Biography
 Listening to Barron is like going on a journey with a trustworthy guide. He plays with tremendous panache. - Classical Guitar Magazine |
Guitarist Marcus Benjamin Barron, or Ben Barron, is a native of Northern California. Growing up in a musical family, Ben began his piano studies at age 5 and at age 9 began his passion with playing the guitar. Ben joined his father and brothers in musical performances starting at age 10, played the guitar professionally throughout his teens, including a brief tour with the Lennon Sisters, and also began studying with renowned guitarist Rey De La Torre during this period. Rey De La Torre is considered by many scholars to be both the most influential classical guitarist of the mid-twentieth century as well as the father of the modern classical guitar technique. Later, Ben was listed in Guitar Review (Fall 1994) along with Manuel Barrueco as two of nine of De La Torre's finest students. Ben is a graduate of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music from which he holds a Bachelor of Music degree and a Master's in Classical Guitar Performance. At the Conservatory he studied Twentieth Century guitar compositions with David Tanenbaum and Dusan Bogdanovic, and later worked with one of Andres Segovia's finest students, master guitarist and musician George Sakellariou. In 1994, Ben was selected by composer Joaquin Nin-Culmell to assist him on a composition for guitar dedicated to the memory of Rey De La Torre. Ben’s solo guitar CDs Include: “20th Century Romantics” heralded as a “fine disc” by Classical Guitar Magazine (September 2005) and recently released "Spirit of the Guitar". Ben is active as a teacher and a performer in the San Francisco Bay Area and has performed live on television and radio. In addition to teaching and performing, Ben is completing “The Very Best of Joe Pass“ a book of over 25 solos transcribed by Ben and guitarist Warren Haskell. |