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Anthony Mazzella is a professional recording artist, concert guitarist, and producer. Billboard magazine describes him as “the new generation of guitar hero,” and Guitar One magazine voted him “one of the top ten guitarists in the country.” Mazzella has released six albums and currently performs regularly statewide in Arizona.
Mazzella began studying music on the violin at age five. He then proceeded to learn the rudiments of piano music, until he fell in love with the guitar at age thirteen. Throughout his adolescence, he studied with several private guitar teachers, but he attributes the greater part of his education to ear training. His influences are many, but none more profound than the music and techniques of guitar masters such as Michael Hedges, Pat Metheny, Carlos Montoya, Eddie Van Halen, Andrés Segovia, and countless others. In the nineties, Mazzella shared his musical insights by teaching as a private instructor at the Knopf music shop (where he once took guitar lessons) and at the Long Island School of Music and Arts. He was also one of the few chosen understudies for world-renowned guitar master Stanley Jordan.
Mazzella’s original music is a fusion of world influences consisting of acoustic fingerstyle, classical, flamenco, jazz, funk, R&B, Celtic, and rock and roll. He also plays a one-of-a-kind ten-string guitar that he designed and was built by his father. On this unique instrument, Mazzella displays his abilities in fingering bass lines and chords with his left hand while simultaneously playing melodies on the fret board with his right. In 1997, he recorded his debut solo album called Electric Fingerstyle Guitar. In 2001, he teamed up with platinum-selling recording artist Chris Spheeris on Brio. The next year, Mazzella recorded his second solo CD, titled Unity, where each song is from a diverse genre to showcase all the styles he is capable of playing. In 2006, he collaborated with three-time Grammy-nominated artist William Eaton; together they composed and recorded an album for the Electric Harp Guitar Group. Three years later, Mazzella recorded twelve new solo guitar compositions rich in spirit and appropriately entitled Heavenly Guitar. His latest recording, Ritual, is a fusion of Spanish guitar and exotic music.
Mazzella is currently producing a new show called Legends of Guitar, which is a tribute to famous guitar players and their music. Legendary guitarists whose music is featured in the show are Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Carlos Santana, Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin), the Edge (U2), Pete Townshend (The Who), David Gilmour (Pink Floyd), George Harrison (The Beatles), Dave Murray (Iron Maiden), Stevie Ray Vaughan, Andrés Segovia, and more. Mazzella brings an array of amazing guitars to the show, including his unique ten-string guitar, a 1974 Fender Stratocaster, a 1991 Les Paul, a Rodríguez flamenco guitar, a Taylor acoustic guitar, a Carvin synth guitar, and other beauties. The show can be seen at theaters and showrooms around Arizona.
The new generation of guitar hero
—Billboard
One of the top ten guitarists in the country
—Guitar One