Tom Elliott Guitar (acoustic, banjo, bass, electric, mandolin) - Thursday60 Minute
Tom Elliott began the study of guitar at age ten. During his undergraduate years, he traveled extensively with his own groups and appeared with Chuck Berry, The Who, Frank Zappa and Albert King, among others. After a year abroad, Mr. Elliott returned to the United States to begin classic guitar studies with Alexander Bellow of the Moscow Conservatory. After three years of study with, and upon the death of Professor Bellow, Elliott assumed the direction of the classic guitar department at Western Connecticut State University, which Bellow had founded. Shortly thereafter, Mr. Elliott was awarded a scholarship to the International Guitar Festival in Munich, during which time he studied with Betho Davezak of the Paris Conservatory. Upon his return to the United States, he studied with Philip de Fremery, Jose Rey de la Torre, and Sharon Isbin, and also studied jazz theory and performance with Sal Salvador.
Mr. Elliott has operated his own guitar studio in Ridgefield, CT since 1976, where he has taught students aged 6 to 60. During this time, he has also led his own popular music group and appeared as a soloist and in chamber music ensembles. As a sideline, in the last few years, he has indulged his Scottish ancestry with the study of the highland bagpipes, as a student of John Chalmers.