JOHN HOUSLEY, CLASSICAL GUITARIST
John Housley & the Music
A life-story that changed his world.
IT STARTED WITH -
A lifelong passion for music, for guitar,
for discovery, for people, for life.
John Housley, Classical Guitarist…
He is a guitar playing phenomenon. He plays all genres of music and every type of guitar. His ability to fuse technical skill effortlessly with depth of musicality and precision makes him, perhaps, one of the best guitarists of today.
John received his first guitar on his 14th birthday in his hometown of Ann Arbor, Michigan. Within a short time learned to play and joined a rock band. Â He began his musical journey studying the guitar about this time. When he was just a sophomore was playing in the high school jazz band. At the age of 16, he began teaching guitar at a local music store. Soon after graduating from high school was invited to teach classical guitar at Washtenaw Community College in Ann Arbor. There he also founded the Ann Arbor Academy of Music. The Academy averaged 400 students per week who learned from not only him, but also from some of the best players and instructors in the area.
In 1988 John went out on the road to play guitar with a touring band, and in 1995 joined Blackfoot, a multi-platinum southern rock band. He also started teaching and performing in Southwest Florida.
In 2001, John relocated to Omaha, Nebraska to study classical guitar, and in 2003 he moved back to Southwest Florida to resume performing and also began teaching guitar at the Fort Myers Music Academy.
Regarded as an artistic and talented guitarist, John Housley has been delighting and entertaining audiences both nationally and abroad for thirty five years. He has studied classical guitar and theory with professors at the University of Michigan, Eastern Michigan University, and the University of Omaha.
His repertoire spans the history of the instrument with a focus on Spanish guitar by composers such as Tarrega, Villa Lobos, Sor, and Carcassi as well as Bach, Satie, Debussy and other orchestral composers.
Music is clearly the forum for John’s creative expression. He firmly believes that music stimulates creative potential and brings brightness and richness to the lives of all.
John Housley
Classical Guitarist
CLASSICAL MUSIC...
"The most exciting rhythms seem unexpected
and complex, the most beautiful melodies
simple and inevitable." W.H. Auden
Listening to classical music doesn’t require you to learn of its fine distinction, but will help you to understand that classical music is a living tradition that’s being defined and redefined every day. Though Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and their contemporaries will always have pride of place in the world of classical music, the long history of what we now consider classical music didn’t begin with them and certainly doesn’t end with them.
The classical music tradition lives on today in composers writing scores for performances by orchestras, chamber ensembles and  also for solo performers. Even if you never listen to “classical music,” you constantly hear music that is been influenced by the classical tradition, from the Beatles songs influenced by avant-garde composers to heavy-metal guitarist chords.
No matter how familiar you are with classical music, John will help you know it better, and hear it in a new way.
