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Sharon Isbin

Instrumental Focus

  • classical guitar

Programs Taught

  • Classical Guitar

Hailed as a pre-eminent guitarist of our time, multiple Grammy winner Sharon Isbin was named as Musical America’s Instrumentalist of the Year, the first 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 Martin 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. Recent entries in her discography of over thirty-five recordings include Affinity and Strings for Peace with Amjad Ali Khan, both named Best of 2020. Other titles include 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 jazz greats Stanley Jordan and Romero Lubambo, and a collaboration with Sting. She is the founding director of guitar departments at The Juilliard School and the Aspen Music Festival and School.