Sharon Isbin
Classical guitarist and founder of Juilliard's guitar department.
Sharon Isbin is an American classical guitarist who founded and directs the guitar department at the Juilliard School. Born on August 7, 1956, she has been a prominent figure in classical guitar performance and education.
Quick Facts
- Born
- 7 August 1956
- Birthplace
- Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.
- Genre
- Classical, folk
- Occupation
- Musician
- Instrument
- Classical guitar
- Years active
- 1970–present
Facts from the source article.
Personal life and education
Sharon Isbin was born to Katherine Brudnoy, an attorney, and Herbert S. Isbin, a nuclear scientist and professor at the University of Minnesota. She began guitar at age nine with Aldo Minella in Varese, Italy, and later studied with Jeffrey Van, Sophocles Papas, Andrés Segovia, Oscar Ghiglia, Alirio Díaz, and for ten years with Rosalyn Tureck. She earned a B.A. cum laude from Yale University and a Master of Music from the Yale School of Music, and began practicing Transcendental Meditation at age 17.
Career
Sharon Isbin gave the first performance of Steve Vai’s Blossom Suite, a piece written for her, at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris in 2005. Early on, she worked across genres with Brazilian guitarist Laurindo Almeida and jazz guitarist Larry Coryell. In 2014, she joined Stanley Jordan and Romero Lubambo for a 20-concert Guitar Passions tour. She appeared with Josh Groban on the PBS broadcast of the Billy Joel: Gershwin Prize concert in 2015, and that same February she was a guest on the Tavis Smiley PBS series. On November 5, 2015, she took part in the David Lynch Foundation’s “Change Begins Within” benefit at Carnegie Hall, sharing the bill with Katy Perry, Sting, Jerry Seinfeld, Angelique Kidjo, and Jim James. In 1989, Isbin created the Master of Music, Graduate Diploma, and Artist Diploma programs for classical guitar at the Juilliard School, later adding Bachelor of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees; she remains the founding director and a faculty member of Juilliard’s guitar department. She wrote the Classical Guitar Answer Book and, in 1993, founded and continues to direct the Guitar Department at the Aspen Music Festival. Her honors include first prize at the Toronto Guitar Competition (1975), the Munich ARD International Music Competition (1976), the Madrid Queen Sofia International Competition (1979), the Concert Artists Guild Virtuoso Award (2013), Germany’s Echo Klassik Award (2002), Musical America’s Worldwide Instrumentalist of the Year (2020), the JoAnn Falletta International Guitar Concerto Competition Lifetime Achievement Award (2020), and the Guitar Foundation of America Hall of Fame and Artistic Achievement Award (2023). She was the first guitarist to be named Musical America’s Instrumentalist of the Year and the first to win the Munich ARD competition. Her album Journey to the Amazon earned a 1999 Grammy nomination for Best Classical Crossover Album. She performed on Aaron Jay Kernis’s Double Concerto with violinist Cho-Liang Lin and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra; that recording received a 2000 Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary Classical Composition for Kernis’s Air for Violin.
Frequently Asked Questions
When and where was Sharon Isbin born?
Sharon Isbin was born on 7 August 1956 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.
When was Sharon Isbin active?
Sharon Isbin has been active since 1970.
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