Jonathan Paget

One of Australia's most exciting guitarists, Jonathan Paget maintains an active performance schedule while also teaching guitar, music theory, and music history. He is a full-time lecturer at the WA Academy of Performing Arts, Edith Cowan University, and is president of the Classic Guitar Society of WA.

A Fulbright scholar and recipient of the coveted (and substantial) Hackett Studentship--awarded to the very top graduates of the University of WA for overseas study--Paget completed higher qualifications at the Eastman School of Music in upstate New York. Studying with the esteemed performer and pedagogue, Dr Nicholas Goluses, he completed the Master of Music (guitar performance and literature), the Master of Arts (music theory pedagogy), and the Doctorate of Musical Arts (guitar performance and literature), which included research centering on the guitar music of Peter Sculthorpe.

Over the years, Paget has won several prestigious competitions, not the least of these being the Shell Darwin International Guitar Competition (1997). He has also won the Ramirez Australian Guitar Competition (Sydney, 1995), the Rantucci Guitar Competition (Buffalo, 1999), and been a prizewinner in the Guitar Foundation of America International Solo Competition (Charleston, 1999). As president of the Classical Guitar Society of WA, Paget has played a significant role in the continued success of the WA International Classical Guitar Ensemble Festival, which brings together almost 50 local and national guitar ensembles on an annual basis.

As a solo classical guitarist, Paget has performed throughout Australia and the US, has often appeared on Australian radio, and has been a frequent guest artist at the Shell Darwin International Guitar Festival. Paget is very active as a performer of chamber music, collaborating with a number of prominent Australian musicians. Recent concerto engagements have included performances of Sculthorpe's guitar concerto, Nourlangie, Castelnuevo-Tedesco's Romancero Gitano and Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez. In April 2002, Paget released his first solo CD recording: "Kaleidoscope," a celebration of the guitar's multicultural horizons with colourful works from around the world."