Kurt Eric Reed

1980 -

Kurt Reed, an award-winning classical and jazz guitarist, has performed in concerts across the United States. A teacher with extensive experience, he owns two music schools in northeast Ohio.

Kurt was born in Montrose, Colorado, and spent his childhood in Huntington, Ohio, the son of Don and Ligia Maria Montiel Arroyo Reed. He and his twin brother, Ivan, grew up in a home where both parents were active amateur musicians. The twins each started lessons at an early age and then pursued study on other instruments.

Kurt started lessons on piano at age seven and guitar at age nine, studying both into his teenage years. Beginning at age eleven, he began study with Steve Aron, chair of guitar studies at the University of Akron and Oberlin College. He attended a guitar festival at the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music in the eighth grade and at that time decided to pursue a degree in classical guitar.

He attended Mount Vernon Adventist Academy in Ohio for his freshman and sophomore years and then transferred to Black River High School in Medina, Ohio. Following graduation in 1999 he enrolled at UA as a guitar performance major, studying with Aron all during his time there. His study at UA also included a year of lessons under Dean Newton, head of jazz guitar studies.

Beginning in 2000 and continuing through his years at UA, Reed also taught. From 2000-2003, he taught at Wadsworth Music, 2001-2003 at Akron Music, and from 2001-2002 at Wolf School of Music. Beginning in 2003, he taught at Aurora School of Music for four years after which he started the Jam Session Music School in 2007, which continues to the present.

Earlier in his studies, Reed placed second in the William Carey University pre-college division competitions. In 2008 he placed third in the James Stroud All-Ohio Classical Guitar Festival Competition.

Reed graduated from UA in 2008 with a B.Mus. in classical guitar performance, then taught at Archbishop Hoban High School in Akron for two years, from 2009-2011. At the end of that time, he started the Fairlawn School of Music, a second and complementary music business to JSMS.

ds/2012

Source: Information provided by Kurt Reed, September 2011.