It’s true that Goran Ivanovic was born of a Serbian father and a Bosnian Croat mother...and that Fareed Haque was born of a Pakistani father and a Chilean mother...but that’s just the beginning of their musical lineage. Ivanovic studied at Salzburg’s Mozarteum with Eliot Fisk and Joaquin Clerch. Haque has performed with Sting, the classical violinist Kennedy, Cassandra Wilson, Kurt Elling, Edgar Meyer, and Paquito D’Rivera. Strains of classical, pop, jazz, Latin, blues, and world music simmer in the haunting laments and propulsive dances of their “Macedonian blues for two guitars.”

Guitarist/ composer Dominic Frasca and visual artist Roy Wiemann will present a preview of "Fixations.” a collaboration combining the visual art of Wiemann, who will present a series of new paintings/constructions along with music and film by Frasca . The event also serves as the opening for Mr Wiemann’s exhibition of new work entitled "newsuffering", which will run at The Monkey January 19 to February 16.www.wiemann.com|www.dominicfrasca.com

One of the most exciting young artists on the jazz scene today, internationally-acclaimed guitarist and composer Wolfgang Muthspiel is commanding attention worldwide as an artist of deep integrity, intelligence and daring musicality. Join Wolfgang for a rare solo performance emphasising his trademark use of a loop pedal to build a world of sound from the one instrument.

Modal Kombat is a live instrument battle channeled through the video game Mortal Kombat. Two classical guitars control movements of characters in Mortal Kombat Trilogy. The concert begins with a set by the 350 duo, performing original compositions influenced by Bach, Reich and Cold Play. Afterwards, the Super Bowl will be shown on a giant 10x16 foot screen with free food and beverages.

Hank achieved much in his short life. Taught everything he knew by a bluesman known as “Tee-Tot”, Hank went on to write and sing some of the best loved country music. His love for the blues gave his music a lasting quality that has kept him in the spotlight for over fifty years after his death. |www.jormakaukonen.com|www.gesmith.com|www.littletobywalker.com

Internationally celebrated photographer Ralph Gibson presents his work-in-progress; Ich Bin die Nacht --music for lens and guitar, featuring Gibson performing his own electric guitar compositions to accompany moving and still imagery from Berlin at night.www.ralphgibson.com

Classical guitarist and composer Benjamin Verdery and steel-string guitarist William Coulter have found a unique and energizing musical partnership. They first met in 1984, and have gone on to tour and make recordings since 1990.  They will perform music from their CD Song for our Ancestors, featuring original compositions and music from Ireland, Spain, Germany, Africa, Tibet, and the United States.

Virtuoso guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Larry Campbell was a member of Bob Dylan's "Never Ending Tour" band from 1997 until 2004, and has performed and recorded with Paul Simon, Willie Nelson, Little Feat, Lyle Lovett, B. B. King, Levon Helm, Little Feat, Cyndi Lauper, k.d lang, Rosanne Cash, Elvis Costello, Emmylou Harris, Sheryl Crow, Phil Lesh and many others. A rare chance to hear Larry perform with some favorite musical friends and also play solo acoustic guitar pieces from his album “Rooftops.”

Chocolate Genius, Inc. is a loose collective of musicians centered around Marc Anthony Thompson, a singer-songwriter/guitarist from New York City. Thompson released two albums in the 1980s under his own name, and was signed to V2 Records for Black Music, his ‘98 debut under the name of Chocolate Genius.  He’s been compared to a wide variety of musicians, including Tom Waits, Prince, Jeff Buckley, and Lenny Kravitz. In 2006,  he was a member of Bruce Springsteen’s Seeger Sessions Band, playing guitar, providing backing vocals and sharing lead vocals on several songs.

Guitarist/composer Jon Diaz will play music from his debut CD, Circling From Above. He will be joined by Pietro Russino on guitar, Mazz Swift on violin and Mathias Kunzli on percussion. This quartet will be exploring the thread that connects music from America, North Africa & Asia. The quartet will debut some newer pieces as well.

The zeitgirl of instrumental guitar, Kaki King could hardly be expected to just stand still.  Lately she’s swapped her acoustic for an electric and her own voice.  Still fully capable of jaw-dropping pyrotechnics, King is self-assured and irreverent but not afraid to be vulnerable and disarmingly sweet. The New York Times said King’s earlier “percussive, super-fluid style” was “the kind of thing that makes people say ‘Wow’ as an involuntary reflex,” going on to note, “now she’s making music that more often sounds like the abstract, dreamy and hypnotic end of alternative rock.”

Dan Zane picked up the guitar when he was only eight and started listening to Lead Belly records as soon as he could snag a library card. In the 80s, he found fame with the Del Fuegos, a group dubbed the “Best New Band” by Rolling Stone in 1984. But it wasn’t until a few impromptu jam sessions with other musical fathers and their kids that he discovered his latest calling — creating music that could be enjoyed together by every member of the family.

Guitarist/composer Dominic Frasca and visual artist Roy Wiemann will present a preview of "Fixations.” a collaboration combining the visual art of Wiemann, who will present a series of new paintings/constructions along with music and film by Frasca . The event also serves as the opening for Mr Wiemann’s exhibition of new work entitled "newsuffering", which will run at The Monkey January 19 to February 16.

Guitarist/composer Gyan Riley will play an evening of music from his latest CD release, Melis Mantra. He will be joined by  Tracy Silverman on electric violin and Scott Amendola on Drums. Gyan’s awards include First Prize in the Portland International Guitar Festival Competition and First Prize in the San Francisco Conservatory Guitar Concerto Competition.  He played in the American premiere of John Adams’ El Nino with soprano Dawn Upshaw and the San Francisco Symphony.  This concert will be a CD release party.

A very special tribute to the music of Bob Dylan, honoring Dylan’s storied 1966 concert - long the Dylan bootleggers' favorite, and released legit by Sony on CD in 1998. Critic Dave Marsh reviewed it in Creem magazine, writing "It is the most supremely elegant piece of rock 'n' roll music I've ever heard” The recording includes Dylan's now-legendary confrontation with a heckler calling out "Judas" from the audience.

Elizabeth Cotten was a true original and among the most influential guitarists to surface during the roots music revival era. Turning her instruments upside-down to play them left-handed, she developed a truly distinctive guitar style and sound. Her song “Freight Train”has become a fingerpicker’s classic.

One of the most original vocal artists to emerge from West Africa in decades, Julia Sarr honed her reputation as a backing vocalist in Paris for Lokua Kanza, Manu Dibango, MC Solaar, and other luminaries. Her and Patrice Larose’s first album, Set Luna (So I’ve Observed), and their recent U.S. concert debut at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall, are unlike anything else from the rich Senegalese and Flamenco traditions.  Hailed by Youssou N’Dour as “the fresh face of African music”, and by The NY Times as a probing source of “introspection” in a revitalized African tradition.

Since landing in NYC two years ago, the Italian classical guitarist Marco Cappelli  (a student of Oscar Ghiglia) started to develop a unique style which includes avant garde compositions, improvisation, live-electronics, hard rock sounds, classic licks, and much more.  This melting pot of sounds, is rarely heard on a classical guitar.  At The Monkey he will present a program of his own through-composed/improvised music using the so-called Extreme Guitar, which has 8 sympathetic steel strings running under the regular 6 nylon strings.