Classical Guitarist Sharon Wayne has been an active performer, teacher, and recording artist, working for over 30 years in the Bay Area and New England. She has concertized throughout the U.S. and abroad as a soloist and chamber musician with a penchant for playing new music. As a founding member of the San Francisco Guitar Quartet, she helped generate new repertoire for guitar, commissioning works by Carlo Domeniconi, Eitan Steinberg, and others. Her recordings include, among others, In the Midst of Winds (M.A. Recordings, Tokyo) with composer/guitarist Dušan Bogdanović; Black Opals (SFGQ2001) with the San Francisco Guitar Quartet; and her solo CD From the Heart (Joplin and Sweeney), which features works by living composers.

Sharon received her BM and MM degrees from the USC Thornton School of Music. She has served on the faculties of San Francisco Conservatory of Music’s Preparatory Division, Santa Clara University, and several community music schools on either coast. She was Artistic Director of the San Francisco Classical Guitar Society and Boston Classical Guitar Society, and while living in New England performed regularly as a member of crossover group The Back Bay Trio.

Currently involved in several collaborative projects, her musical passions have led her from solo classical guitar back to her multi-instrumentalist roots, where she may be heard performing on cello, singing, or playing guitar in folk and world music settings, in addition to playing classical chamber music. Sharon’s current and recent collaborations include performances of Spanish classical works, traditional Hawai’ian folk songs, and Portuguese Fado with Mezzo-Soprano Nicole Takesono; developing musical ideas for a production about Malvina Reynolds with SF theater maker Beth Wilmurt; concerts of Spanish and Latin American music with flutist/singer Martha Rodriguez-Salazar as part of Ave Fénix Duo; and most recently as a member of the Bernal Hill Players, a “gleefully eclectic chamber music ensemble” currently comprising a quintet of women musicians dedicated to performing new works.