Tye Austin

Friday, May 9, 2025
Starts at 7:30pm
Run time: 115 minutes with no intermission

Presented by ProArts Playhouse and Mana’o Radio

Hailed by NBC News for making “…the guitar sing like it was invented only to be in his hands,” Tye Austin is an American virtuoso guitarist and composer dedicated to making classical and jazz music more accessible to mainstream audiences of all ages and nationalities. He has performed solo at NYC’s Carnegie Hall, London’s Royal Albert Hall, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and many other prestigious venues around the world. In 2017, he performed for over 300 world leaders during an event to eradicate global poverty hosted at the United Nations Headquarters in Manhattan, NY. The following year, he was invited to perform for the former Australian Prime Minister in the penthouse suite on the 72nd floor of the Trump World Tower located on the UN Plaza. In 2019, Tye moved to Shanghai, China for a music performance and education residency at the iSchool of Music. He was subsequently hired as the principal classical guitarist for Royal Caribbean International Cruise Lines in 2020.

As an homage to his Franco-Spanish ancestry, Tye specializes in guitar music from Spain, France, and the Americas. He performs a wide variety of musical genres from classical to flamenco, fado, samba, bossa nova, tango, choro, jazz, reggae, modern pop, and more. He also sings in English, Spanish, French, and Portuguese. In addition to his solo guitar work, he frequently collaborates with symphonic orchestras, string quartets, chamber music groups, and jazz ensembles across the US. He has performed popular guitar concerti with the New York Virtuosi String Orchestra, the Siskiyou String Orchestra, and the Oregon Center for the Arts Symphonic Orchestra.

As a prodigious composer with several commissions to his name, Tye is dedicated to expanding the classical guitar repertoire. He has composed liturgical music for churches, secular music for recording artists, and commercial music for television. In 2017, Tye was commissioned to arrange and perform French renaissance music for the premiere of the Netflix original series, “Versailles,” hosted at the United States French Embassy. In 2019, he was asked to be featured in Classical Guitar Magazine’s top 10 guitarists & composers in the world. As a prolific singer-songwriter, he has written over 100 songs about nature, culture, and the human condition. The final aim of his music is to glorify God and refresh the human soul.

Tye bought his first guitar at a pawn shop after attending a Spanish guitar concert for the first time in 2007. “I will never forget that magical night. I witnessed one guitar being played like four guitars simultaneously. An epiphany washed over me and suddenly I knew exactly what I wanted to do with my life. I had found my passion, my purpose, and my best friend,” says Tye. Born in the Rogue Valley of Southern Oregon, Tye’s ancestors were notorious pirates of the Caribbean who migrated to the new world from Orduna, Spain and Bordeaux, France near the turn of 19th century. As a self-proclaimed antihero of classical music, he is determined to belay antiquated social hierarchies and seize his musical destiny by the throat.

Tye graduated summa cum laude with his bachelor of arts degree in classical guitar performance and music composition from the Oregon Center for the Arts at Southern Oregon University (OCASOU) in 2013. He was subsequently awarded a full-ride scholarship to pursue his master of music degree in classical guitar performance at the New England Conservatory (NEC) in Boston, MA in 2014. He graduated from NEC with the highest of honors under the tutelage of legendary maestro and pedagogue, Eliot Fisk in the spring of 2016. Tye was selected to study in private masterclasses with Grammy Award-winner, Sharon Isbin, chair of classical guitar studies at The Juilliard School in NYC. He also spent a summer abroad to study flamenco and classical guitar performance with David Martinez, chair of guitar studies at the Royal Academy of Music in Granada, Spain.

Tye’s debut album, Andalusia: Spanish Guitar Music, will be released in the summer of 2025 as an homage to his solo journey across Spain. In addition to his musical activities, he is also an avid outdoorsman, mushroom forager, archer, angler, and extreme sports athlete.

If you’d like to contact Tye Austin for any reason, please email info@tyeaustin.com