John Schneider: The Well-Tempered Guitar at Sierra Madre Playhouse

Sierra Madre Playhouse, noted for its wide-ranging programming, presents John Schneider: The Well-Tempered Guitar, a captivating exploration of classical and experimental guitar styles, on Saturday, April 26, 2025, 7:30 pm, at Sierra Madre Playhouse. The masterful Grammy® Award-winning guitarist and composer appears solo, playing a selection of innovative works by Lou Harrison, Harry Partch, Manuel Ponce, and more

Highlights include Partch’s December 1942, Ponce’s Suite in A, and Schneider’s own Men are Men & Mountains are Mountains, performed on adapted, electric, and National Resophonic guitars.

Schneider performs almost exclusively on Well-Tempered Guitars, which use different patterns of fretting according to the key or tuning system required. He has presented recitals of Renaissance and Baroque repertoire in their original temperaments, as well as contemporary music in alternative tunings by such composers as Lou Harrison, Ben Johnston & others. Since 1991, Schneider's concerts also include vocal works by the maverick American composer Harry Partch (1901–1974), which he sings while accompanying himself on replicas of Partch's Adapted Guitars (steel stringed instruments refretted in just intonation) and the Adapted Viola.

Schneider is also an author and broadcaster who hosts the weekly radio program “Global Village” on KPFK. Past President of the Guitar Foundation of America, he holds a Ph.D. in Physics & Music from U.C. Cardiff (UK), and music degrees from the University of California and the Royal College of Music (London). Schneider, a specialist in contemporary music, is the author of The Contemporary Guitar, which has become the standard text in the field.