Success Stories

David Leisner has received the 2026 Celedonio Romero Lifetime Achievement Award given by the Leyenda Foundation.

“The Leyenda Foundation and the Romero Family are proud to honor this extraordinary guitarist, composer, and educator—recognized by American Record Guide as ‘among the finest guitarists of all time,’” writes the foundation in a statement. “In celebrating David Leisner with the 2026 Celedonio Romero Lifetime Achievement Award, we honor a musician whose artistry, innovation, and generosity carry forward the legacy of Celedonio Romero and the enduring spirit of the guitar.”

The Leyenda Foundation works to preserve the legacies of great artists through high quality education experiences and transformative performance opportunities.

More information here.

Minnesota Public Radio recently aired a 30-minute interview with David Leisner, Chair of the Guitar Program at MSM. In the interview he speaks about his new album Charms to Soothe, his book and he talks at length about the Guitar Program at MSM. David also discusses his interest in visual art.

Charms to Soothe was released in late May on Azica Records and has been receiving positive attention from classical music press.

Listen to the interview here.
Learn more about the album here.

DMA student Eduardo Gutterres (MM ’23) will play a duo concert on December 1 with former Master’s degree classmate, Gabriele Leite (MM ‘22), at the Teatro Cultura Artistica in São Paolo, Brazil. The theater is considered the most important concert hall in Brazil, and is reopening after a fire damaged it in 2019, with Gutterres and Leite featured in this first innagural season, along with Lang Lang, Joshua Bell, and others.

This summer, Eduardo worked as Sharon Isbin‘s assistant at the Aspen Music Festival coaching guitar ensembles. He also hosts a series of podcasts for the Augustine Strings Wind Up series, and for that program this summer interviewed young guitarist TY Zhang.

Purchase tickets to the concert in Brazil here.
Watch/ listen to the Augustine Strings podcast hosted by Eduardo here.

The release of the debut solo album of Brazilian guitarist Gabriele Leite (MM ‘22) in Brazil in late 2023 has been followed by a series of high-profile accomplishments in 2024 and now into 2025. Previously, in 2021, she was the first classical guitarist named in the Forbes magazine annual “Under 30” listing of notable talents.

Gabriele Leite’s album Territórios on the Rocinante label in Brazil, features works by Assad, Krieger, Villa-Lobos, and Walton, and has received high-profile reviews, including from one of Brazil’s leading newspapers, Folha de São Paulo. A tour of Brazil followed the release, and in May 2024 she was selected as the Brazilian artist for the ClassicalNEXT 2024 in Berlin, Germany’s largest contemporary classical music festival, held in May 2024.

In June 2024, Gabriele was named a Young Upcoming Artist at the Brazilian Music Awards, and in August, she joined the Pinuts Music Agency in Europe. In summer 2025, she will have her first European tour;  in November 2025, she will play the Villa-Lobos Concerto with the Porto Alegre Philharmonic Orchestra, and she will also play in the Salvador Bahia Jazz Festival.

Learn more about Gabriele Leite here.
Discover her debut album Territórios here.

David Leisner’s recording Charms to Soothe that was released in late May on Azica Records has been receiving positive attention from classical music press.

“Charms to Soothe is a collection of early 19th-century works by Sor, Giuliani, Mertz, Regondi and Schulz, intended to be healing in these turbulent times of ours,” says David Leisner.

“Distinguished by attention to detail, thoughtful consideration of pacing, and clear affection for the music…Leisner’s articulation is unfailingly precise and his interpretations illuminating. Executed with the kind of ease and authority that comes from decades of playing, the material impresses for its melodic richness, warmth, and clarity,” writes Textura.

“This is a disc for anyone, guitar lover or not, with a taste for beautiful and stimulating music in an intimate format, played with taste and devotion,” writes Göran Forsling, Music Web International.

The recording can be purchased here.
The liner notes can be viewed here.

Guitarist Steve Cowen (in photo on right) is following up his second prize win as co-member of the CC Duo at the 2023 Guitar Foundation of American Ensemble Competition—the most prestigious guitar competition in the world—with his guitar partner Adam Cicchillitti (on left) with a new album release on the Analekta label. The duo’s album will feature arrangements of piano miniatures by Grieg, Ravel, Mompou, Tailleferre, Satie, and others.

The CC Duo also commissioned six new works for guitar duo and string orchestra by Steve Goss, Harry Stafylakis, Bekah Simms, Kelly-Marie Murphy, Amy Brandon, and Patrick Roux.  These works were recently recorded with the renowned Montreal ensemble collectif9, and will be released on the Leaf Music label in early 2025.

Steve Cowan is also the newest member of the well-established Canadian Guitar Quartet.  They performed at the 2024 Guitar Foundation of American Convention this summer and are about to release a new album on the Atma Musique label next spring, featuring works by current and former members of the group, as well as arrangements of Bach and Mozart.

Finally, Steve and composer Jason Noble will release One Foot in the Past (Centrediscs, 2025), a 65-minute album weaving together Newfoundland speech and traditional folk music with contemporary techniques of speech-based, timbre-based, and textural composition.

Classical guitar student Ahhyun Noh (BM ’26) who studies under MSM guitar faculty member David Starobin, and MSM alumna clarinetist Jeongmin Hong (MM ’24), who studied at MSM with Pascual Martínez Forteza, gave their debut performances this past summer in Seoul, South Korea on July 20, and in Busan, South Korea on July 13. Their program included movements of Franz Schubert’s Arpeggione Sonata and Astor Piazzolla’s Histoire du Tango.

Under the guidance of faculty member David Leisner and MSM Doctoral studies candidate Eduardo Gutterres, the duo won in the Lillian Fuchs Chamber Music Competition at MSM in 2024 and in 2023.

Watch a video of the two performing, recorded in Korea for the Partita Studio, here, and here.

The Village Trip GuitarFest features talented guitarists from the tri-state region for a three-day festival of new and old music for guitars.

Sept 14 showcases a tribute to the late Scott Johnson with a performance of his “Bowery Haunt” for two electric guitars, performed by MSM guitar faculty member Oren Fader, joined by William Anderson.

On Sept 16 at 6 PM, the Bowers Fader Duo will perform “Beyond the Line of Blue”, by Damon Ferrante, and Oren is joined by guitarist Jack Ward in Martin Rokeach’s “Fantasy on Twelve Strings.” And at 8 PM, the Bowers Fader Duo performs Richard Cameron-Woolf’s “Gazelle in my Garden.” The Bowers Fader Duo will also perform on Sept 19 and 29.

Festival information is found here.

MSM guitar faculty member David Leisner will be a featured soloist in the final of three GuitarFest concerts in the Village Trip Festival in New York City.  David will play the second performance works he recently commissioned and premiered:

Congratulations to classical guitarist and MSM alumnus Rupert Boyd (MM ’06) who is featured as the April 2022 Artist of the Month in the prestigious magazine Musical America.

Later this month, the Australian-born, 40-year-old guitarist is relaunching his respected concert series GatherNYC which will run from April 24 to June 26 at Manhattan’s Museum of Arts and Design, featuring artists such as ETHEL, South Korean guitarist Jiji, and musicians from the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra.

Read the Musical America article here.
Learn more about Rupert Boyd here.
Find out about GatherNYC here.

Kirill Gerstein, along with fellow pianist Garrick Ohlsson, will play two-piano show pieces by Ravel, Rachmaninoff, and Thomas Adès on Friday, February 25th at 7:30 pm. 

Pablo Sainz-Villegas will perform “The Soul of the Spanish Guitar” a recital that will feature works by Albéniz, Granados, Rodrigo and others on Saturday, April 2nd at 8 pm.

Along with the Brentano String Quartet, Dawn Upshaw will present An exploration of the mythological Dido –  music by Purcell, Dowland and others; NY premiere of Melinda Wagner’s Dido Reimagined on Sunday, April 3rd at 3 pm.

Mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard (PC ’98) and guitarist Pablo Sáinz Villegas (PD ’04, PS ’06, AD ’07) were featured on PBS’s Great Performances at the Met on October 8 in an encore broadcast of “Three Divas in Concert” along with sopranos Nadine Sierra and Ailyn Pérez. The concert was filmed this past May at the Royal Opera of Versailles.

The trio of singers performed a program of classic arias and popular Spanish songs, accompanied by pianist Vlad Iftinca and Pablo Sáinz Villegas who was awarded a Distinguished Alumni Award by MSM in 2015.

Learn more here.

The 2021 New York Guitar Festival (NYGF) will pay tribute to the iconic classical guitarist Julian Bream with an online series of concerts entitled “Remembering Julian Bream” from July 14 to 20.

Music include commissions by a group of stellar classical guitarists, lutenists and composers in honor of the late Grammy Award-winning concert artist.

MSM Guitar Department Chair David Leisner will perform on July 15 at 4 PM EDT.

Julian Bream is regarded as one of the most distinguished classical guitarists of the 20th century, playing a significant role in improving the public perception of the classical guitar as a respectable instrument.

Three video performances will broadcast each day of the festival at 3pm, 4pm, and 5pm EDT on the New York Guitar Festival YouTube channel found here.

Read more about the festival here.

MSM alumnus Pablo Sáinz Villegas appeared as a soloist with the Berlin Philharmonic in the orchestra’s Digital Concert Hall in late December 2020.

The video of him performing Concierto de Aranjuez by Joaquín Rodrigo, under the baton of the Berlin Philharmonic conductor Kirill Petrenko, can be seen here.

Visit this page to learn more about Pablo.

Renowned guitarist David Starobin and his wife Becky wrote the libretto for composer Poul Ruders’ new opera, The Thirteenth Child. The opera, based on a lesser-known Brothers Grimm fairytale, will premiere at Santa Fe Opera July 27 and run though August 21.

The New York Times sat down with Ruders and the Starobins to discuss how their “lighter, lyrical” opera came to be—read the article here.

In addition to being a teacher at MSM and Grammy-nominated guitarist, David Starobin is also a classical recordings producer and co-founded the recording firm Bridge Records with his wife Becky.

The newest project from critically-acclaimed guitarist Jake Hertzog, is a unique fusion of the classical and the jazz world.

Read more and listen

Playing with Ease (Oxford University Press) is a book about ergonomic technique for the guitar, and other instruments. Leisner introduces the basic anatomy of movement, gives advice on relieving unnecessary tension, pioneering ideas about engaging large muscles, and tips for practicing and concert preparation.

Learn more here