from being a child banging on pots and pans with chopsticks to clamoring for attention on a plastic toy guitar, classical guitarist jamie monck’s music begins from a place of exploration and creativity. monck’s expansive repertoire has been described by eliot fisk as, “conquering not just everest, but the whole himalayan mountain range.” he is an advocate for pieces off the beaten path (and also the bach chaconne). much of jamie’s repertoire seeks to explore musical structures and ideas that came before us in a way that invites both the performer and the listener to consider their past experiences and memories.
recent performance highlights include appearances at the montreal contemporary music lab, new music gathering, the oh my ears festival, wuol’s new lens series, the women composers festival at hartford, the university of georgia, experimental sound studio in chicago, the 21c guitar festival, and more.
jamie follows in the footsteps of segovia, bream, fisk, and others through his commitment to commissioning new works for solo guitar. at the 2022 university of louisville guitar festival he will be premiering a new sonata by javier contreras, and a new piece by andrew m rodriguez. in the fall of 2022 he will also be premiering award-winning canadian composer liam ritz’s new “four bagatelles.”
his project “dark is a way,” is a collection of new pieces for solo electric guitar composed for him by gulli bjornsson, isaac roth blumfield, yaz lancaster, james may, andrew m rodriguez, and cassie wieland. the full recording of the project is now available on bandcamp.
in the spring of 2023, he will complete his endeavor of learning the complete sonatas and partitas for solo violin by bach. he will also break ground on a new undertaking, the solo pieces of javier farias’ “seis miradas.” these pieces are inspired by the award-winning writers of the nobel prize in literature from latin america.
when he’s not pumping nylon, jamie loves flowers, long walks, fc barcelona, racing louisville fc, vicente amigo, ocean vuong, jean-michel basquiat, the scent of lavender, sunshine, tacos. he currently lives in louisville, kentucky with his girlfriend erin and his pooch basil.
jamie plays ondine, a guitar built by stephan connor and uses augustine strings.
please click here for a biography and photos to use for promotion. unlike the biography seen here, the one found on the link even includes capitals.