News & Events

On Thursday,September 6th, GIT welcomes back seven-string jazz guitar master and GIT alumnus Howard Alden for an intimate afternoon Open Counseling session. Howard's visit, one in an ongoing series of Open Counseling and Master Class appearances, will highlight his tasty, virtuoso technique and encyclopedic knowledge of the Jazz idiom.

Following his graduation from GIT in 1978 (where he gained the nickname "Spiderfingers"), Alden's outstanding skills and musicality earned him a position as one of the school's youngest teachers. Already dazzling on six-string guitar and banjo, Alden took up the seven-stringed instrument and soon achieved even wider recognition. After moving to New York in the mid-1980s, Alden found his reputation as a master solo performer quickly spreading, accompanied by rave reviews ("He may be the best of his generation" -Owen Cordle /JazzTimes; "The most impressive and creative member of a new generation of jazz guitarists"-George Kanzler /Newark Star Ledger). In addition to supplying the Django-flavored fretwork for Woody Allen's film Sweet and Lowdown, Alden has released a number of solo recordings while also maintaining his reputation as one of the most in-demand sidemen in jazz.