Jonathan Paget

One of Australia's most exciting guitarists, Jonathan Paget maintains an active performance schedule as well as teaching on a range of musical topics, from guitar to theory and music history. He is full-time at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, Edith Cowan University, Perth.

As a solo classical guitarist, Paget has performed throughout Australia and the US. He released his first solo CD recording in 2002, entitled Kaleidoscope, being a celebration of the guitar's multicultural horizons. The second solo CD recording, Midsummer's Night was released on the Melbourne-based Move Records label in 2008 in a magical selection of works by Walton, Barrios, and Sculthorpe (http://www.move.com.au/disc.cfm/3322). Paget has won numerous competitions, including the Shell Darwin International Guitar Competition (1997), the Ramirez Australian Guitar Competition (Sydney, 1995), the Rantucci Guitar Competition (Buffalo, 1999). He has also been a prize-winner in the Guitar Foundation of America International Solo Competition (Charleston, 1999).

Paget's performances continue to garner stunning reviews, being described as "subtle, intimate artistry" [The West Australian], and "a fine musician with brilliant technique" [Soundboard]. "Paget's performances are up there with some of the best" writes Classical Guitar (2008), while The West Australian cites his "near-peerless command of the instrument" (2008).

Paget has been a frequent guest artist at the Shell Darwin International Guitar Festival. In 2007, he appeared with harpsichordist Stewart Smith, and also performed the Concerto Andaluz with Slava Grigoryan (as a guest member of Saphire) and the Darwin Festival Orchestra. Recent concerto performances have included Sculthorpe's Nourlangie, Castelnuevo-Tedesco's Romancero Gitano (for guitar and choir), and Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez.

A Fulbright scholar and recipient of the coveted Hackett Studentship, Paget completed higher qualifications at the Eastman School of Music in upstate New York. Studying with the esteemed guitarist 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 centring on the guitar music of Peter Sculthorpe. As president of the Classical Guitar Society of Western Australia, Paget has played a significant role in the continued success of the Western Australian International Classical Guitar Ensemble Festival, which brings together some fifty guitar ensembles on an annual basis.