Anthony Troy

            Anthony Richard Troy began his musical journey at the age of 15 when he was introduced to the guitar by his high school music teacher. Since that day, he has been unable to put his guitar down. Anthony is now one of very few people in the world to major in a B.F.A of Finger-style guitar. He has performed and attended master classes with renowned guitarists Antoine Dufour, Billy McLaughlin and Pino Forasterie. He was a competitor of the Canadian Guitar Festival Competition in 2012 and plans to compete in 2014.

 A few weeks after discovering the guitar, Anthony started taking the instrument to another level. He began researching the internet to see what other sounds the guitar could produce and ran into one of the most respected independent labels today, Candyrat Records. From that day on, Anthony began studying and learning the repertoire of several artists under this label (Andy McKee, Don Ross, Antoine Dufour, Andrew White, etc.). After returning back from a summer break full of practice and discipline, Anthony was invited to perform in his high school annual winter concert. The success of his performance brought more offers to perform, won third place in the talent show and even performed his own composition at graduation! Anthony left his high school with the Most Improved Musician award and a smile filled with success.

            This was not the end for Mr. Troy. For endless hours, he continued to practice and research Finger-style guitar. He began to attend local Finger-style guitar shows and master classes in his area where he discovered the Canadian Guitar Festival (CGF). Anthony researched the CGF and decided to attend and compete in the finger-style competition during the summer of 2012. As a warm welcome and tradition of the festival, the first place winner of the previous year competition is the opening performer. The opener of the 2012 festival was Kevin Horrigan. Kevin stated while on stage that he was one of very few people in the world to graduate the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee with a B.F.A. in Finger-style Guitar. When Anthony returned home from the festival, he looked into the program and decided he should attend the University of Wisconsin (UWM). While attending UWM, Anthony was taught by the leading authorities of finger-style guitar John Stropes and Andrew Lardner. After less than a month of attending, Anthony was performing weekly, attending professional guitar performances and improving dramatically as a guitarist and musician. He was offered a teaching assistant position for a guitar beginner level class of 110+ students with instructor Beverly Belfer. Ms. Belfer has taught over 18,000 students and has written two books Dont Fret the Frets: A Beginning Guitar Method for 1 to 10, and Beyond Fretting the Frets: An Intermediate Guitar Method which included a foreword by Daryl Stuermer (lead guitarist of Genesis & Phil Collins Band) and Steve Howe (lead guitarist of Yes and Asia).

            Before becoming a teaching assistant for Dr. Belfers class, Anthony taught private lessons for two years to local friends, students at his high school and others in his area. He decided to start teaching because of his deep appreciation of music and to instruct the proper way to practice, perform and understand the theory behind what his students were playing. Anthonys goal with every student is to accomplish their musical objective while applying proper technique, theoretical knowledge and having fun while learning. He brings his positive and adaptable personality into each lesson which makes it enjoyable and easy for any student to learn.