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 […]
In December 2021, I met with Dr. James Westbrook to discuss his newest book, “Guitar Making in Nineteenth Century London,” scheduled for publication in early 2023. We met at the back of the San Anselmo Inn in San Anselmo. California and were joined by Richard Savino, John Mello, Randy Osborne, Steve Stein, and others for an hour-long discussion on London guitar makers in the early nineteenth century.
The history of the guitar in the Americas is arguably a story still to be told. Europe is the birthplace of the guitar and where much of the classical guitar’s repertoire is drawn.
In 2019, I traveled to Churchill College in the University of Cambridge to interview three of the world’s leading guitar scholars, Christopher Page, James Westbrook, and Erik Stenstadvold in a three-hour-long symposium covering a wide variety of topics ranging from Francisco Corbetta at the Restoration Court, the ebb and flow of the guitar’s popularity over the last four centuries, and the nineteenth century’s fascinating guitar impresario and diarist, Nicolai Petrovich Makarov. The symposium proved that studying the history of the guitar can be interesting, educational, and all the while entertaining.
