Artistic Directors
Jay Kacherski – Co-Artistic Director
"Virtuosismo" and "technical dominance" are the words used by the press to describe American guitarist, Jay Kacherski. A native of New York, Kacherski has performed around the world as a soloist, in duo with piano, and as a member of the Grammy®nominated Texas Guitar Quartet. He has appeared at distinguished music festivals and venues including: the Semana Internacional la Guitarra, Chile; the GuitUNAM guitar festival in Mexico City; Casa Sors, Barcelona; the Festival Música al Gironès, Spain; the International Guitar Art Festival in Shenzhen, China; Brevard Music Center; the New Orleans International Guitar Festival, Round Top Festival Institute; Austin Classical Guitar; and Bayou Theater, Houston.
Kacherski lived in Mexico for two years as a Fulbright Scholar and member of the guitar faculty at the Escuela Nacional de Música (UNAM), researching, performing, and promoting contemporary classical guitar music of Mexico. His debut solo album, Synthesis: 20th & 21st Century Guitar Music from Mexico (Frameworks Records) was the culmination of his Fulbright work. Soundboard magazine hailed it as a “…brilliant album” and “one of the finest guitar solo recordings of recent years”.
The Kacherski/Morita Duo was formed in 2005 with pianist Lina Morita and is dedicated to curating standard repertoire and building new repertoire for piano and guitar ensemble. The duo has premiered and/or commissioned several new works over the years by composers Clarice Assad, Jefferson Todd Frazier, José Galeote, Olga Almelkina-Vera, David Mitchell, Alex Nazaretski, and Cutberto Cordoba Nieto to name a few. Their recording Landscapes (Frameworks Records) includes many of these new works. A recent review by Phoenix Classical: “the pairing works brilliantly – the music is haunting & evocative, tender & fiery, joyful & mysterious – it’s a beautiful mix of work – great technique throughout, a poetic sense of phrasing from both piano & guitar.
Currently Assistant Professor of Music at Del Mar College in Corpus Christi, Texas Kacherski was formerly on the guitar faculty at Loyola University of New Orleans, the University of New Orleans, and McNeese State University, as well as NOCCA (the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts). He is the Co-Artistic Director of the Gulf Coast Guitar Association and the Houston Classical Guitar Festival and Competition. His academic studies include a Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Texas at Austin, a Master of Music in Guitar Performance and Literature from the Eastman School of Music, and undergraduate degrees from Florida Southern College where he graduated with honors. (kacherskiguitar.com)
Jeremy Garcia – Co-Artistic Director
Jeremy García is a classical and flamenco guitarist, award-winning composer, educator and recording artist who dazzles audiences throughout the United States and Europe. Notable concerts include: The Moores Symphony Orchestra, Suite Andaluz – an original composition for Solero Flamenco and orchestra (2025); Houston Grand Opera, Suite Española – Explorando Iberia (2021); the Moores Opera Center’s 2003 production of Ainadamar, Osvaldo Golijov (composer); Joaquín Rodrigo's El Concierto de Aranjuez with the Helena Symphony in Montana (2017); and most recently, the 2024-2025 tour of Hispania! – A Voyage from Spain to the Americas with Grammy®winning Apollo’s Fire, the most active touring baroque orchestra in the United States and abroad.
García and Irma La Paloma co-founded Solero Flamenco, Houston’s premier flamenco performance company, touring nationally in Candlelight Concerts by Fever and appearing at numerous guitar societies and festivals throughout the country. He was recently honored to perform for Queen Sofía of Spain and guests at the Queen Sofía Spanish Institute Gala 2023.
An active recording artist, García’s latest album, Nuevo Día (Frameworks Records 2023) was praised by critic Jim McCutcheon: “A refreshing take on some old standards and an excursion into contemporary flamenco-based guitar…García’s performance is spirited, accentuated by flamenco techniques including golpes and rasgueados, and played with a quasi-improvisatory, wild flamenco disposition that at no time disrespects the original music.” (American Record Guide, Nov-Dec 2023). Other albums include García y Reyna’s Baile del Sol and Café Khytaro’s Distancia.
A noted composer, García’s work, Zalamera Colombiana won the top prize in Flamenco Composition at the 2023 Séptimo Concurso de Composición para Guitarra Fidelio, in Madrid, Spain. Composers representing Spain, Colombia, France and the USA competed for this high honor. His original work, Suite Andaluz debuted with the Helena Symphony in Montana where he also performed Joaquín Rodrigo's El Concierto de Aranjuez (2017).
He is Co-Artistic Director of the Gulf Coast Guitar Association and the Houston Classical Guitar Festival & Competition and is often invited as a guest artist to numerous festivals, where he gives concerts, master classes, workshops on technique and composition and conducts guitar ensembles. García and La Paloma co-founded and directed the Houston Spanish and Flamenco Festival (2011-2016) with funding from Texas Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts.
García is Affiliate Professor of Guitar at the University of Houston’s Moores School of Music. For 20 years he was Director of Guitar Studies at San Jacinto College where he also conducted an award-winning ensemble. He gives private lessons in both classical and flamenco guitar in the USA and abroad. García earned a Bachelor of Music in Classical Guitar Performance from Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi and Master of Music from Southern Methodist University in Dallas. (jeremygarcia.net)