Guitarist, composer and music educator Scott Sandvik has been an active member of Boston’s music community since immigrating from his native Minnesota in 1975. A versatile guitarist who doubles on the unusual fretless classical and acoustic lap steel guitars, his playing synthesizes various elements of his diverse background, including the study and teaching of African American folk music and the composition of microtonal classical works. Based on his aural transcriptions of African-American roots music, and using his compositional experience with atonal polyphony and the microtonal 72-note equal-tempered scale, Sandvik creates extended aural compositions which show reverence for the originals while exploring them creatively.

Sandvik has taught guitar and the history of rock ‘n’ roll at Curry College since 1980 and joined the faculty of New England Conservatory in 1989. An alumnus of the school’s groundbreaking Third Stream/Contemporary Improvisation Department, he teaches classes in improvisation and aural memory for both jazz and classical performers, as well as history classes on various African-American musical traditions. He also produces Contemporary Improvisation Department concerts inspired by his knowledge of and love for popular music, including multi-genre explorations of the music of Burt Bacharach, Brian Wilson, and Joni Mitchell.

A regular lecturer and performer in the Greater Boston area, his solo guitar recording of African-American hymns (“surge songs”), hollers, and blues, Open Field (bluesurge), was released in 2000. His new duo recording with vocalist Vanessa Morris, Lead Me to the Rock, was released in 2002.

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