Words about Philip from October, 1994
Philip Rosheger, Classical Guitarist and Composer
The South Bay Guitar Society will feature Philip Rosheger in a rare concert,
Sunday, October 30, 1994, at Le Petit Trianon, 72 N. 5th St., San Jose, CA
Admission is $5.00 for SBGS, $8.00 for general.

Philip Rosheger was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma in 1950 and began his first musical studies on the piano at the age of nine. In 1962 he took up the guitar and within six years was studying with the legendary Andrés Segovia. From 1966 to 1974, he lived in Spain where he attended master classes with Segovia and José Tomás in Santiago de Compostela every summer with full scholarships from the Spanish government. In 1969 and 1970 he participated as a performer in the master classes with Venezuelan virtuoso, Alirio Diaz, in Alessandria, Italy, winning scholarships on both occasions from the Italian government.
In 1972 he became the first American to win First Prize at the International Guitar Competition at Santiago de Compostela, becoming the first American to earn this distinction. The decision, reached by a distinguished six-member jury including composer Federico Mompou, was unanimous. He also studied the guitar and music privately with Tomás at the conservatory in Alicante, Spain. In addition, he took private lessons for four years with another Segovia protégé, José Luis Rodrigo, in Madrid.
Rosheger has toured throughout Spain, Canada and the U.S., performing in such notable halls as Carnegie Recital Hall, Herbst Theater in San Francisco and Bovard Auditorium at USC in Los Angeles. He was a faculty member at San Francisco Conservatory of Music from 1975 to 1978 and at Sonoma State University in Northern California from 1979 to 1989 and has given master classes at universities across the U.S. He was asked to give a special concert of Manuel Poncé's music for guitar for the 1986 Andrés Segovia Commemorative Masterclass at Bovard Auditorium on the University of Southern California campus in Los Angeles.
From the inception of his guitar playing, Rosheger has been active as a composer and in 1987 began performing his original compositions in public. Since 1990, this activity has increased substantially, resulting in the addition of a considerable volume of works to the guitar repertoire. In his San Jose concert he will perform numerous original works for the guitar which luminaries such as Pepe Romero consider among the best they have heard.
Philip Rosheger is included in Belwin Mills' Guitar Master Class - Technical Exercises by Famous Guitarists and Teachers.
He has an incredible reach; the ability to hold, simultaneously, the first fret of the sixth string and the eighth fret of the first string.

"His flawless technique, his tone of very best quality, his responsive personality and his exquisite sensitivity produced genuinie astonishment."-El Correo de Andalucia, Seville, Spain. (Julio Garcia Casas in the Andalusian Post)

"An intensely musical performer with an impressive command of the instrument." -St. Louis Globe-Democrat, K. B. Schuller

"An great deal of technical accomplishment and sound musical thinking." -The New York Times, Peter G. Davis

"A very strong, powerful player, Rosheger shows a great deal of musical sensitivity."-Guitarra Magazine, Chicago

"Rosheger is a magnificent musician."-The San Francisco Examiner, Jim Wood

"Rosheger's genius really showed forth as he  played with a fluidness and sensitivity rivaling any master of the instrument." -Southwest Times Record, Fort Smith, Arkansas, Jack Kilgore

"Outstanding performance... beautifully polished... a fine sense of timing and accent... Baroque dances by Weiss set off with a flair." -Palo Alto Times, Peter Danner