Brandon Acker is a classical guitarist and specialist on early plucked instruments such as the baroque guitar, theorbo, lute, and archlute.  His latest passion has been to run his successful Youtube channel which now has over 481,000 subscribers and 40 million views.  His channel provides educational content about historical lutes and guitars, guitar tutorials, and performance videos. His YouTube Channel

His interest in education has led him and his wife to found a new online music school for “All things that go pluck,” Arpeggiato.com.   Since opening it 2020, in reaction to the Covid pandemic, the online school has taught thousands of lessons on Zoom to students in over a dozen countries.  The school has also hosted two online student recitals and raised over $2,000 for music charities.  You can join in one of their monthly live events hosted by Brandon or watch recordings of past live events here: https://arpeggiato.com/workshop-archive/

In 2022, Brandon launched his first classical guitar online course: https://classicalguitar-pro.com/  This beginner course has been taken by over 1100 students from around the world and received many wonderful reviews.  It is a six-hour, 53 video curriculum designed to take students from the point of knowing nothing about guitar to playing their first recital with Brandon at the end of the course.

 

Brandon’s performance career has varied from starting out playing electric guitar in metal bands to his current main focus researching and performing on early plucked instruments from the Renaissance and Baroque periods.  He has toured extensively through England, Canada, Scotland and Wales, and performed with notable groups such as Apollo’s Fire, the Leipzig Baroque Orchestra, Piffaro, Joffrey Ballet, the Chicago Philharmonic, the Newberry Consort, Haymarket Opera Company, Music of the Baroque, Third Coast Baroque, Opera Lafayette and Bella Voce.

He can be heard on his CDs: “A Wanderer’s Guitar,” Schubert lieder arranged for guitar and baritone, “Favorites” a CD of his dearest solo repertoire; and “Strung Up,” minimalist music arranged for harp and guitar.  https://arpeggiato.com/cd/

Brandon’s main instruments:

Classical guitar: Brian Itzkin

Theorbo: Klaus Jacobsen 2000

Baroque guitar: Julio Castaños Soler 2016

Renaissance lute: Le Luth Dore

Turkish oud: Sala Muzik