Sharon Isbin

Hailed as a pre-eminent guitarist of our time, multiple Grammy winner Sharon Isbin was named Musical America’s Instrumentalist of the Year, the only guitarist in their award history, and inducted into the 2023 Guitar Foundation of America’s Hall of Fame. She has performed with over 200 orchestras, premiered over eighty works written for her by great composers, and given sold-out performances in celebrated halls across 40 countries. Winner of the Munich ARD, Madrid, and Toronto competitions, Germany’s Echo Klassik, and Guitar Player’s Best Classical Guitarist awards, she performed in Scorsese’s Oscar-winning film The Departed, at the White House by invitation of President Obama, and as the only classical artist at the 2010 Grammy Awards. The PBS documentary Sharon Isbin: Troubadour won ASCAP’s Television Broadcast Award. Her discography of over thirty-five recordings includes Live in Aspen with Amjad Ali Khan (June 2024 release), Affinity and Strings for Peace named Best of 2020, Souvenirs of Spain & Italy with the Pacifica Quartet, her Grammy-winning Journey to the New World with guest Joan Baez which spent 63 weeks on the Billboard charts, and her Latin Grammy-nominated disc with the New York Philharmonic, their only recording with guitar. Recent highlights include a commission for her by Carnegie Hall for its 125th anniversary, a twenty-one-city Guitar Passions tour with Stanley Jordan and Romero Lubambo, a collaboration with Sting, and a 2024 concerto premiere by Karen LeFrak. She is the founding director of guitar departments at The Juilliard School and the Aspen Music Festival.