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Fingerstyle Guitar Concerts

I learned fingerstyle guitar when I was a kid, but had drifted away from playing when I was studying classical/choral music. Then in 2003, my nephew Jeremiah encouraged me to attend the Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, Kansas.

After seeing the artists there, I was struck again with the fingerstyle guitar bug. I didn't realize what had happened while I was away. The technical precision, the melodic and harmonic depth, and the ability to convey a wide spectrum of emotion was overwhelming to me, musically.

So.... I decided I would create opportunities for fingerstyle guitar artists to play concerts here in Wichita. Our first concert was Stephen Bennett at the Orpheum Theatre back in June of 2005. It was relatively well attended, even though we were having severe thunderstorms and tornado warnings that day.

We invited Stephen to play a house concert when he was traveling through Kansas on tour, and then asked Andy McKee and Masa Sumide to play a concert at the house in 2007. Both concerts were standing-room- only, and people couldn't believe how incredible the players were... and they were able to watch them from 10 feet away!

We haven't hosted a fingerstyle concert since, because of life, work, and the economy, but I would love to continue the practice. My intent is to raise enough funds, so we can bring in more world-class players - including Pete Huttlinger and Jaquie Gipson - but this time, guarantee the artists the monetary compensation a performance deserves, and then not charge admission for attendees.

Why not make it a win/win for everyone? Then people attending the concert can buy artist CDs because they didn't spend all their money on admission, which will benefit both parties again!

I know... crazy, but possible!

My real dream, if you want to know.... is to build a stage in the back yard, so we can have bring-your-own-lawn-chair concerts, and get a hundred people to attend!

You know what I'm going to say.... click the DONATE button on the left to help make the dream come true!