Mission of the Rainey-McCullers School of the Arts Guitar Program
Rainey-McCullers Schools of the Arts features the only curricular program for serious study of guitar performance in the area. All guitar classes are in-depth, performance-based courses in which students perform, respond, create, and connect to music through the guitar. Students develop their musical understandings through various aspects of performance, reading and notating music, composing and arranging, improvising, listening to and evaluating music and music performances. Students will also explore the relationship of music to other disciplines, and to history and culture.
Students in the Classical Guitar Studio can take classes at the Middle and High School levels for major-track or elective credit. At all levels the course schedule and class structure is designed to maximize students’ time on task; combined with intensive instruction in applied lessons, this builds students’ repertory of skills that are needed for meeting the expectations of upper-class and collegiate-level music study. Course goals are designed to support students in developing comprehensive musicianship on the guitar including artistic expression and performance techniques, fluency with staff notation and familiarity with all common guitar notations, and effective habits of practice (self-study). Students engage in authentic performance tasks which are individualized to their level of experience and designed to build the real-world skills needed for academic success, personal enjoyment, and lifelong music learning.
The guitar program at Rainey-McCullers benefits from a close partnership with Columbus State University’s Schwob School of Music. This has resulted in many unique opportunities for collaboration and exposure to the highest levels of excellence in the field of classical guitar. Performances with CSU students, special presentations by visiting artists and lecturers, and access to concert and workshop events at the university are some of the immersive artistic experiences available to music students at Rainey-McCullers.
Our Guitar Faculty
Mr. Michael GratovitchMichael Gratovich, guitarist and music educator, and has directed the Classical Guitar Studio at Rainey-McCullers since 2018. Michael trained with many of the world’s most recognizable figures in the field of classical guitar and completed Bachelor’s, Master’s, and Doctoral degrees (currently ABD) in music performance at The University of Texas at Austin and the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.
Michael began playing classical guitar in Austin, Texas, when he was eight years old. After many years of study with Dr. Matthew Hinsley, executive director of Austin Classical Guitar, Michael continued his musical education at The University of Texas at Austin, earning his Bachelor’s degree with legendary American classical guitarist, Adam Holzman. Michael earned the degree of Master of Music and completed Doctoral studies (currently ABD) at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles with a Graduate Teaching Assistantship award. Michael’s principal teachers are Scott Tennant and William Kanengiser (both founding members of the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet), Maestro Pepe Romero, and flamenco guitarist Adam del Monte.
Michael has been an invited artist of the USC Thornton Opera, the Colburn Orchestra, the Austin Symphony Orchestra, and the GRAMMY-winning vocal ensemble Conspirare, with whom he recorded an album of new music on the Harmonia Mundi label. The album, “Pablo Neruda: The Poet Sings,” received a 2016 GRAMMY nomination for best choral performance. Michael has been invited to present solo recitals by Austin Classical Guitar and the Philadelphia Guitar Society, and presented programs of solo and chamber music by Latin American composers in the 2017 and 2018 Villa-Lobos International Chamber Music Festivals in Los Angeles.
Michael is a prizewinner in several competitions, including first prizes in the 2014 Philadelphia Classical Guitar Competition and the 2014 Pacific Guitar Festival in Los Angeles, as well as second prize in the 2013 ASTA-LA Classical Guitar Competition and first prize in the 2011 Classical Minds Guitar Institute and International Competition in Houston, Texas. His chamber ensemble, Sunset Club Trio, was a winner of the 2016 Beverley Hills National Auditions resulting in concert engagements throughout Southern California in 2017. Performing original arrangements of classical masterpieces, the Sunset Club Trio featured Michael on the flamenco guitar alongside his wife, Ines Thomé on electric guitar, and French violin virtuoso, Étiene Gara.
In addition to his performance endeavors, Michael deepened his knowledge and love for teaching through an academic field of study in Music Teaching and Learning at the University of Southern California. His interest in curriculum has led him to design syllabi for classes in group guitar instruction, sight-reading, and music appreciation and fundamentals classes. He has been a guest lecturer at the Bright Institute of Music at UCLA and for music appreciation classes at USC, where he introduced the music and history of the classical guitar to new audiences. Michael frequently premiers new solo and chamber works for guitar and has worked to assist composers who are learning to write for the instrument; these projects culminated in performances at UCLA’s Herb Alpert School of Music and USC’s Thornton School of Music.