The Board of Trustees is voted in by the membership, six positions are up for election each year. The Board of Trustees maintains final authority over any decisions of the Executive Committee and staff.

Mary Akerman

Michael Andriaccio

William Bay is Chairman of the Board at Mel Bay Publications, Inc. He is an accomplished guitarist and trumpet player and has performed on both instruments in a wide variety of professional settings. He is experienced as a performer and composer of music ranging from jazz and rock to the classics and sacred. He received his bachelor's degree from Washington University in St. Louis and his master's from the University of Missouri. Bill has received international acclaim for his innovative teaching methods, and he has authored over 200 books with sales in the millions.

.Sean Beavers is active as a guitar soloist, chamber musician, scholar, and teacher. He has performed in Europe as well as in North and South America, including performances on West Virginia Public Radio and Bolivian television. He has appeared as a guest artist at the Asolo Song Festival in Italy, the Alexandria Guitar Festival near Washington, D.C, and the Saudade Festival in central Virginia. His principal teachers were Mary Akerman, Adam Holzman, and Bruce Holzman. Beavers earned the Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Texas at Austin and the Master of Music and Doctor of Music degrees from Florida State University. Beavers serves on the Education Committee of the Guitar Foundation of America. Beavers serves as Associate Professor of Music at Liberty University, where he also serves as Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.

Jeff Cogan

 
Nicholas Goluses is Professor of Guitar, founder and director of the guitar programs at the Eastman School of Music, where he has been the recipient of the Eisenhart Award for Excellence, and also has served as chairman of the string department.  He has held the Andrés Segovia Faculty Chair at Manhattan School of Music where he received the Doctor of Musical Arts degree, and was the recipient of both the Pablo Casals Award "for Musical Accomplishment and Human Endeavor” and the Faculty Award of Distinguished Merit.  Nicholas appears as soloist, chamber music player and with orchestras across North America, South America, Europe, and the Far East to critical acclaim.  He has recoreded several highly acclaimed CDs for Naxos, BMG, and Albany Records.  Committed to performing new music for the guitar, hes has given world première performances of over 100 works, including solo pieces, concertos for guitar and orchestra, as well as chamber music by many of today’s leading composers.

Brian Head, Chair enjoys a vibrant, frequently frenetic career as a guitarist, teacher, and composer, performing as a soloist and collaboratively with many groups including the Los Angeles Philharmonic and their New Music Group, the New World Symphony, Le Rossignol, inauthentica, Jacaranda and Xtet. Brian's own compositions have been performed for many years throughout the U.S. in premier venues in New York, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C., and abroad in such cities as Tokyo, Berlin, Madrid, Mexico City, Montreal, Sao Paulo, and Dubai. Since 2001, Brian has held a dual appointment on the Classical Guitar and Composition faculties as a senior lecturer at the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California where he maintains an active guitar studio, lectures on a wide range of subjects, and directs the undergraduate music theory program. From 2004-2010 Brian led the Guitar Foundation of America, as its president.  In 2010, Brian began his new role in the GFA as Artistic Director.

Dr. Matthew Hinsley's primary instructors were Steve Aron and Adam Holzman. Matthew won the 2000 MTNA Guitar Competition and was a three-time finalist in the ASTA solo competition. Matthew's private studio has produced students who win major competitions. One of only a few teachers worldwide who has had two students advance to the final round of the youth division of the GFA Competition, including the winner of the competition in 2006, recently one of Matthew's young students was selected to perform on the From The Top radio show. As Executive Director of the Austin Classical Guitar Society, Matthew has personally raised over $500,000 for concert series and extensive community outreach programs. In 2008-2009, he will manage a budget exceeding $300,000. Through ACGS Matthew has built a rapidly growing educational program that has developed guitar programs in 8 Austin schools, with many more soon to follow serving hundreds of Central Texas students on a daily basis. A frequent presenter at GFA Conventions, Matthew joined the Board of Directors in 2008.

Douglas James has been performing throughout the United States as well as in Europe and Mexico for nearly four decades, maintaining a busy concert schedule both solo and in duo with Italian guitarist Pasquale Rucco. Recent seasons have included engagements at the Oberlin Conservatory, Guitar Houston, the Cleveland Institute of Music, the Stetson International Guitar Workshop, and numerous American guitar societies. An internationally recognized expert in early 19th century guitar performance, Douglas James uses authentic period instruments when playing music of the Classical and Romantic periods. He has been a prizewinner in numerous guitar competitions, has twice been awarded the National Endowment for the Arts Solo Recitalist Fellowship. James received the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Arizona, where he studied with Thomas Patterson.  Dr. James is Professor of Guitar and the director of the Appalachian GuitarFest at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina.

Tom Johnson is the founder and head of the classical guitar program at the University of North Texas, which boasts the largest college of music in the United States, and one of the largest guitar enrollments in the United States. In addition to his activities as a performer and teacher, Tom has served as an adjudicator for many guitar competitions including the Guitar Foundation of America. He is on the Advisory Board of Directors of the Ft. Worth Classical Guitar Society. Johnson has been internationally active as a performer and educator for more than twenty-five years. He teaches annually at the Iserlohn Guitar Festival in Germany. For six years, he was a scholarship student in the Oscar Ghiglia master class at the Aspen Music Festival. After his graduate studies, Johnson lived in Spain where he studied with José Tomás. Tom has served on the Advisory Board of the GFA since 2005.

William Kanengiser is a founding member of the Grammy-winning Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, as well as a noted soloist, pedagogue, and arranger for guitar. Currently a Senior Lecturer in Guitar at the USC Thornton School of Music, Bill received his Bachelor's and Master's degrees at USC, being named "Outstanding Graduate for the School of Music" upon conferral of both degrees. In addition to his many solo recordings on the GSP label and LAGQ recordings for Telarc, Sony Classical and Delos, he has released DVDs for Hot Licks Video and Mel Bay records. Bill has been a member of the GFA Board of Directors since December 2005.

Pamela Kimmel is Associate Professor of Guitar at Chicago College of Performing Arts of Roosevelt University. Throughout her long teaching career, Pamela has been an active soloist and chamber musician. Her duo with Kaye Clements (flute) has performed extensively for universities, guitar societies, and concert series, including WFMT ‘s "Live from Studio One" radio program. Pamela's scholarly interests include the study of various schools of guitar technique and pedagogy; and physiological problems of musicians with special emphasis on repetitive stress injuries. She is a contributor to classical guitar publications, including the Guitar Foundation of America's Soundboard journal. She currently serves as President of the Chicago Classical Guitar Society. Pamela joined the GFA Board of Advisors in 2007.

Petar Kodzas comes from a musical family. Petar was guided toward a career in mechanical engineering until he discovered a 19th century parlor guitar in his grandfather’s closet. It was love at first sight. Before graduating from the University of Belgrade, he had toured and recorded as a lutenist with an early music ensemble, played over 100 shows at the professional musical theatre, sat in jazz sessions, and performed throughout the former Yugoslavia as a musical ambassador for the international organization Jeunesses Musicales. Following his studies in Europe, Kodzas moved to the United States. Peter is currently Senior Instructor in Guitar for the Eastman Community Music School. As a clinician, he has presented for American String Teachers Association, Guitar Foundation of America, College Music Society, and New York State School Music Association Conference.

Robert T. Lane holds a Bachelor of Science Degree with an emphasis in Finance from the Marshall School of Business and a Juris Doctor from the Gould School of Law at the University of Southern California.  Having practiced law for over 23 years, Bob has represented and advised corporations in litigation, transactional, and compliance matters as both outside and in-house counsel.  A student of the guitar and its history for many years, Bob has become an avid advocate and collector.  He has been a member of the GFA Board since 2000.

Richard Long has a Ph.D. in European History from Florida State University. He has written many articles on the period of the French Revolution and Napoleon and on the history of the guitar during that era, and has also published dozens of transcriptions, arrangements, and critical editions of music for the guitar, solo and in various ensembles. He is the owner of Tuscany Publications, specializing in music for the  classical guitar. He performs with Camerata (a quartet consisting of violin, viola, cello, and guitar), and has recently played a series of concerts of rare music for machete and guitar in California and Portugal in duo with John King.

Jeffrey McFadden is recognized as one of the pre-eminent Canadian guitarists of the past thirty years. Since becoming the first Canadian prize winner in the GFA Competition in 1992, he has performed across North America and in France, Italy, Spain, Slovenia, Germany and the Netherlands as a soloist and as part of Duo Spiritoso with guitarist Andrew Zohn. He has recorded nine highly acclaimed CD's for Naxos and ClearNote and has produced recordings for Disques XXI, ClearNote and independent artists. Jeffrey is a lecturer in Guitar at the University of Toronto and the director of the UofT Guitar Ensemble. He is a sought after clinician and active editor of pedagogical materials. Jeffrey joined the Board of Advisors in 2008.

Tony Morris is heard each week listeners on over 250 radio stations world-wide as the host of the Classical Guitar Alive radio program. He performs both a solo guitarist and chamber musician.  Previous performances include 3 performances  at the White House in Washington, DC.   In May 2010, he served in the US State Dept.’s  Cultural Envoy program for a 12 day performance tour of Paraguay, which included a concert in the historic home of Agustin Barrios Mangore on the the 125th In 2006, Tony Morris joined the music faculty of Texas Lutheran University.  anniversary of the composer’s birth.

Jack Sanders A graduate of California Institute of the Arts, Jack has been on the faculty of Pomona College and Claremont Graduate University since 1980. His performing career has included two compact discs and tours for more than 20 years throughout the United States and China with violinist Clayton Haslop, including the 1985 and 1988 GFA festivals. A frequent collaborator with other musicians, Jack has performed at the Sitka, Anchorage, Kapalua, Costa Rica and Sedona Chamber Music Festivals. A solo recording of the Complete Preludes of Ponce, Carlevaro, and Villa-Lobos has been released on Townhall Records. In addition, Jack is an accomplished luthier of modern and historical guitars. Jack has been on the Board of Directors or the Executive Committee of the GFA since 1988.

David Tanenbaum has performed in over 40 countries, and has had works written for him by many prominent composers, including Hans Werner Henze, Aaron Jay Kernis, Terry Riley, Lou Harrison and Roberto Sierra. His more than thirty five recordings can be heard on EMI, New Albion, Naxos and other labels. He has toured extensively with Steve Reich and Musicians and has worked with conductors such as Esa-Pekka Salonen and Kent Nagano. He is a member of the Pacific Guitar Ensemble and the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, and he is Chair of the Guitar Department at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

Jason Vieaux began guitar studies at age eight with Jeremy Sparks in Buffalo, New York, and continued at The Cleveland Institute of Music with John Holmquist. He is a First Prize winner of the GFA International Guitar Competition. He is the youngest department head at The Cleveland Institute of Music, and a recipient of the conservatory's Alumni Achievement Award. Jason has recorded 8 CDs for Naxos and Azica Records, is an internationally recognized solo recitalist and chamber musician, and has performed as soloist with many of the top orchestras in the United States. Jason was elected to the GFA Advisory Board in 2004.