This is a press release from the event organizers:

The Friends of the Mendocino College Music Program (FMCMP), the newest affiliate of the Mendocino College Foundation, is excited to announce a concert with internationally acclaimed guitarist Alex de Grassi and friends. The concert, which will benefit the Mendocino College Music Program, is scheduled for Saturday, April 27 at 7pm in the Little Theater on the Ukiah campus of Mendocino College, 1000 Hensley Creek Road, Ukiah. Tickets are available online at https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/6270196 and at the Mendocino Book Company in Ukiah and Mazahar in Willits.

In 2021 Alex de Grassi took on the position of guitar instructor at the Mendocino College Ukiah campus. He has since developed the guitar program from a single “all-comers” course into to two classes: the first geared primarily towards beginning students who are learning to play chords and simple arrangements, and the other course designed for intermediate and more advanced players with an emphasis on honing technical and performance skills.  For this concert, Alex will be joined by music faculty member and Ukiah Symphony director Maestro Phillip Lenberg (also a fine guitarist), some TBA special guests, as well as some of the guitar program students to present a mix of solo, duo, and ensemble performances.

The Friends of the Mendocino College Music Program is a non-profit affiliate of the Mendocino College Foundation dedicated to creating additional opportunities for Mendocino College music students to learn and participate in musical events. Funds raised for the program can be used to bring guest musicians and lecturers into classes to share their expertise and expose students to a wider variety of musical experiences, to provide musical equipment and resources, and to create extra-curricular performance opportunities for students. The FMCMP affiliate’s board is comprised of some faculty members in addition to working musicians and members of the community with experience in music education.

Alex de Grassi has been a unique voice in the world of acoustic guitar for the past 40-plus years and his solo steel-string guitar recordings have influenced a generation of younger players. He has performed in concert venues and festivals around the world including Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, Montreux Jazz Festival, Belfast International Festival and the Bath Guitar Festival. Employing a broad palette of techniques and timbre to create a highly orchestrated sound, he has become known equally for his evocative compositions and arrangements as well as for his sheer virtuosity.  His debut 1978 recording, Turning: Turning Back (cited by Acoustic Guitar magazine among their top ten essential fingerstyle recordings), and the subsequent recordings Slow Circle (1979) and Southern Exposure (1984), and his GRAMMY^® nominated recording The Water Garden (1998) are considered classics of the solo guitar genre. In addition, he has received commissions from the New York Guitar Festival to score for silent film as well as from String Letter Publishing to collaborate with violinist Jeremy Cohen (Quartet San Francisco) in an original work for guitar, string quartet and string orchestra. A Bay Area native, Alex currently lives in Mendocino County, dividing his time between Ukiah and Albion.

Advance tickets can be purchased online (https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/6270196) or at the Mendocino Book Company and Mazahar for $30. Tickets at the door will be $35 (cash or check only). All proceeds from the event will go to the Friends of the Mendocino College Music Program.

Alex DeGrassi and Andrew York, Tiburon, CA