With over half a century in the business, virtuoso Kinloch Nelson knows just about every type of guitar and every style that depends on it. As a youngster, he played rock, classical pieces, folk, jazz and popular songs. Active as a guitarist from 1969, he studied classical guitar with Stanley Watson and jazz with Gene Bertoncini. From 1973, for 25 years, he taught at the Hochstein Music School in Rochester (NY). He also gave workshops at the University of Rochester, and in 1985 founded the city’s Guitar Society. The Society hosted the world’s finest guitarists for a decade, while supporting local talent with master classes, concerts and help in designing the guitar program at the Eastman School of Music. On his website, Kinloch Nelson offers courses and workshops, and welcomes inquiries from interested parties.
Kinloch Nelson has performed at art centers and major festivals throughout the United States. He has also played in Canada, Ireland and Peru. His personal approach to fingerstyle guitar pays particular attention to the timbre and subtle colors that a good instrument can deliver under his fingers. According to his inspiration, he plays his own versions of pieces by Miles Davis, Bach, John Fahey or the Ventures, for example, always inserting a musicality that is both intimate and luminous.