Next Stage Arts and Twilight Music present an Acoustic Guitar Summit with guitar virtuosos Pierre Bensusan and Tim Sparks.

If World Music means the fusion of traditional, contemporary, jazz, classical, and pop music, then French-Algerian acoustic guitar legend, vocalist, and composer Pierre Bensusan is one of the most eloquent World Music musicians of our time. Winner of the Independent Music Award for his triple live album “Encore,” voted Best World Music Guitarist by Guitar Player Magazine reader’s Poll, and winner of the Rose d’Or at the Montreux Festival for his debut album, Pierre is recognized as one of the greatest guitar players of the 21st century. Since his first performances in 1974 in France, the “The Prince of DADGAD” has sold half a million albums and given thousands of concerts around the globe, both solo and through numerous collaborations. “Pierre can only justly be compared to someone of the stature of Keith Jarrett; so total is his mastery of the solo instrument, his dazzling harmony, his many innovations, and his deft command of counterpoint, the jazz idiom, folk expression, and all genres between and beyond.” (Guitar Player Magazine)

Tim Sparks has been redefining the acoustic guitar repertoire since he won the National Fingerpicking Championship in 1993 with a ground-breaking arrangement of Tchaikovsky’s “Nutcracker Suite.” Equally at home with Country Blues, Jazz, or World Music, he has earned an international reputation as one of the most innovative guitarists working today who surprises, challenges, and thrills audiences with his diverse repertoire and stunning technique. Tim has recorded four highly acclaimed CDs of Klezmer music adapted for acoustic fingerstyle guitar on composer John Zorn’s Tzadik Records, and has performed at festivals and concert halls around the world, from A Prairie Home Companion to the Dresden Guitar Festival, sharing the stage with everyone from Dolly Parton to Bill Frisell.

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