Michael Fogler

Michael Fogler is well-known in the Ohio Valley region for his 30 years of outstanding performances, both solo and in chamber music. In 1978, he became the first faculty member in guitar at the University of Kentucky. Recently, Michael was selected for inclusion in the Kentucky Arts Council’s Performing Arts Directory.

Michael Fogler

A fine solo recitalist, Michael has also collaborated with many of Central Kentucky’s most outstanding musicians, including a number of university faculty, the Lexington Chamber Chorale, Paragon Musical Theater, the Lexington Guitar Trio (founding member), and the outstanding Lexington Philharmonic flutist, Merrilee Elliott.

A versatile musician, Michael offers solo concerts, and concerts by the Elliott-Fogler Flute & Guitar Duo. His programming always includes first-rate music with spoken commentary. Michael is also widely known for the last three decades as a master teacher specializing in classical guitar. A number of his students have gone on to some of the most prestigious music schools in the United States. He enjoys students of high school and college age as well as adults who want to learn guitar as a hobby.

A native of North Carolina, Michael spent his college years majoring in guitar performance at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with summer studies at the North Carolina School for the Arts in Winston-Salem. At UNC, Michael studied with David Barison, a former student of Alexander LaGoya; and at the North Carolina School for Arts, he studied with a renowned Segovia protégé from Mexico, Jesus Silva. Silva had been personal friends with Segovia and the guitar composers Heitor Villa-Lobos and Manuel Ponce.

In 1976, Michael graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in guitar performance from UNC. From 1976-1978, Michael earned his Master’s Degree in guitar performance from Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida, where he served as graduate assistant with Bruce Holzman.

For a number of years, Michael was a performer with a professional voice and guitar duo with soprano Margaret Kennedy. This duo performed for the annual Guitar Foundation of America Festival among many other venues. In addition, Michael has performed with numerous music faculty at the University of Kentucky involving guitar with violin, flute, cello, and bassoon. He has also performed Romancero Gitano for guitar and chorus by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco with the professional choral group of the region, the Lexington Chamber Chorale.

From 2002-2009, Michael played in The Lexington Guitar Trio which performed in several states, won a top prize in a rare national chamber guitar competition, and produced an acclaimed CD. Its competition triumph was being a finalist and third-place winner of the Mid-America Chamber Guitar Competition at the Festival by the same name held in the Chicago area in March of 2003.

What the critics say:

“A musician of special talent and sensitivity” (his former teacher, Jesús Silva, the great Andrés Segovia protégé), Michael Fogler and his classical guitar playing will keep your audience “enthralled” (The Lexington Herald-Leader).