Scott Morris: Virtuoso’s Latest CD Earns Critic’s Choice Review

A recording titled “The Guitar Music of Paganini” by classical guitarist Scott Morris was reviewed in the current issue of American Record Guide as a Critic’s Choice by Kenneth Keaton. Morris, a lecturer in the music department at California State University, Dominguez Hills, has been a featured artist at many major festivals, including the Beijing Guitar Festival, the Boston Guitar Fest, and the California-based festival La Guitarra.

Currently the artist-in-residence at the Beijing Central Conservatory, he performed last summer as a soloist at the National Centre for the Performing Arts and the Beijing Central Conservatory, where he also gave a series of master classes. He was invited to visit and dine at the Great Hall of the People in Tiananmen Square. He also presented a recital in August 2008 at the Iserlohn International Guitar Symposium in Iserlohn, Germany, which included compositions by CSU Dominguez Hills colleagues Jonathon Grasse and the late Rod Butler.

This summer, the coordinator of the guitar program at CSU Dominguez Hills will be traveling once again. Morris is a founding member of the new YMT Guitar Trio along with Steven Thachuk and former Megadeth guitarist Jeff Young. Their summer tour begins with six concerts in Florida and Georgia and then on to their first European tour at England's Bath Festival in July, continuing on to Germany, Norway, and The Hague, Netherlands. Their Los Angeles debut will take place in September at the Dominguez Hills Guitar Festival.

Morris looks forward to hosting the first ever Dominguez Hills Guitar Festival, which will be held on the Carson campus, Sept. 4-6. He says that the success of the 2007 convention of the Guitar Foundation of America (GFA), which was hosted by CSU Dominguez Hills, has “in the guitar world, put all eyes on us.”

“With an opportunity like that, the best thing to do is to follow up with something big,” he says of the three-day event, which will feature performers and educators from across the globe, as well as an international guitar competition for world-class classical guitarists planning professional performing careers. Prizes include guitars and monetary awards from world class manufacturers including Kenny Hill and Alhambra Guitars, as well as equipment from D'Addario Strings and Savarez.

Morris has seen enrollment in the university’s guitar program increase dramatically since the 2007 festival and hopes that the Dominguez Hills Guitar Festival will continue the rise in notoriety for the university.

“What I want to do first off is show that [our students] are part of the guitar world,” he says. “I think they feel on our little campus that they’re separated from that. The other thing is to raise the profile of the program for guitar students. After GFA, we saw the guitar program really take off and it hasn’t stopped. My goal is to build a world class guitar program, one that could be on par with a program anywhere.”

- Joanie Harmon