Craig Winston - Classical guitarist in Denver, CO

Hello! I'm Craig Winston, a guitarist, touring musician, and instructor in Denver, Co. I am a Master of Music candidate for Classical Guitar Performance at the Lamont School of Music, University of Denver, where I also teach studio guitar lessons for non-music majors. I hold a BFA in music performance, with an emphasis in Classical Guitar, from New Mexico Highlands University, as well as a BA in English Literature from Lewis & Clark College.

I started playing guitar at the age of 9 after hearing the music of Faith No More and Metallica, so my formative years were spent learning all the best thrash metal and grunge riffs until I attended Berklee College of Music and later Lewis & Clark College where I developed a sense for melody, composition, and technique through the study of Jazz. As a rock guitarist and composer I spent many years actively performing, composing, and touring as part of groups in Chicago, Denver, and Portland.

I began studying classical guitar in 2019 after the incredible, and enlightening, experience of attending the Denver International Guitar Festival at Lamont School of Music. During the 2020-2021 Coronavirus pandemic I returned home to New Mexico and completed my BFA studies at NMHU while applying to graduate programs for Classical Guitar Performance.

I am available as a classical guitarist to perform at your, wedding, special event or venue. Other musicians can also contact me about work as a studio or stage guitarist.

To inquire about live performances, online lessons or in-person lessons please fill out the contact form below.

Performances

Date	Event	Location
Thursday, June 1 @ 7:30PM Thu, Jun 1 @ 7:30PM	Lamont School of Music Piano Studio Recital Hamilton Recital Hall at Newman Center for the Performing Arts, Denver	Hamilton Recital Hall at Newman Center for the Performing Arts, Denver
Friday, June 2 @ 7:00PM Fri, Jun 2 @ 7:00PM	Craig Winston @ First Friday Artwalk The Lab Art Gallery on Santa Fe, Denver, CO 80204	The Lab Art Gallery on Santa Fe, Denver, CO 80204
Saturday, June 24 @ 7:00PM Sat, Jun 24 @ 7:00PM	Craig Winston - Classical guitar @ The Art Social The Art Social, Denver, Colorado 80223	The Art Social, Denver, Colorado 80223
Saturday, August 19 @ 7:00PM Sat, Aug 19 @ 7:00PM	Meadow City Classical Concerts Series First United Presbyterian Church, Las Vegas, NM 87701	First United Presbyterian Church, Las Vegas, NM 87701
Sunday, September 17 @ 7:00PM Sun, Sep 17 @ 7:00PM	Musica da Camara Concert Series @ Muse The Muse Performance Space, Lafayette, CO 80026	The Muse Performance Space, Lafayette, CO 80026

View previous events

Classical Guitar

I returned to studying the classical guitar in the fall of 2019 after about a twenty year hiatus from the idiom. The beauty of guitar in general is the variety of approaches and techniques, with classical and finger style guitar being at the pinnacle for their technical complexity and expressiveness.

I perform a wide variety of music, from Baroque to Romantic Era, Latin American Classical to Brazillian Jazz and Modern Art Music. Please enjoy these samples of my playing. You can click the button below to inquire about booking a performance for your event or venue.

Booking

Current Repertoire:

"Platero," "El Loco," "La Azotea," “Paseo,” “La Muerte” - Eduardo Sainz de la Maza

Cello Suite in C Major BWV 1009 – J.S. Bach (arr. Richard Wright)

Variations on “Les Folies d’ Espagne” – Mauro Giuliani

“Capricho Árabe” – Francisco Tárrega

Suite in B Minor – Robert de Visee (arr. Karl Scheit)

“Lettre à Sydney,” “Lettre à Isaac, Emilio et les Autres,” “Lettre Encore” – Roland Dyens

Quatro Valses Venezolanos - Antonio Lauro

“Zapateado” – Regino Sainz de la Maza

“Mallorca” – Isaac Albeniz, arr. A. Segovia

BWV 997 Suite for Lute in C Minor: Prelude - J.S. Bach

Sonata K1, L366 – Domenico Scarlatti

“3 African Sketches” – Dusan Bogdonovic

"Adelita" - Francisco Tárrega

Etudes Simples I – VI – Leo Brouwer

Etude no. 1, 2, 7 – Matteo Carcassi

Etude 1 – 5 (from the Segovia Edition) - Fernando Sor

"Straniero" - Craig M Winston

Rock, Metal, Jazz

I have been an active performer in the Portland, Chicago, and Denver rock and metal scenes. My guitar work has been featured in concert and on recordings for The Gentry (Portland, OR), The Dead Superheroes Orchestra (Chicago, IL), Thy Shade (Denver, CO). I am the songwriter, vocalist, guitarist for Corpse Paint (Chicago/Denver) for which I also performed bass guitar and acted as assistant producer alongside Mike Tholen for the 2018 release "Nothing Here in the Dark." I have also had the pleasure to perform guitar for several musical theater productions including Spring Awakening at Loyola University in 2015, and to work as music director/composer/guitarist for the Signal Ensemble Theater production of "Devil's Day Off" by John Steinhagen (the "acoustic invention" below is an excerpt from that project).

Below are some samples of original and cover material in rock, metal, and jazz genres.

Contact

Blog

The Three Octave Pentatonic Scale

This whole thing sounds intimidating, and I should say it’s not a simple thing to execute, but the concept, once divulged, will come across as exceedingly simple. Today we’re going to talk about a 3-octave pentatonic scale using a couple…

Do Guitarists Really Need to Read Music?

In today's guitar lesson, we'll talk about why you should learn to read standard music notation to help you be the best guitarist you can be.

The old joke goes “How do you get the lead guitarist to stop playing…

Online Guitar Lessons: instruments, tone, and guitar setup

In today's guitar lesson, I want to talk about the the importance of a quality instrument and setup.

I’m mostly writing this to wax poetic about the new guitar I received by Elias Bonet Monne from Galerie des Luthiers…

Special Announcement: Pursuing a Master's Degree

I'm happy to announce I'll be continuing my music education at University of Denver's Lamont School of Music. I was awarded a scholarship to attend, and will begin my classical guitar studies there in September.

this news was featured on…

Some ways to manage all of this extra time

In today’s online guitar lessons, we’ll look at the best ways to stay motivated, practice, and improve your technique during these strange times we live in.

I had a talk with some friends the other day in which I asked…

Five simple ways to improve your pentatonic scales

In today’s guitar lesson I’m going to cover five simple ways to improve your pentatonic scales and make your soloing more interesting. This is a lesson that I’ve been doing with many of my students getting into rock and blues…

On the use of downstrokes vs. other picking techniques

I made something of a breakthrough in my playing recently thanks to Dave Mustaine. Megadeth has always been my favorite metal band and a few years ago I saw them play at the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago. When they played…

2020 updates

I’ve neglected to update this page in a while, but I just wanted to give you some news about everything that I’m up to lately.

My bands Thy Shade and The Union are both actively gigging in the Southwest having…

Faith

Interestingly enough, all things do converge in your favor so long as you keep the faith in the positive nature of your actions and the universe’s willingness to reciprocate.

Go beyond the constraints of what you understand of yourself or…

The most important lesson anyone can learn from practicing music.

Too many people get into music for the wrong reasons, their parents sign them up for guitar lessons or violin lessons etc. because they believe the hype that says that Music is going to make you better at math or…

Interested in Guitar Lessons?

Performances

Classical Guitar

Rock, Metal, Jazz

Contact

Blog