Professional recording artist and concert guitarist Anthony Mazzella will be performing a concert of his original music at the Mary D. Fisher Theatre on Thursday, April 11 at 7:30 p.m.
The show will feature music from Mazzella’s solo CDs Ritual, Heavenly Guitar, Unity and Electric Fingerstyle Guitar.
Billboard Magazine describes Mazzella as "the new generation of guitar hero" and Guitar One magazine voted him "one of the top ten guitarists in the country". He has released six CDs and currently performs regularly statewide in Arizona.
Mazzella began his performance career as a concert guitarist in New York City. He quickly built up a strong following performing in most every live music club in Manhattan including: The Bitter End, CBGB's, Cat Club, Cafe Wah, Birdland etc. He then landed a headlining spot at the Blue Note NYC just one year after street performing in front of it and spent the following years touring colleges and universities all over the USA . He then went on to performing on stages all over the world as a solo artist and as the concert guitarist for world music master Omar Faruk.
Mazzella has opened for headlining artists, James Brown, Tower of Power, The Commodores, The Black Keys and others. His original music is composed with a fusion of world influences consisting of acoustic fingerstyle, classical, flamenco, jazz, funk, R&B, Celtic and rock and roll. He also plays a one-of-a-kind 10-string guitar that he designed and was built by his father. On this unique instrument, Mazzella displays his abilities in fingering bass lines and chords with his left hand while simultaneously playing melodies on the fret board with his right.
In 1997 he recorded his debut solo CD entitled “Electric Fingerstyle Guitar”. In 2001 he recorded "BRIO" with platinum selling recording artist Chris Spheeris and was an awarded “best acoustic instrumental album of 2001" by NAV. In 2002 he recorded his second solo CD titled “Unity” where each song is diverse in genre to showcase all the styles Mazzella is capable of playing. In 2006 he collaborated with three time Grammy nominated artist William Eaton, together they composed and recorded a CD for the Electric Harp Guitar Group. In 2009 Anthony recorded 12 new solo guitar compositions rich in spirit and appropriately entitled "Heavenly Guitar". His latest recording is a fusion of Spanish guitar and Exotic music titled RITUAL.
Mazzella’s influences are many, but none more profound than the music and techniques of guitar masters such as Michael Hedges, Pat Metheny, Carlos Montoya, Eddie Van Halen, Andres Segovia and countless others. In the nineties Anthony shared his musical insights by teaching at Knopf Music (where he once took guitar lessons), as a private instructor, and at the Long Island School for Music and Arts. Anthony was also one of the few chosen understudies of world-renowned guitar master Stanley Jordan.
If you are a fan of guitar music do not miss this world-class virtuoso! Be sure to watch some of Mazzella's video's on YouTube or his website www.anthonymazzella.com.