Catch the 27th annual Guitar and Other Strings Series

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VCUarts Music hosts the Guitar and Other Strings Series every July, featuring a wide variety of musical styles from jazz, bluegrass and folk to Celtic, flamenco, classical and blues.

Celtic Masters, featuring Maggie Sansone, Paul Oorts, and Andrea Hoag, kick off this year’s performances with their 7:30 pm show on Friday, July 19. Their dynamic brand of “chamber folk” music, combining traditional and classical styles, features hammered dulcimer, harp guitar and fiddle. Get your tickets.

Quatro na Bossa brings Brazilian bossa nova and samba music to VCUarts on Friday, July 26 at 7:30 pm. For more than 15 years, the band—which includes jazz alumni Kevin Harding (MM ’04) and Rusty Farmer (BM ’99)—has performed Brazilian standards and original material live and in the recording studio. Get your tickets.

The VCU Community Guitar Ensemble closes the series on Sunday, July 28 at 4 pm. The 25-member guitar orchestra will feature classical guitarists from around central Virginia, including guest musicians Lisa Edwards-Burrs (MM ’94), the Robinson Guitar Duo, and the only banjo player to ever graduate from the music program, John Bullard (BM ’05). Directed by John Patykula, assistant chair and area coordinator of guitar. Free admission.

Begun in 1992, the Guitar and Other Strings Series has presented nationally and internationally acclaimed artists in concerts and workshops. Artists who have performed on this series include Leo Kottke, Mark O’Connor, John Hartford, John Jackson, the Washington Guitar Quintet, Charlie Byrd, the Tony Rice Unit, the Del McCoury Band, the Nashville Bluegrass Band, Pierre Bensusan and Stephen Bennett.

Lead image: Quatro na Bossa, photographed by Christophile Konstas.