Co-Founder, Thornton School of Music Wellness Committee
Instructor of Classical Guitar, Guitar Ensemble, Guitar Orchestra and creator of
MUSC 475, “Musician’s Health and Wellness” course.
Recognized as one of America’s finest classical guitarists, William Kanengiser won First Prize in the 1987 Concert Artists Guild International Competition, as well as major guitar competitions in Toronto (1981) and Paris (1983). He has recorded four solo CD’s for the GSP label, ranging from classical to jazz to Caribbean to Near Eastern styles. A member of the guitar faculty at the USC Thornton School of Music since 1983, where he also holds the tittle of Co-founder and Chair. He has given master classes around the world and produced two instructional videos. In addition to solo concerts across the US, he has recently performed recitals in Hungary, Paraguay, Canada, and China.
As a founding member of the Grammy-winning Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, Mr. Kanengiser has toured extensively throughout Asia, Europe and North America and recorded over a dozen CD’s. Their most recent CD, “New Renaissance”, features Mr. Kanengiser’s arrangements of Spanish Renaissance music, originally created for the stage production “The Ingenious Don Quixote” starring Sir John Cleese. In October 2016, LAGQ premiered “Road to the Sun”, a major new work written for them by jazz artist Pat Metheny.
Mr. Kanengiser was recently awarded a major grant by the Augustine Foundation to commission seven new works for guitar. “The Diaspora Project” was conceived to highlight music from cultures around the globe that have migrated to new lands, and includes pieces by Sergio Assad, Dusan Bogdanovic, Matt Dunne, Carlos Rafael Rivera, Byran Johanson, Golfam Khayyam and Andrea Clearfield.