May 11 Student Guitar Show showcases string instruments built by students at Minnesota State College Southeast in Red Wing
STUDENT GUITAR SHOW
Minnesota State College Southeast, Red Wing campus
Thursday, May 11, 2023, 1 to 4 pm
308 Pioneer Road, Red Wing, MN
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Watch the live stream on YouTube at: https://youtube.com/live/nh73yd5yog8?feature=share (this will not be archived and can only be watched during the event)
The annual Student Guitar Show on May 11 at Minnesota State College Southeast in Red Wing will debut new guitars built by the college's first- and second- year guitar students.
An array of extraordinary flattop acoustic guitars, archtop guitars, electric guitars, and mandolins will be on display.
The Student Guitar Show takes place at Minnesota State College Southeast (308 Pioneer Road, Red Wing, MN) on Thursday, May 11, 2023 from 1 to 4 pm.
The Student Guitar Show is an exhilarating experience for anyone who loves handcrafted musical instruments, but most of all, it will be a thrill for the students will hear the acoustic guitars and mandolins they built played on stage by professional musicians, flatpicker Mike Cramer and fingerstyle guitarist Phil Heywood.
Lucas Randall (pictured) is a first-year guitar program student from Oconomowoc, WI. He is currently putting the finishing touches on an acoustic and an electric guitar.
"For me, the most rewarding aspect of the program has come in the last month, when we started putting the necks on our guitars, sanding out the parts, getting them ready to have finish applied -- it really starts looking like a guitar," Lucas said. "All the work we put in learning guitar repair at the beginning of the year has made it possible to build our guitars so quickly this semester."
Michael Faster is a second-year guitar program student from Appleton, WI. Students in this program design and build a custom instrument of their choice. He is making a resonator guitar along with other instruments.
"I'll be excited to hear someone play my resonator guitar at the Student Guitar Show, because it's a different instrument and it will be cool to hear it played," Michael said. "It was really gratifying to build a resonator guitar in this program, because I had to figure out so much of how to do it myself and now I have the skills to do that."
In addition to the guitars, several students in the college's Violin Making program will display instruments they built this year. The finished violins will be played during the Guitar Show intermission.
Admission to the Student Guitar Show is free and open to the public - please join us!
About the Musicians
Mike Cramer
Guitarist Mike Cramer is a music major from the University of Northern Iowa. His award-winning flatpicking technique earned him championship titles in the Minnesota State Fair Flatpicking Competition and Wisconsin's Upper-Midwest Flatpicking Contest. A fluid and powerful guitarist, Mike is as comfortable playing jazz standards as he is playing Bill Monroe's bluegrass instrumentals. He plays guitar in The Barley Jacks.
Phil Heywood
Fingerstyle guitarist Phil Heywood has been based in Minneapolis-St. Paul since the mid-1980s, performing locally and regionally while also establishing himself in the greater guitar and acoustic music world. In 1986 he won the National Fingerpicking Championship, and followed up in 1987 by winning the American Fingerstyle Guitar Festival Competition. He plays with a bluesy swing and tone, lyricism, and groove.