Guitarist Andrew York grew up in a home where his mother sang, beautifully, he says, and his father played folk music on the guitar. His earliest memories are of family musical gatherings. He went on to help found the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet.
He's had many teachers, but York names one professor at USC as a particular influence, Duke Miller, who brought him to Los Angeles to USC. York had a full scholarship to get his Master's degree there, and was essentially a jazz player at that time and playing lute in an early music ensemble.
"For the two years I was there, he let me just explore any project that I wanted," York said.
He said high schools never had guitar programs when he was growing up, so in giving master classes, he tries to "impart some type of direction that can steer them that will have a real impact over the course of their musical life."
York said, "you can really open their minds to things that they may have found eventually, but how great to find it when you're 16, instead of 36. Music is a lifelong journey...with no destination, it's a long term process in unfolding. That's one of the beautiful things about it."
York has been teaching master classes at Lakeland's Harrison School for the Arts this week, and will perform his own compositions and J.S. Bach tonight (Thursday, March 6), both with students and with Dr. Robert Phillips, Director of the school's Classical Guitar Department. tonight at 7:30 in the school's Center for the Visual and Performing Arts.
http://youtu.be/okbWHXwx6YA
