Sharon Isbin

Sharon Isbin
Sharon Isbin in 2011
Background information
Born	St. Louis Park, Minnesota, U.S.
Genres	Classical, folk
Occupation(s)	Musician
Instruments	Classical guitar
Years active	1970–present
Labels	Sony Classics, Warner Classics, Video Artists International
Website	www.sharonisbin.com

Sharon Isbin is an American Grammy Award-winning classical guitarist and the founding director of the Guitar Department at Juilliard.

Sharon Isbin was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the daughter of Katherine Isbin and Herbert S. Isbin, a nuclear scientist and professor at the University of Minnesota and author of Introductory Nuclear Reactor Theory (1963). She began her guitar studies at age nine with Aldo Minella in Varese, Italy, where her father had been hired as a consultant. She later studied with Jeffrey Van, Sophocles Papas, Andrés Segovia, Oscar Ghiglia, Alirio Díaz, and for ten years with the noted keyboard artist and Bach scholar Rosalyn Tureck. Isbin collaborated with Tureck in preparing and recording landmark first performance editions of the Bach lute suites for guitar.

She began practicing Transcendental Meditation at age 17. She received a B.A. cum laude from Yale University and a Master of Music from the Yale School of Music.

Isbin has appeared as soloist with over 170 orchestras, and has commissioned more concerti than any other guitarist, including concerti by John Corigliano, Tan Dun, Aaron Jay Kernis, Joseph Schwantner, Lukas Foss, Chris Brubeck, and Christopher Rouse.

In 2015, she performed with Josh Groban on the Billy Joel: Gershwin Prize concert broadcast nationally on PBS, and in February 2015 she was featured on the Tavis Smiley PBS television series.