Muriel Anderson

Muriel Anderson
Born 1960
Downers Grove, Illinois, U.S.
Genres Classical, folk, bluegrass, flamenco, pop
Occupation(s) Musician
Instruments Guitar, harp-guitar
Years active 1989–present
Labels CGD
Website www.murielanderson.com
Notable instruments
Doolin custom 21-string harp guitar

Muriel Anderson (born 1960) is an American fingerstyle guitarist and harp guitarist who plays in many genres. She is the first female to win the National Fingerpicking Guitar Championship.

Career

Muriel Anderson was born in Downers Grove, Illinois, and is of Finnish descent: her great grandparents emigrated to the United States from Finland.[1] Her grandfather played saxophone in the John Philip Sousa band. She learned piano as a child. When she was eight, she was given a guitar from a family friend who was going to throw it away. In her early teens she took lessons at Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago. In high school she was a member of the jazz band and helped form a bluegrass band with which performed through her college years.[2]

She attended DePaul University in Chicago on an academic scholarship. At DePaul she took mandolin lessons from Jethro Burns, who introduced her to his brother-in-law, Chet Atkins. Atkins became a friend and mentor to Anderson.[2] One of her classical guitar teachers at DePaul was Leon Borkowski, who had been a student of Christopher Parkening. She took master classes with Parkening in Montana.[3]

Anderson has performed with Chet Atkins, Tommy Emmanuel, Earl Klugh, Les Paul, and Doc Watson.[3] She recorded an album with the flamenco duo Tierra Negra.[3][4] Her double-album, Nightlight Daylight, won eleven national and international awards. The CD cover contains fiber optics that illuminate an image of the sky when the cover is pressed.[3][5] She usually plays a nylon string guitar and a Doolin custom 21-string harp guitar which has both nylon and steel strings.[3]

Anderson has released more than a dozen solo albums, instructional CDs, and DVDs through Truefire and Homespun, and songbooks published by Hal Leonard, Mel Bay, and Zen-On Japan. Her compositions include commissioned classical works for the Nashville Chamber Orchestra and Vox Caelestis Women's Choir. She is a member of the advisory board for Mel Bay.

She started All Star Guitar Night, which donates its money to the Music for Life Alliance, a charity she founded. Her music can be heard in Woody Allen's film, Vicky Cristina Barcelona. Her album Heartstrings accompanied astronauts on the space shuttle Discovery.[6]

Discography

Compilations

Video

Concert DVDs

Instructional DVDs

Books

Compilation books

References

  1. ↑ Finnish-American Muriel Anderson Always Longed For a Harp Guitar Culture for Friends
  2. 1 2 Edwards Gehrt, Vicky (4 September 1994). "A Guitar Picker's Guitar Picker". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 31 August 2016.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Bergeron, Kathleen (23 February 2017). "Muriel Anderson: Beyond Classical Guitar". Classical Guitar. Retrieved 5 March 2017.
  4. ↑ d'Souza, Jerry (11 February 2010). "New World Flamenco". All About Jazz. Retrieved 5 October 2010.
  5. ↑ "Nightlight Daylight Reviews". Muriel Anderson. 21 January 2014. Retrieved 5 March 2017.
  6. ↑ "Strings of Her Heart". Retrieved 2015-10-04.
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