Tye Austin

Hailed by NBC News for making “…the guitar sing like it was invented only to be in his hands,” native Oregonian Tye Austin (age 28) is an international award-winning classical guitarist and composer based in New York City. Within a decade of picking up the instrument, Tye has performed solo at Carnegie Hall, London’s Royal Albert Hall, the United Nations, US French Embassy, and many other prestigious venues. He has also opened for celebrities and Grammy-winners such as Bela Fleck, Sharon Isbin, and Eliot Fisk, and he’s been interviewed by NBC News, National Public Radio, and Psychology Today. Tye’s concert programs feature a wide range of musical genres from classical to flamenco, jazz, contemporary pop, and his original compositions. As a prodigious composer/arranger with over fifty original works, he is dedicated to expanding the classical guitar repertoire. He has composed music for solo guitar, guitar duo, violin/guitar duo, cello/guitar duo, flute/guitar duo, guitar and string quartet, and guitar and symphony orchestra. In addition to his solo guitar work, Tye frequently collaborates with the NY Virtuosi String Quartet. Tye bought his first guitar at a pawn shop after attending his first classical guitar concert in 2007. He began auditing college courses in music fundamentals and guitar technique at Southern Oregon University (SOU) before he was accepted as a full-time music major in the fall of 2008. He began composing music in 2010 and conducted the premiere of his first symphony in 2012. Tye made his solo debut opening for Grammy-winner Sharon Isbin in 2011, and made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2013, just three months before graduating Magna Cum Laude from SOU. In 2014, he independently raised $56,000 to pursue his master’s degree at the New England Conservatory of Music by organizing a series of salon concerts in his hometown of Ashland, Oregon. In the summer of 2015, Tye traveled throughout Spain on a solo journey to reconnect with his instrument’s history and study flamenco guitar with native masters David Martinez, Adrian Ruis, and Pablo Gimenez. Tye completed his Master of Music degree at NEC in 2016 under the tutelage of legendary maestro Eliot Fisk (the last direct pupil of Andres Segovia). Tye also performed/studied in masterclasses with Grammy-winners Sharon Isbin (Juilliard Guitar Chair), Jason Vieaux (Curtis Institute Guitar Chair), and William Kannengiser (USC Guitar Chair). Tye’s debut studio album, Andalusia: Spanish Guitar Music, is available now for streaming on SoundCloud. Tye is a sponsored artist at Savage Classical Guitar in Long Island, NY, the largest classical guitar dealer and gallery in the world. He plays medium-tension strings on a 2016 Manuel Adalid modeled after Antonio Torres, handcrafted in Valencia, Spain. In his spare time, he enjoys cooking, meditating, reading in solitude, and riding his bike through Central Park.