Guitar

As a performer, Jonathan Leathwood has appeared in many venues in Europe and both American continents. Equally known as a collaborator with both performers and composers, he has recorded with the legendary flutist William Bennett and collaborated on works for six- and ten-string guitar from composers such as Param Vir, Stephen Goss, Robert Keeley, Chris Malloy, Harrison Birtwistle and Roxanna Panufnik. He gave the Julian Bream Trust's inaugural concert at London's Wigmore Hall, at the personal invitation of Bream. As an educator, Jonathan is passionate about integrating different types of skill, knowledge and understanding. He has a PhD from the University of Surrey and a bachelor of music from King's College London, and he is an internationally certified teacher of the Alexander Technique. He teaches guitar, music theory and the Alexander Technique at the University of Denver's Lamont School of Music, where he is chair of guitar. He is the editor of the Guitar Foundation of America's peer-reviewed journal of guitar studies, Soundboard Scholar. Since graduating from the Royal Northern College of Music, Richard Wright has pursued a highly varied career in both classical and popular music. As a performer, his work has encompassed everything from contemporary music groups such as the London Sinfonietta to membership of the critically acclaimed rock group Latin Quarter, best known for their 1985 hit Radio Africa. He has worked with musicians as diverse as composer John Adams and guitarist John Williams and appeared everywhere from New York's Lincoln Center to the pyramid stage at the Glastonbury Festival. Above all, Richard is an internationally recognised teacher of the classical guitar and its pedagogy, with a special interest in the problems of early learning. He designed and delivered a teacher-training course for guitarists in Venezuela and has lectured on guitar pedagogy in the United Kingdom, Holland, Germany and the United States. In 2004 the guitar was added to the roster of instruments taught at the Yehudi Menuhin School, and Richard became its first teacher.