Dr. Adam Kossler, Artistic Director
Adam Kossler is a top prizewinner in a number of national and international guitar competitions including the Boston Guitarfest, Columbus Guitar Symposium, East Carolina Guitar Competition, MANC Guitar Competition, Texas International Guitar Competition, and the Music Teacher National Association Competition. Kossler’s international performance career has taken him throughout the US, Canada, Central America and Asia. He has been a featured artist with numerous concert series including the John E. Marlow Guitar Series (Bethesda, MD), Isle Newell Concert Series (Appalachicola, FL), and the Seven Hills Guitar Series (Tallahassee, FL) among many others. In 2015, his Marlow Guitar Series performance was aired in its entirety on Classical WETA’s weekly program, “Front Row Washington”. Recently he performed at Carnegie Hall, premiering new works by Chilean composer Javier Farias.
In addition to his performance career, Kossler is also in demand as a teacher and clinician. Recent engagements include The Denver Guitar Summit (Denver, CO), Festival Internacional Suzuki (Guatemala City, Guatemala), University of Alaska Guitar Festival (Anchorage, AK) Rantucci Guitar Festival (Buffalo, NY), and in 2015 Kossler was the featured Artist in Residence for Utah Classical Guitar (Salt Lake City, UT).
In 2014, Kossler released his first solo recording, Guitar Recital. The album was received with enthusiasm by critics and audiences and was featured Tom Cole’s show, “The G String,” on WPFW 89.3 FM in Washington D.C. In 2015 Kossler released his second solo record. Ekloge, an album of 20th-century music, includes works by Joaquin Rodrigo, Manuel Maria Ponce and Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, as well as his own new transcriptions of music by Jean Sibelius.
Adam Kossler began his musical studies with his father William Kossler. He went on to earn his BM degree at East Carolina University with Dr. Elliot Frank, his MM degree at Appalachian State University as a teaching assistant to Dr. Douglas James, and completed a DMA in Guitar Performance at Florida State University where he served as a teaching assistant to Bruce Holzman. Dr. Kossler currently directs the guitar program at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina.
Dr. Armin Abdihodžić
Dr. Armin Abdihodžić is an award-winning classical guitarist whose performances have captivated audiences across the United States and abroad. Originally from Bihać, Bosnia and Herzegovina, he began studying guitar at the age of eight. He later pursued advanced musical training in the United States, earning degrees from William Carey University, East Carolina University, and a Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of North Texas.
Dr. Abdihodžić has received top honors in numerous international competitions, including first prizes at the Allegro Guitar Competition, Appalachian State International Guitar Competition, Rosario International Guitar Competition, and the North Carolina Academy of Music Guitar Competition. His artistry has been featured with the Anchorage Civic Orchestra, the Kenai Peninsula Orchestra, and in the Anchorage Opera Company’s production of Maria de Buenos Aires by Astor Piazzolla. He has also appeared at the Ristos Festival in Greece and the Northwest Guitar Festival in Seattle.
An active recording artist, Dr. Abdihodžić has released four albums: Arioso (2017), Mundus Canis (2018, with percussionist Eric Bleicher), Canyon Echoes (with flutist Tomoka Raften), and Impressions, a tribute to South American guitar music. His recordings include several world première performances and are available through major platforms and his website: www.arminabd.com.
Dr. Abdihodžić resides in Anchorage, Alaska, where he serves as Professor of Music at the University of Alaska Anchorage. He teaches classical guitar and music theory, directs the university jazz ensemble, and leads both the Anchorage Mandolin Orchestra and the Anchorage Classical Guitar Society.
Salomé Sandoval
Multifaceted artist Salomé Sandoval, now going by SaSa, sings and accompanies herself with lutes, early and classical guitars, in multilingual, creative and innovative programs, ranging from Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque to 20th century repertoires. Her performances often include a combination of visual arts, dance, theater and music as a protagonist. Originally from Venezuela, SaSa resides in the United States, holds a GPD in Early Music (voice and lute), from Longy School of Music, a MA from MTSU and a BM from IUDEM, Venezuela, both in classical guitar. SaSa has played in master classes with L. Brower, A. Diaz, N. North, H. Smith, P. O’Dette and S. Stubbs, E. Hargis and A. Forsythe. In addition to her appearances in radio shows, theater, movie soundtracks and television, SaSa is an award winner in several music competitions. SaSa has sung and played in various ensembles and choirs in Venezuela and the US, including the choir at the Church of the Advent and Revels in Boston, MA. SaSa has given masterclasses in classical guitar in NY, MN and Mexico, workshops in Hispanic colonial music in MA and NC and is currently teaching at various music schools. SaSa has collaborated in CD recordings with Camerata de Caracas in VE, the Newberry Consort and has two of her own. SaSa’s recent collaborations include Raleigh Camerata, Ashville Baroque, Bach Society of SC, Columbia Baroque, UNC, Duke University, Boston Camerata, El Mundo, Newberry Consort; she directs her own group, El Fuego Early Music Ensemble. More info at www.sasasounds.comYoutube: @salomesandoval and
@elfuegoearlymusicensemble7104
Christopher Mallett
Christopher Mallett is an American classical guitarist and educator based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Soundboard Magazine has described him as "Virtuosic," and he was dubbed a "trailblazer" by the St. Louis Dispatch.
His performances have taken him to some of America's finest concert halls. Guitar societies, and festivals, including the Kravis Center in Palm Beach, Florida, The Sheldon Concert Hall in St. Louis, the 92nd St. Y in New York, the Guitar Foundation of America's Convention (GFA) in Indianapolis, the New York Guitar Society, the Austin Guitar Society, The Cleveland Guitar Society, and more. He also performed throughout Asia, with performances in Beijing, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand.
Mallett's work with Duo Noire has been called "truly pathbreaking" by All music, and their most recent album, Night Triptych, was named one of the best classical albums in 2018 by both All Music and I Care If You Listen. Mallett has commissioned new works by over a dozen composers, including Clarice Assad, Gity Razaz, Gabriella Smith, Courtney Bryan, Javier Farias, Ray Lustig, Mary Kouyoumdjian, and more. Mallett recently recorded several videos of the music of 19th century African American classical guitarist and civil rights activist Justin Holland for the Austin Marie Guitar Collection on period instruments.
Mallett has been on the faculty of the University of California, Santa Cruz, since 2016 as a lecturer of classical guitar studies. He has given lectures at institutions such as The Juilliard School, the New York Guitar Society, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, the South Bay Guitar Society, and the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. In 2019 he joined the GFA's Board of Trustees. Mallett is the co-founder and co-director of the California Conservatory of Music with two locations in the San Francisco Bay Area, and co-founder of the Peninsula Guitar Series.
His students have received top prizes in international guitar competitions, including the GFA's Junior and Senior youth divisions, the James Stroud Competition, the Columbus Guitar Symposium, the Boston GuitarFest, Domain Forget, Young Arts, and more. Several of his students have been invited to perform on NPR's From the Top and Tiny Desk Concert series.
Mallett has been featured on the cover of Soundboard magazine and in Classical Guitar Magazine, the American Suzuki Journal, and Acoustic Guitar Magazine. Les Productions D'Oz recently published his arrangements as part of the GFA Spotlight Series.
William Kossler
William Kossler is a guitarist of uncommon ability in demand internationally as both a teacher and performer. He holds Undergraduate and Masters Degrees in Classical Guitar Performance from the University of South Carolina where he studied with Christopher Berg. William has placed as a finalist in regional and national competitions and received positive reviews for his compelling performances. He is the author of several publications on guitar pedagogy, and his articles have appeared in Soundboard (the Journal of the Guitar Foundation of America), The Suzuki Journal (the Journal of the Suzuki Association of the Americas), and several other publications. He has conducted Long Term Artist Residencies with both the South Carolina and Tennessee Arts Commissions, and as a recipient of a Rotary International Scholarship spent a year in Japan studying with pedagogue Dr. Shinichi Suzuki. A co-author of the Suzuki Guitar Method, Mr. Kossler has conducted pedagogy workshops for guitarists throughout the United States, South America, Canada, Europe, and Australia. He currently teaches privately as the director of the Winston Salem Suzuki School.
Billie Feather
Billie Marie Feather is a singer/songwriter/guitarist/banjoist/double bassist who originally hails from Johnstown, PA who holds degrees from The University of North Carolina School of the Arts in Classical Guitar Performance, North Carolina Central University in Jazz Studies with a focus in Jazz Guitar, a Master’s Degree in Guitar Performance and Pedagogy from The University of North Carolina School of the Arts, and an Artist Certificate in Recording Engineering from The University of North Carolina School of the Arts. Currently, Billie is a guitar professor at Meredith College where she teaches both college students and community music school students. A certified Suzuki Guitar Instructor, Billie maintains an active and varied teaching studio with students of all ages and levels. Awarded a Career Development Grant from UNCSA's Kenan Foundation Billie founded her own mobile recording endeavor called Feather Farm Recordings.
Billie can be found onstage with Hank, Pattie and The Current (a bluegrass and classical fusion group), The P-90’s (a punk band), Charles Latham and the Borrowed Band (a country-rock band), The Holland Brothers (a Piedmont style blues group), Resonator (a classical guitar and banjo duo featuring Hank Smith), and leading her own project called The Hallway Waltz. Billie’s performances have been hailed as “spectacular, athletic, and... narrative and epic rather than simply a recreation of recorded work” and a “live music find and stage presence of the first order and deserves the stellar career that is clearly in front of her” by the Camel City Dispatch blog.
Anderson Page
Jazz guitarist Anderson Page maintains an active schedule in the Southeast with a variety of jazz and rock ensembles. He has performed internationally at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland, Japan’s Muroran Jazz Cruise, and for jazz workshops in Friburg, Germany. Page worked in the cruise ship industry in the South Pacific, Mediterranean and Caribbean seas and also traveled with a nationally touring theatrical production. In recent years he has performed at Asheville’s Django Reinhardt Celebration and the Dizzy Gillespie Jazzfest in South Carolina, and has been a featured composer at the Jazz Composers Forum based in Asheville, NC. Page has performed private engagements for former President Bill Clinton and poet Maya Angelou, and has performed with jazz artists such as Phil Woods, Jamey Aebersold, Tony Monaco, Matt Wilson, and many others. He has worked as a session player on numerous recordings, and has a released a recording of gypsy waltzes entitled “Souvenir de Django” with the trio Musette Guitars. Page has a Masters degree in Jazz Studies from the University of Tennessee and a Bachelor’s degree in Music Performance from University of North Carolina-Wilmington. He has studied privately with renowned jazz educators Jerry Coker and Donald Brown and with guitarists Mark Boling, Bob Russell, and Robert Nathanson. Anderson Page currently is on the music faculty at Appalachian State University where, in addition to Applied Jazz Guitar, he also teaches History of Rock Music, Jazz in American Society, and Jazz/Pop Theory.
Douglas James
Douglas James has performed as a classical guitarist throughout the United States and Europe for over 40 years. He has been a featured recitalist for such notable venues as the Guitar Foundation of America annual convention, Guitar-Festival Iserlohn, Stetson International Guitar Workshop, Oberlin Conservatory, New York's Carnegie and Merkin Halls, and many more. He has won the top prize in the Arturo Toscanini Solo Guitar Competition (Italy), and twice has been awarded a National Endowment for the Arts Solo Recitalist Fellowship. James often features authentic 19th century instruments in his performances of the Classical and Romantic literature, and is one half of the Rucco-James Duo, featuring 19th c. period guitars with the Italian guitarist Pasquale Rucco.
James has recorded three critically acclaimed CD's for the Cala Vista label. The first, Italian Romantic Music of the Early 19th century, featuring 19th century solo guitar music on period guitars, was followed by two in duo with Pasquale Rucco, Early Romantic Music for Two Guitars, and A Night at the Opera. Gitarr och Luta (Sweden) notes that "Douglas James' playing on the record is for my taste totally splendid. His enthusiasm to explore the early guitar repertoire is obvious, and he has an ability to use the old instruments to their full capacity, with all of their timbral possibilities. He plays intensely and sensitively with flow, ease and elegance." Classical Guitar (England) states, "Douglas James clearly has a great deal of sympathy for this repertoire and a carefully worked out approach to its interpretation ... everything is animated by concern for the life of the music on its own terms and in its own time. This is a welcome addition to the choice of 19th century repertoire played on genuine instruments of the time."
In addition to his work as a classical guitarist, James has in recent years expanded his musical horizons to return to his earliest roots playing electric guitar in various contemporary styles, and to playing Baroque music on the theorbo. (For him there’s a strong connection in the improvisational playing of contemporary electric guitar, and the improvisation involved in realizing continuo in Baroque music.) James plays theorbo with Harmonia Baroque and Corde Cantanti, and is the electric guitarist for the Junaluska Gospel Choir, the Harrows, and the Extraordinaires.
Douglas James holds the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Arizona where he studied with Thomas Patterson. Dr. James is a past member of the Advisory Board and Board of Trustees of the Guitar Foundation of America. He was Professor of Guitar at the Hayes School of Music at Appalachian State University for 27 years before retiring in 2022.
You can view more about Douglas James at his professional web site www.douglasjamesguitar.com
Gary Boye
Gary Boye has been Coordinator of the Erneston Music Library at Appalachian State since 2000 and the Curator of the Max Smith Collection, which includes the Matanya Ophee Collection, since its founding in 2012. The Ophee Collection is one of the world's largest resources for 19th- and early 20th-century guitar music. For more information, see the website:
https://digitalcollections.library.appstate.edu/s/ophee/page/home.
In addition to a Masters in Library Science from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (2000), Gary holds degrees in Guitar Performance, studying under the late John Sutherland (B.M., University of Georgia, 1986), a Masters in Music History and Literature (M.A., University of Georgia, 1988) and a Ph.D. in historical musicology (Duke University, 1995). His dissertation, advised by Bach scholar Peter F. Williams, is entitled "Giovanni Battista Granata and the Development of Printed Guitar Music in Seventeenth-Century Italy." He plays the guitar, lute, banjo and various other plucked-string instruments historic and modern.