the National Radio in "France-Musiques"), Guadeloupe, Tahiti, Martinique Germany, Spain, Portugal, Italia, Denmark, Russia, Yugoslavia, Singapore, Australia, USA, Mexico and Canada.

Five CDs are currently available: one under the French label Quantum (the CD was awarded a 5 Stars Prize by the French magazine Diapason); the second CD Aspen Suite was recorded in Colorado. A third CD of duos was edited with the flutist Florence Bellon for the collection Méditation of Bayard Presse, and a fourth for the same collection with the harpist Joanna Kozielska. In February 2000, he recorded a piece by Nikita Koshkin in trio with the composer himself and Frank Koonce for the CD Company Soundset.
A video of his 1999 live performance in Lubbock, Texas was recorded on the Mel Bay label.

In 1995, he was awarded the "CA", the highest teaching certificate that an individual must have in order to teach in a National Academy.

Whereas Judicael usually teaches at the National Academy of Aulnay-sous-Bois near Paris, he stood in for Stephen Robinson, the guitar teacher at Stetson University in DeLand (Florida) for the first semester 2000.

MICHAEL PARTINGTON
Michael Partington is one of the most engaging of the new generation of concert players. Praised by Classical Guitar Magazine for his "lyricism, intensity and clear technical command," this award-winning British guitarist has performed internationally as a soloist and with ensemble to unanimous critical praise.

He began playing guitar at age 6 while growing up in Wales, gave his first public performance at age 7 and won his first competition at age 9. He has trained with many of the world's greatest guitarists, including Oscar Ghiglia, Eliot Fisk, Eduardo Fernandez, Manuel Barrueco and David Russell, who commented on his "exquisite good taste and fluid perfection."

Audiences are put at ease by his charming stage manner and captivated by his musical interpretations. His innate rhythmic understanding and sense for tonal color combine to form some of the most memorable phrasing to be heard on the guitar.

An advocate of new music, he has commissioned and premiered works by Stephen Goss, Bryan Johanson, Toshio Hosokawa, Angelo Gilardino, Tom Baker, Kevin Callahan and others.

He has also performed with Orchestra Seattle, Seattle Chamber Players, Seattle Creative Orchestra, Wenatchee Valley Symphony, Rainier Symphony, Portland State University Orchestra, Seattle Symphony Chorale, Seattle Choral Company, and flutist Paul Taub in the duo Dinamici. Mr. Partington is frequently invited to adjudicate or sit on the jury for local, national and international competitions in the US and Canada, including the Guitar Foundation of America competition, the National finals for the Federation of Canadian Music Festivals, the Music Teachers of North America national finals and the Portland Guitar Competition.

Mr. Partington has appeared throughout the USA, UK, Canada, Russia and Scandanavia in solo recital, with orchestra and in chamber ensembles. His North American appearances include the first solo guitar recital in Seattle's Benaroya Hall.

He has performed live on BBC Radio 3's “In Tune”, BBC Radio Bristol, BBC Wales and Great Western Radio in the UK, as well as “St. Paul Sunday” on National Public Radio in the US, KUOW, KING FM, KZAZ, and KAOS in Washington, JPR in Oregon, KUT in Texas, and cable television in California, Montana and Washington.

Michael Partington currently lives in Seattle where he is Director of the Guitar Program at the University of Washington.

THOMAS HECK
ILLUSTRATED LECTURES ON THE GUITAR
Emeritus Professor
DR. THOMAS F. HECK (B.A. Univ. of Notre Dame, 1965; Ph.D. Yale University, 1970; MLS, Univ. of Southern California, 1977), now Emeritus Professor, Ohio State University, taught music research methods and bibliography and was Head of the Music & Dance Library at the Ohio State University for most of his career.
Twice he held Fulbright scholarships, first to Vienna (1968-69) to work on the history of the classic guitar, then to Florence (1985-86) to explore the phenomenon of Italian improvised comedy. In addition to authoring "Commedia dell'Arte: A Guide to the Primary and Secondary Literature" (New York, 1988; reprinted iUniverse.com, 2000), and "Mauro Giuliani: Virtuoso Guitarist and Composer" (Columbus, 1995, reprinted 1997) he has contributed many articles to the major music encyclopedias (MGG, and especially The NewGrove Dictionaries of Music...).

In 1994-95 he was a Fellow at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences (NIAS), where he undertook research on the iconography of the performing arts, the subject of his recent book, Picturing Performance… (1999).

He was a founding director of the Guitar Foundation of America (1973- ) and has served as adjudicator and lecturer at various international guitar festivals since 1980; he was the featured musicologist/lecturer at the Darwin International Guitar Festival (Australia, 1997) and at the Dundee International Guitar Festival (U.K., 2004). He currently is a freelance consultant, musician, and writer/lecturer based in Santa Barbara, California.

Don't miss Sunday's free "Spotlight on Guitar History: Thomas Heck Interviews Jim Forderer"  using instruments from the Forderer Collection of Rare and Historic Guitars.

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