Gordon Thorne of Finland, Minnesota is excited to be hosting the Fourth Annual Fingerstyle Masters Concert at Bluefin Bay in Tofte at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 12. All proceeds from the event go to benefit WTIP North Shore Community Radio.
Fingerstyle guitar is the playing of an acoustic guitar without the use of a guitar pick.
Thorne, who himself is a very accomplished performer throughout northern Minnesota and Wisconsin will be showcasing the talents of Phil Heywood and Eric Lugosch. “These are two ultimate masters of their craft,” says Thorne adding that, “These guys are renowned teachers and players.”
Eric Lugosch has played guitar around the world and makes his home base in Chicago, Illinois where he teaches at the Old Town School of Folk Music. As a former National Fingerpicking Champion he has most recently toured in Japan, Hungary, Germany and Italy. He combines his technical know-how with musical expressiveness to perform Ragtime, Blues, R&B and Jazz.
Phil Heywood of Minneapolis teaches and has performed locally and regionally since the mid 1980s and has appeared on NPR’s Prairie Home Companion.
Even though Lugosch and Heywood have been friends for over 30 years, this will mark the first time that they have been able to perform together.
Thorne hopes to create an environment in Cook County where instruction can take place and be more than just concerts and bar gigs for local musicians. Saturday morning will begin with two different guitar workshops presented by Lugosch and Heywood. The weekend events will actually kick off Friday night with an informal gathering where Thorne will play along with some of the participants there for the next day’s workshops.
Thorne is also happy to do this for the benefit of WTIP radio. He states, “WTIP is an asset that is a great resource for the community. Not only for their efforts to keep the community informed about what is going on, but also the music is not something you would hear on other radio stations. They’ve been great to me.”
Leave a Reply