Acclaimed for her extraordinary lyricism, technique and versatility, GRAMMY Award winner Sharon Isbin has been hailed as ‘the pre-eminent guitarist of our time.’ Winner of the Madrid, Toronto, and Munich Competitions, and Guitar Player’s ‘Best Classical Guitarist’ award, Ms. Isbin gives sold-out performances throughout the world in the greatest halls including New York’s Carnegie and Avery Fisher Halls, Boston’s Symphony Hall, Washington D.C.’s Kennedy Center, London’s Barbican and Wigmore Hall, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Vienna’s Musikverein, Munich’s Herkulessaal, and Madrid’s Teatro Real. She has served as Artistic Director/Soloist of festivals she created for Carnegie Hall and New York’s 92nd Street Y, and the acclaimed national radio series Guitarjam. A frequent guest on national radio programs, she has been profiled on CBS Sunday and A&E television. On 11 September 2002, Ms. Isbin performed at Ground Zero for the internationally televised memorial. She has been featured in periodicals from People to Elle, The Wall Street Journal, and the New York Times, as well as on the cover of more than 35 magazines.
Ms. Isbin’s catalogue of over 25 recordings – from Baroque, Spanish/Latin and 20th Century to crossover and jazz-fusion – reflects remarkable versatility. In her latest best-selling Warner Classics CD, which received a 2005 Latin GRAMMY nomination for ‘Best Classical Album’, she is joined by the New York Philharmonic in concerti by Rodrigo, Ponce and Villa-Lobos. This marks the Philharmonic’s first-ever recording with guitar and follows their Avery Fisher Hall performances in June 2004 with Ms. Isbin as their first guitar soloist in 26 years. Her Dreams of a World earned her a 2001 GRAMMY Award for ‘Best Instrumental Soloist without Orchestra’, making her the first classical guitarist to receive a GRAMMY in 28 years. Her recording of concerti written for her by Rouse and Tan Dun received a 2002 GRAMMY and Germany’s Echo Klassik Award for ‘Best Concert Recording’. Other recent CDs include Journey to the Amazon with Brazilian percussionist Thiago de Mello and saxophonist Paul Winter, Wayfaring Stranger with mezzo-soprano Susanne Mentzer, Greatest Hits (EMI/Virgin Classics), and Aaron Jay Kernis’ Double Concerto (Argo/Decca) with violinist Cho-Liang Lin and the SPCO. Her best-selling titles for EMI/Virgin Classics include J.S. Bach Complete Lute Suites and concerti by Rodrigo, which the composer praised as ‘magnificent’. She is also featured on the GRAMMY Foundation’s Smart Symphonies™ CD distributed to over five million families. Her recordings have received many other awards, including ‘Critic’s Choice Recording of the Year’ in both Gramophone and CD Review, and ‘Album of the Year’ in Guitar Player. Sharon Isbin performs on soundtrack of Martin Scorsese’s Academy Award |
