Play with passion!! My guest is high school friend Keith Rodriguez. We didn't know each other really in HS but what we did know about each other back in the day was our impeccible musical taste. It was fun to reconnect with Keith and get to know him.

Classical guitarist Keith Rodriguez received his Bachelor's degree in Music from UCSD and his MBA in guitar performance from San Diego State University, both under the instruction of Celín Romero.  During this time, he had the privilege of receiving several lessons from the Romero quartet´s founder, Celedonio Romero.  He continued to perfect his craft by doing post-graduate studies at the Conservatorio Superior Real de Madrid under the instruction of José Luis Rodrigo.  In 1996, he was awarded a scholarship to attend the renowned masterclasses “Música en Compostela”, focusing on Spanish guitar music and technique.  He has attended masterclasses under the instruction of Pepe Romero, David Russel, Piero Bonaguri and Gabriel Estarellas amongst others.  He has performed as soloist with recitals in México, USA, Spain and Portugal.  The Spanish periodical El Mundo has said after one of his performances “perfect intonation, impeccable interpretation and a diverse program were a delight for all those who attended a glimpse of what was sure to be a brilliant career”.  He has performed extensively both as a soloist as well as forming part of various chamber music ensembles, combining guitar  with cello, violin, and voice, etc.

Beginning in 2009, he discovered a passion for choir conducting through the J.H. Newman Colegio Internacional, where he has been teaching music history, choir and guitar since 2005. This choir has been awarded numerous first prizes in the Comunidad de Madrid school choir competitions, as well as receiving a silver medal at the 2018 Spanish national youth choir competition. 

In addition to performing classical music, he has performed jazz with the Keith Andrews Quartet, as well as blues with his previous group The Blue Roosters. He has also composed music for diverse theater performances and is active as both a performer and music educator.

Originally from San Diego, he moved to Madrid in 1995 to pursue his musical studies, where he has been living since with his wife and four children.

Keith has truly blessed us with lots to listen to. Here's the full performance of the song I played a brief part of during the interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8hLHVrBIiI

Here's the Under Pressure performance by him and his students: https://s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/life.revelrevel/public/Under%20Pressure%20jhnewman%20video%20final_2.mp4

Here's his newest video: https://youtu.be/-8hLHVrBIiI

I had never heard of Celin Romero--here's his info too: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celin_Romero

Other topics covered:
No books to mention-SHOCK AND AWE! IKR? but these other items might interest you. The Netflix show I mentioned with Pope Francis is called Stories of a Generation https://www.netflix.com/title/81306329
(And don't forget: my bookshop.org list of recommended books is always available. If you want a personally curated list of banned books too, please let me know.)

The creator of this School of Community: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luigi_Giussani

NOTE on Spotify: On the ep I talk about the Spotify situation. Here I'd like to address that if things haven't changed by my next episode, I'll be pulling my podcast off of the platform. As you can see from my stats below, this is purely a principle stance as my numbers on spotify don't hurt them at all. I apologize to these listeners though. Please use your voice to be heard that you won't stand for misinformation (and Rogan is still on all the other podcast apps, so, please support your musicians!

My Spotify Stats:
All time

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