Biography

“Guitar Trek have recorded a delightful programme. With such an inventive set of pieces on one CD, this is a family reunion you won’t mind having.” Limelight Magazine 2016

Now a much loved part of the Australian music scene, the dynamic Australian quartet Guitar Trek was formed in 1987 specifically to launch a guitar family project, which has rapidly attained the status of a major new direction in the guitar’s continuing new development into the 21st century.

With new Australian music at its heart, the group’s fresh, innovative and popular approach to repertoire has taken it across all musical boundaries, breaking the sound barrier between different styles and tastes in the process. The new music of contemporary Australians rubs shoulders with Led Zeppelin, JS Bach, music of the Spanish masters, unbuttoned Brahms, the Beatles, the Greats of the Renaissance, George Gershwin, the Gypsy Kings and the sensuous rhythms of modern day Brazil.

Audiences and critics alike have readily acknowledged the outstanding innovative significance of Guitar Trek’s work and the group has been still more highly acclaimed for the extraordinary energy, assurance and musical quality of its playing. “The instruments were played with magnificent sensitivity”, enthused one critic, “and the transcriptions and arrangements were brilliant. As for the players, their individual and collective quality, taken with their imaginative musical leap into the unknown, has given chamber music in Australia a new dimension.”

Guitar Trek’s performing activities has included many tours for Musica Viva, performing in the capital cities as well as the regional centres of Australia, including performances in Musica Viva’s prestigious ‘International Series’. Other Australian performance highlights include appearances at the Adelaide and Sydney Festivals, and the Darwin International Guitar Festival.

Guitar Trek’s previous seven albums have been released on Naxos, ABC Classics and Tall Poppies labels and their music also appears on many classical guitar compilation CDs. Overseas activities to date include highly successful tours of the USA, Eastern Europe, Singapore, Brunei, Thailand, the Philippines, Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam.