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Gary Wittner
A 56 year old professional guitarist/educator whose career has spanned 4 decades and 5 continents.
About Me
Guitarist Gary Wittner has been delighting audiences of all ages for over 25 years,
performing and teaching music on 5 continents world wide. He has represented the
United States three times: twice as a Kennendy Center/U.S. State Department Jazz
Ambassador and once as a Fulbright Grant recipient. He has been a featured artist in
numerous concerts with many jazz luminaries including Clark Terry, Christian McBride,
Reggie Workman, Richard Davis, and Eddie Gomez. A popular clinician, Gary regularly
presents workshops at the K-12 and college level throughout the United States.
A specialist in the music and life of Thelonious Monk, Gary has presented
concert/lectures on Monk at some of the most prestigious music schools in the world
including the Berklee College of Music (Boston), The New School (New York), The Guild
Hall School of Music (London), and The Rimsky Korsakov Conservatory (St.
Petersburg), and Indiana State University (Bloomington). His book, “Thelonious Monk
for Guitar”, published by Hal Leonard, continues to be popular throughout the guitar
playing world. Additional articles written by Gary have been published in Guitar Player,
Coda, and the International Association of Jazz Educators Journal. A friend of the
Monk family, Gary has performed for Mrs. Nellie Monk, and been interviewed on the
radio with Thelonious Monk, Jr.
As a performing guitarist, Gary works in many contexts from solo guitar to larger jazz
ensembles. His arrangements of traditional Blues/Folk Americana for solo guitar have
been performed worldwide and can be heard on 3 of his CDs. He is a member of the
New York based Trio WAG, and also performs Latin music with several bands in the
northeastern United States. He has traveled to Ecuador 5 times, performing Latin
music, his original compositions and the music of Thelonious Monk. Gary has recorded
2 CD’s with tuba legend Howard Johnson and continues to compose, perform and
record worldwide.
Most recently he has been performing his original vocal compositions, which to date have
been heard live in concert at the Univ. of S. Maine and local clubs, on NPR radio and on his
most recent CD, “Did I Say That Out Loud?”.Currently Gary teaches at Bowdoin College, The
University of S. Maine School of Music, and L’Ecole de Francaise du Maine (where he teaches
Suzuki Method Guitar to young students). He lives 2 hours north of Boston in Raymond,
Maine, where he received a Maine Arts Commission Grant in 2006.
