Ken Bonfield

Ken Bonfield is a composer, performer, recording artist, educator, and clinician. Bonfield's most recent CD, "Harbor Town", is his most stylistically diverse album, and features Bonfield as a vocalist, lyricist, and acoustic guitarist. The album contains seven instrumental jewels featuring Bonfield's elegant, almost seductive acoustic guitar playing. But there are seven equally captivating vocals including 'Poison", co-written with Julia Cameron of "The Artist's Way" fame, and the self-penned "Hand in Hand", a poignant, anti-war song.

"Harbor Town" and "Freedom" were featured on Public Radio International's nationally syndicated show "Echoes", and Bill Binkelman of "Wind & Wire" raved about the CD: "'Harbor Town' is so damn enjoyable. The music is not in the least commercial-sounding, but carries that now-familiar mixture of sincerity, accessibility and warmth that other Bonfield releases, such as "Homecoming", specialize in delivering. The music is uniformly excellent and the vocal cuts carry the same musical motifs and themes as the instrumentals, so that a solid thread of continuity runs through the entire album."

"Harbor Town" is Bonfield's 8th commercial release. His music has been featured on NPR, PBS, ABC TV, FOX TV and can be heard on radio stations all over the world. His popular, NAV charting instrumental, "Floating", was featured on one of 1998's best selling new age compilation CDs, "Lights Out, Vol. 7, and Darryl Purpose included one of Bonfield's seminal instrumentals, "Steel String Surprise", on his popular CD, "Gift of the Magi".

Bonfield has toured extensively throughout the U.S and Canada as a featured peformer at the finest acoustic venues, concert series, festivals, and music conferences such as Kent State Folk Festival, The Bluebird Cafe, Northeast Regional Folk Alliance, Uncle Calvin's, Eddie's Attic, Evening Star Performing Arts Series, and the Southwest Regional Folk Alliance. He has recorded two Living Room Concerts for Public Radio International's "Echoes" with bassist, Michael Manring, and violinist, Joe Ebel, and he has shared the stage with many of today's finest acoustic performers such as Arlo Guthrie, John Mayer, Adrian Legg, Chuck Brodsky, Acoustic Eidolon, Pierce Pettis, Christine Kane, Ed Gerhard, Dee Carstensen, Harvey Reid, Bill Mize, and more.

Bonfield says; "My role as a performer is to knock people off-center enough to see the magic in their own lives, and my hope is they'll spread a little of that magic around." Apparently it works. As one concert goer observed, "A Ken Bonfield concert is an acoustic buffet for the soul!"

ARTISTRY OF THE GUITAR:

The Artistry of the Guitar program is something Ken Bonfield developed as a musical enrichment program for kindergarten through college. It grew out of a personal realization that his own musical foundation was provided almost entirely through elementary and high school music programs -- programs frequently not provided by today's financially strapped, art-starved school systems.

Part concert, part inspirational message, Bonfield's Artistry of the Guitar program informs, entertains, and inspires students and audience members to fearlessly find their own individual artistry. By playing music ranging from the Baroque to the contemporary, and by using a variety of guitars and tunings, Bonfield reaches beyond the "history lesson" and expands the musical horizon for everyone.

Artistry of the Guitar can be presented in a variety of formats: as an all-school 45-minute performance, as a creative workshop for younger students (where they create and tell stories or draw pictures to describe the music they hear), as a clinic for student or amateur guitarists from beginners to budding professionals (includes performance, analysis, and Q & A), as a mentoring session for high school or college age musicians contemplating careers in music (includes performance, analysis, and a Q & A), or as a week-long residency where Bonfield assists students in writing and recording an original song. Whether in an elementary school, high school, college master class, or guitar store; Bonfield can create a customized program to suit your specific needs.