Guitar at Eastern Kentucky University
Welcome to one of the most diverse guitar programs in the United States. EKU has much to offer the aspiring guitarist. The curriculum focuses on classical and contemporary styles, solo and ensemble performance, guitar history, and guitar pedagogy. Students enjoy numerous performance and recording opportunities, including guitar ensembles, jazz ensemble and combos, early music chamber groups, musicals, and solo studio and divisional recitals (see videos). Select students gain valuable teaching experience as paid instructors for the Richmond Arts and Cultural Council and F.A.M.E. (The Foster Academy for Musical Excellence). Internationally recognized artists such as Anton Baranov, Marcin Dylla, William Kanengiser, Carlos Perez, The San Francisco Guitar Quartet, Mark Kroos, and Scott Henderson, visit the campus each year and present concerts and masterclasses. The EKU Guitar Ensemble regularly performs at festivals where they have shared the stage with virtuosi such as William Kanengiser, Carlos Perez, and The Los Angeles Guitar Quartet. In fall of 2017, the EKU Guitar Ensemble performed live on the Red Barn Radio Show and that performance aired nationally on NPR in February of 2018. Each year select EKU music students attend NAMM and students pursuing degree options in Music Business or Recording Arts also have the opportunity to earn internships with companies such as Sony, Gibson and Yamaha. EKU guitar graduates in Music Performance regularly earn assistantships at top tier graduate schools and over ninety percent of EKU Music Education majors are offered jobs upon graduation.
The Music Library at EKU features many guitar related items. Students can peruse centuries of guitar music, technical treatises, periodicals, DVDs, CDs, and historical writings. Private lessons focus on interpretation, technique, sight-reading, fretboard visualization, improvisation, the history of the guitar, and culminate in historically informed and musically expressive performances.
The EKU Guitar Program is very forward thinking and embraces contemporary styles of guitar along side established traditional styles and genres that, without doubt, define and formulate the instrument's fundamental core and most essential techniques. Guitar currently permeates every conceivable musical landscape, including Radio, Television, Cinema, Broadway, Advertising, and the Internet. Fortunately, every genre requires the same important technical fundamentals and musicianship that you will learn while studying at EKU!
YOUTUBE performances:
EKU Guitar Ensemble - Bluezilian by Clarice Assad
EKU Guitar Ensemble - George Benson's version of So What by Miles Davis
EKU Guitar Ensemble - Leyenda de España by Agustin Barrios (MAGEF performance)
EKU Guitar Ensemble - Tamacun by Rodrigo y Gabriela (performed by Luke Jackson and Kevin Case)
EKU Guitar Ensemble - Quiccan by Andrew York
EKU Guitar Ensemble - Electric Mozart (Eine Kleine Nachtmusik)
EKU Guitar Ensemble - Slavonic Dance No.7 by Antonín Dvořák
EKU Guitar Ensemble - Introduction & Fandango by Luigi Boccherini
Dennis Davis - The Grand Solo by Fernando Sor
Dennis Davis - Asturias (Leyenda) by Isaac Albeníz
Dennis Davis - Rock Version of the National Anthem (arr. D. Davis)
Dennis Davis - Hand on Heart by Steve Vai
Dennis Davis - Guest soloist on EKU Sax Studio Concert (Hideaway-by David Sanborn)
Dennis Davis - Solo with the Kentucky Jazz Repertoire Orchestra (Praise God by Duke Ellington)
Dennis Davis & Richard Bromley (Flutist) - Nightclub 1960 by Astor Piazzolla
Dennis Davis - Signe by Eric Clapton
