Bio

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 features 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 is pursuing an academic field of study in Music Teaching and Learning at the University of Southern California. He leads beginning group guitar classes at USC, teaches applied lessons for non-majors and undergraduate music minors, and coaches chamber music and leads sight-reading classes for performance majors. 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. Michael frequently premiers new solo and chamber works for guitar and is currently involved with assisting composers who are learning to write for the instrument; one such project recently culminated in a performance at UCLA’s Herb Alpert School of Music.

Michael Gratovich 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. In 2014 Michael earned the degree of Master of Music from USC in Los Angeles, where he is currently engaged in Doctoral studies with a Teaching Assistantship award. Michael studies guitar performance with Scott Tennant and William Kanengiser (both founding members of the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet), Maestro Pepe Romero, and flamenco guitarist Adam del Monte.

Michael Gratovich is an active guitarist and music educator based in Los Angeles. In 2016, he was invited to join the USC Thornton Opera in their Fall production of Osvaldo Golijov’s flamenco-inspired opera, Ainadamar. He has also been an invited artist of 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 two programs of solo and chamber music by Latin American composers in the third annual Villa-Lobos International Chamber Music Festival in Los Angeles in 2017.

Michael Gratovich

Classical Guitarist