April 2020 Online Meeting: Martha Masters

Thursday, April 9, 2020, at 7:00 PM

Online Zoom meeting — see instructions below

Strategies to Improve Your Sight-reading

The presentation will be followed by our Open Mic. Sign up in advance to play — see the Member Events page for details. NYCCGS Member Events are free and open to all members and first-time guests.


Please join us for our first online Guitar Society meeting! Instead of getting together in person in April, we will have an online gathering featuring a presentation by Martha Masters, followed by our Open Mic. Martha’s talk will be on improving sight-reading skills, and she will also talk about the Guitar Foundation of America and the plans for this year’s convention.

To play in the Members’ Open Mic, sign up in advance at https://nyccgs.com/open-mic-performance-signup/ before noon on Friday, April 3. Maximum playing time is 8 minutes per person.

To join the meeting, click this link. If you don’t already have Zoom software installed, visit the link anytime in advance of the meeting. You will be prompted to download the software that will enable you to join in the meeting by audio and video. If you plan to play in the Open Mic, please follow these steps to ensure your audio is optimal for others in the meeting:

  1. In the Zoom software, open Zoom preferences
  2. Choose “Audio” from the list on the left, then click “Advanced”
  3. Make sure the box labeled “Show in-meeting option to ‘Enable Original Sound’ from microphone” is checked
  4. When you are in the meeting, you’ll see an option on your screen to enable original sound; be sure to select it

Our thanks to Simon Powis and Classical Guitar Corner for hosting this Zoom event.

Martha Masters first achieved international recognition in 2000 when she won first prize in the Guitar Foundation of America International Concert Artist Competition. That same year she also won the Andres Segovia International Competition in Linares, Spain, and was named a finalist in the Alexandre Tansman International Competition of Musical Personalities in Lodz, Poland.

Since then, Ms. Masters has been active as a solo recitalist, chamber musician and concerto soloist around the world. She appeared at festivals and on concert series through the United States, Germany, Poland, Russia, and China. 

Masters received both the Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from the Peabody Conservatory, where she studied with Manuel Barrueco, and completed the Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the University of Southern California as a student of Scott Tennant.

She is currently on the guitar faculty of Loyola Marymount University and California State University Fullerton, and is president of the Guitar Foundation of America. She has five recordings on the Naxos and GSP labels, and has published books three books with Mel Bay Publications and Alfred Music.