The Guitar in Victorian England is the fourth installment by historian Christopher Page, tracing the fascinating history of the guitar in England. His previous works recounted the instrument’s role during the Tudor, Stuart, and Georgian periods. Now available at Cambridge University Press: https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/guitar-in-victorian-england/8A01D0BDAA09A1C236A618BD786A611E
In April of 2024, I had the opportunity to interview Dr. Sarah Clarke at the biennial symposium held by the Cambridge Consortium for Guitar Research. The three-day event was convened at Magdalene College in the University of Cambridge. The topic of our discussion was women and the guitar in nineteenth-century England.
In early October of 2024, the Austin-Marie Collection of historical guitars hosted an event at the Belvedere Tiburon Library in Marin County, California. Collection curator Jeff Wells was joined by photographer David Bishop and guitarists Jon Mendle and Emilia Diaz Delgado who performed period music on selected instruments from the collection.
January 2025 On the 22nd, music photographer Eleanor Jane of Eleven Magazine, flew up from Los Angeles for the day to shoot selected guitars in the Austin-Marie Collection at the Falkirk Mansion in San Rafael, California. Eleanor had traveled from the UK to attend the NAMM event in Anaheim. Having photographed many of the world’s […]
Jeff presented at the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix earlier this month where 12 guitars from the Austin-Marie Collection will be on display through September 2025 as part of the exhibit, Stradivarius and the Golden Age of Violins and Guitars: https://mim.org/ He was joined by his wife Monique and friends George, Vivian, Reinhard, and Kay. […]
In July of 2024, I was joined by guitarist, author, historian, and collector, Randy Osborne, at the back of the San Anselmo Inn in Marin County, California. Randy is a recognized authority on the history of the guitar in Argentina and a well known figure in the San Francisco Bay Area guitar scene. Over the […]
Three Centuries of Guitar II event October 17th
Luthier Alexander Batov demonstrates how to install a Baroque rose
A new rose for the 1684 Joachim Tielke guitar
Forgotten Guitars of History – The 19th Century: The Peak of Innovation – The First Guitar Part 2
The Austin-Marie Collection of historical guitars is featured in the June 2024 issue of Marin Magazine.
The Cambridge Consortium for Guitar Research held its 2024 symposium on April 12th–15th with members presenting on topics related to the history of the guitar prior to the twentieth century. This year’s event was held at Magdelene College in the University of Cambridge and concluded with a concert at the Round Church, opposite St. John’s […]
The Cambridge Consortium for Guitar Research is a select group of internationally recognized experts on all matters related to the guitar and its history, with an emphasis on the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The Consortium holds a four-day symposium every other year in the University of Cambridge featuring academic presentations and live performances on historical […]
In late September 2021, I traveled to Cambridge, England to attend a four-day symposium held by the Cambridge Consortium for Guitar Research. During my stay, I videoed Dr. Christopher Page performing Fernando Sor’s, Progressive Study at Sidney Sussex Chapel.
In the fall of 2023, an event showcasing the Austin-Marie Collection of historical guitars was held at the Marin Art & Garden Center in Ross, California. Guitar curator Jeff Wells spoke about the collection and was joined by guitarists Jon Mendle, Christopher Mallett, Carolyn Smith, and Richard Savino. The artists performed period music on selected […]
Guitar Making in Nineteenth-Century London by Dr. James Westbrook is now available! https://www.classicalguitar.co.uk/shop/guitar-making-in-nineteenth-century-london/ Guitar Making In Nineteenth-Century London
One of my favorites websites with an eclectic assortment of historical guitars from the leading makers of their day.
The guitar craze that began with the Folk Revival Movement in the late 1940s and transitioned into the rock and roll bands of the 1950s-’70s is familiar to most everyone old enough to remember. But there was another craze for the guitar born in Western Europe over two centuries ago at the dawn of the […]
