James Stroud

Classical Guitar Competition

2023

presented by the

Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival®

and hosted by the

Cleveland Institute of Music

Drew Henderson (Canada) Classical guitarist Drew Henderson is an active performer, teacher, recording artist and music producer living in Toronto. He earned a Master’s degree in Music at the University of Toronto where he studied with Eli Kassner and Jeffrey McFadden. After his post graduate degree, he was awarded a grant from the Canada Council for the Arts to study in Italy with Lorenzo Micheli, Matteo Mela, and Massimo Lonardi.

During his studies, Drew was heavily involved in the competition circuit, so far being awarded six international prizes. These competitions include: Les Concours International de Guitare Classique de Lachine (Montreal), the Rantucci International Guitar Competition (New York), the Columbus Guitar Symposium and Competition (Georgia), and the Concorso Chitaristico “Citta’ Di Voghera” (Italy). He has also been awarded numerous scholarships from the University of Toronto, the Ontario Arts Council, and the D’Addario Foundation for the Performing Arts.

Drew Henderson has a very successful YouTube channel in which he performs and produces all the content himself. On this channel you can find performances of works he has adapted for the guitar by composers such as Bach, Paganini, and Schubert; some of which feature an eight-string guitar. Currently, he has 13,000 subscribers, and has reached nearly two million views. As a producer, he has worked with some of today’s leading guitarists to create full length albums and videos for labels such as Naxos and Analekta. In 2014, he worked as a videographer alongside Grammy award-winning producer Norbert Kraft to create two separate video series for Naxos recordings. Drew Henderson's multi-faceted career has taken him all over the world.

 Artist’s Website: classicalguitarist.ca