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Paul Galbraith
One of the most celebrated players and innovators of his generation with an international concert career spanning three decades. Born in Scotland but now based in Brazil, Paul comes to Big Guitar Weekend to perform and teach on the Classical Guitar course.
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 has been soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, the Oakland Symphony, Vienna’s ORF orchestra, with such eminent conductors as Esa-Pekka Salonen, Kent Nagano and John Adams.
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 Aolsharfe, 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, was invited to Japan in 1991 by Toru Takemitsu, and has had a long association with the Ensemble Modern.
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
Kevin MacKenzie
"Kevin regularly performs with a diverse range of projects from Trio AAB and the Scottish Guitar Quartet to the Finlay Macdonald Band and Jenna Reid. He has toured extensively and has recorded on over 40 albums. His groups have been featured alongside guitarist Robben Ford’s power trio, The Bob Berg and Mike Stern group, the Jazz Crusaders and Seminal Jazz figure Ornette Coleman. In 2001 Kevin received the prestigious ‘Creative Scotland Award’, which he used to write and record music for his nine-piece band ‘Kevin Mackenzie’s Vital Signs’. The CD gathered great reviews including album of the month in The Observer and CD of the week in The Guardian. He recently released 'East of East 7th Street' Featuring New York Based musicians Donny McCaslin, Ben Perowsky and Boris Kozlov."
Matthew McAllister & Aisling Agnew
Celebrating their Ten Year Anniversary the Agnew McAllister Duo are one of the most sought after exponents of the Flute & Guitar genre in the world. Aisling & Matthew will perform a programme of new music specially commissioned for their duo.
Pavel Steidl
Pavel Steidl was born in Rakovnik (Czech Republic). He has won first prize at the Radio France International Competition in Paris and has become regarded one of the most widely celebrated soloists of his generation. His highly expressive performances of rare 19th-century guitar literature on authentic instruments add a wonderful dimension to his already exceptional performances. Pavel has played in more than 30 countries of the world from among Canada, Cuba, Spain, Poland, Austria, Costa Rica, Mexico, Guatemala, Australia, Japan, England, Scotland and many others. On demand of the Italian Guitar Magazine ‘Guitart’ he was voted the most important classical guitarist of the year 2003.
Malcolm MacFarlane
Malcolm received the Scottish Arts' Council funded Scottish Jazz Award for guitar in 2009. As a jazz guitarist he has gigged, toured and/or recorded with many musicians from all over the world including:
Jamie Cullum, Barbara Thopson, Tam White, Barbara Morrison, Salena Jones, Stacey Kent, Jacqui Dankworth, Jacqui Hicks, Claire Martin, Gary Husband, Peter Erskine, Alrid Andersen, Jon Christensen, Charlie Rouse, BBC Radio Big Band, NYJO, SNJO, SCJE, Marc Antoine, Maria Schneider and Florian Ross amongst many others.
As a commercial player he has also gigged, toured and/or recorded with: Shatatak, Tom Jones, David Essex, Barbara Dickson, Petula Clark, Eddi Reader & Matt Bianco amongst many others. In London he was involved in the commercial session scene and has recorded many library CDs, film scores and jingles including Steve Wright's which have been broadcast 5 days a week for the last two decades.
More recently he has been focusing on composition and has scored films, provided music for audiobooks and written many pieces for the Red Note Ensemble and Mr.McFall's Chamber. He has also led many of his own groups including the Scottish Guitar Quartet that he founded in 2000, the Mulford/MacFarlane Group in London and currently The Sermon Organ Trio with Paul Harrison and Tom Gordon. Both of the earlier groups recorded critically acclaimed releases and the SOT will record their debut CD in 2012. Alongside that, he is featured on over 20 CD & DVD releases by other artists.