Michael Lorimer, a favorite protégé of Andrés Segovia, caught the attention of American audiences in the early 1970s and his popularity soon extended beyond the shores of America. The first American guitarist invited to perform in the USSR, he also has appeared in Israel, Cuba, throughout Europe, and on most major North American recital series and stages.

In addition to being an enthusiastic exponent of new music and of traditional classics, he is also the first world-class guitarist to regularly feature the baroque guitar in recital. Fifty years ago, long before the present vogue in original instruments, Michael was a pioneer bringing attention to the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century predecessor to the modern guitar. In the 1980s, he brought to light a milestone of guitar repertoire, the best surviving collection for any instrument of early eighteenth-century Spanish dance music, when he published a detailed study and facsimile of the Saldívar Codex No. 4, a large guitar manuscript from a private collection in Mexico.

In addition to concerts, Michael gives master classes at North American universities and conservatories from coast to coast. He is an engaging spokesman in demand for experimental programs in arts presentation. He lead the guitar department at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and many of today’s American performers and teachers studied with Lorimer.

Michael Lorimer’s Santa Barbara concert will feature “Postcards from Spain”, a masterwork composed for him in 1995 by Scottish-American composer and one-time Santa Barbara resident Thea Musgrave.  Composer of a vast catalogue, including ten operas, she was appointed by Queen Elizabeth Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2002 and on May 27 will celebrate her 90th birthday.