Island Classical Guitar / CiHR Media
Music | Performing Arts
Contact
Description
As classical guitarist Mr. Cope has served as orchestral soloist, concert performer, recitalist, lecturer, recording artist, and college/university instructor since 1978. He is widely regarded for successes as curriculum builder and for motivating young musicians. As musician he has toured throughout the United States, Canada and Spain including Mallorca for both solo and ensemble performances. Writing for the LAKELAND LEDGER, Steve Turner wrote, "Cope is an artist of impressive technical ability...selections convinced me, moved me, came alive! - in particular the pieces by Bach, Villa-Lobos and Albeniz.” Ann Ker writing in the STATE JOURNAL-REGISTER (IL) said, "Cope played with a sensitivity that I have never heard on any recording. His phrasing and dynamics were exquisite, and his tone quality absolutely breathtaking...This man can play a musical line!” For five years he performed annually during holiday candlelight tours at Biltmore House in Asheville, NC. Mr. Cope is a graduate of the Florida State University College of Music where his teacher was Bruce Holzman (1950-2023). He has had additional study with American virtuoso Eliot Fisk, Spanish musician Angel Romero, and numerous master class performances for Christopher Parkening (USA), Oscar Ghiglia (1938-2024) Italy, and Michael Lorimer (USA). Further activities include interpretive studies from a broad range of specialists including Sophocles Papas, guitarist and composer Leo Brouwer, mezzosoprano Beverly Wolf (1925-2005) and pianist Paul Badura-Skoda (1927–2019).
He is a Fellow of the NEA Arts Journalism Institute in Classical Music and Opera, Graduate School of Journalism, Columbia University, New York, a member of the Guitar Foundation of America and The American Guitar Society (founded in 1923), and co-founder and President Emeritus of the Classical Guitar Society of the Western Carolinas Inc. In 2005 he coached students at the New York Guitar Seminar at Mannes School of Music in NY. For five years he was a staff writer for Classical Voice of North Carolina producing over seventy reviews of major regional concerts. He later became Editor of CVNC.org. As freelance writer on the arts he has written scholastic articles and critical reviews for GuitART, Guitar Review, and GFA Soundboard. In addition to papers on How to Audition and The Bachelor Guitarist he is author of a 2024 paper titled, CARCASSI Opus 60: The Guitarist’s Anvil, an examination and reordering of these 25 foundational studies for classical guitar including performance notes.
In Brevard County he is Co-Director, along with Frank DeGroodt, of WORKS IN PROGRESS, a monthly classical guitar performance meeting for professional and amateur classical guitarists and listeners experience the guitar in an intimate setting. In 2016 Cope relocated back to Florida where he established Island Classical Guitar, a private teaching and consulting studio at Merritt Island. His guitar students include regional competition winners advancing to undergraduate study at the major U.S. guitar centers. In addition to Co-Director duties with Works In Progress, is Director of CiHR Media at Merritt Island, Florida, the publishing and promotional arm of his studio.
