The 92nd Street Y, New York (92NY) presents Sharon Isbin, guitar at Kaufmann Concert Hall, 1395 Lexington Ave, New York, NY 10128, on Thursday, December 18, 2025 at 7:30 PM. Tickets start at $45 in-person and $25 to livestream and are available at https://www.92ny.org/event/sharon-isbin-guitar.

“[Isbin brings] nuances out of the classical guitar few guitarists since Segovia have matched.”
– Chicago Tribune

“one of the best guitarists in the world” – Boston Globe

Multi-Grammy Award winner Sharon Isbin is a guitar legend and a pioneer in shaping the legacy of her instrument. She returns to 92NY – where she has been essential to the art of the guitar for four decades – with music born of personal passions, repertoire-expanding works composed for her, and guitar classics she has made her own. Central to the program is John Duarte’s moving Joan Baez Suite – written for Isbin and inspired by songs associated with one of her musical heroes, including “Where Have All the Flowers Gone,” “House of the Rising Sun,” “Barbara Allen” and others. The work appears on Isbin’s Grammy-winning Journey to the New World, which features Baez on two tracks. “Sharon’s exquisite playing allowed me to revisit and fall in love with these songs all over again,” says Baez.

Isbin’s virtuosity is on brilliant display in works written for her by Tan Dun and Bruce MacCombie, which push the guitar to new realms, and in homage to Spain's pivotal role in the American Revolution, the full range of her artistry is showcased in works by Enrique Granados, Francisco Tárrega, and Paraguayan guitar master Agustín Barrios. A banquet of music and artistry for guitar lovers.

CELEBRATING AMERICA AT 250

ENRIQUE GRANADOS Danza española No. 5 (Andaluza) (trans. M. Llobet)

FRANCISCO TÁRREGA Capricho árabe

BRUCE MACCOMBIE Nightshade Rounds

TAN DUN Seven Desires for Guitar

AGUSTÍN BARRIOS MANGORÉ La Catedral

JOHN DUARTE Joan Baez Suite, Op. 144

ANDREW YORK Andecy

BARRIOS MANGORÉ Julia Florida

BARRIOS MANGORÉ Waltz, Op. 8, No. 4

Acclaimed for her extraordinary lyricism, technique and versatility, multiple Grammy Award-winner Sharon Isbin was the first guitarist to be named Musical America’s Instrumentalist of the Year, in 2020. She received the 2023 Guitar Foundation of America Hall of Fame and Artistic Achievement Award.

Hailed as the pre-eminent guitarist of our time, she has been a soloist with over 200 orchestras and performed in celebrated halls across 40 countries. Winner of the Munich ARD, Madrid, and Toronto competitions, Germany’s Echo Klassik and Guitar Player’s Best Classical Guitarist awards, she performed in the Martin Scorsese’s Oscar-winning The Departed, at Ground Zero for the first internationally televised 9/11 memorial, at the White House by invitation of President Obama, and as the only classical artist at the 2010 Grammy Awards. The documentary Sharon Isbin: Troubadour, won ASCAP’s Television Broadcast Award. Recent highlights include sold-out concerts at the Kennedy Center, Kimmel Center, and Carnegie Hall, including a collaboration with Sting, and a 21-city Guitar Passions tour with jazz greats Stanley Jordan and Romero Lubambo.

Isbin’s more than 40 albums include the Grammy-nominated Romántico (2025), featuring the world premiere of Latin dance-inspired music by Karen LeFrak, including her Miami Concerto with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s conducted by Enrico Lopez-Yañez. Live in Aspen (2024) was recorded with India’s foremost sarod virtuoso, Amjad Ali Khan, at their sold-out Aspen Music Festival concert and released for the festival’s 75th anniversary. Affinity (2020) showcases Chris Brubeck’s guitar concerto and works by Leo Brouwer, Tan Dun, Antonio Lauro, and Richard Danielpour; Souvenirs of Spain & Italy was recorded with the Pacifica Quartet; and Alma Española, with mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard, was the first Spanish art song album with guitar of its kind in 40 years. Her Grammy-winning Journey to the New World features guests Joan Baez and Mark O’Connor and her Latin Grammy-nominated Rodrigo Aranjuez, with the New York Philharmonic, is the orchestra’s only recording with a guitar soloist. Other highlights include Bach Complete Lute Suites and Sharon Isbin & Friends: Guitar Passions,with rock and jazz guests Steve Vai, Heart’s Nancy Wilson, Stanley Jordan, and Romero Lubambo

Author of the Classical Guitar Answer Book, Isbin has premiered nearly 100 works written for her, including concertos by John Corigliano, Christopher Rouse, Tan Dun, Aaron Jay Kernis, and Lukas Foss. Recent world premieres include a quintet by Joseph Schwantner, which she toured with the Pacifica Quartet.

Isbin directs guitar departments she created at The Juilliard School and Aspen Music Festival.

About The 92nd Street Y, New York: The 92nd Street Y, New York (92NY) is a world-class center for the arts and innovation, a convener of ideas, and an incubator for creativity. 92NY offers extensive classes, courses and events online including live concerts, talks and master classes; fitness classes for all ages; 250+ art classes, and parenting workshops for new moms and dads. The 92nd Street Y, New York is transforming the way people share ideas and translate them into action all over the world. All of 92NY's programming is built on a foundation of Jewish values, including the capacity of civil dialogue to change minds; the potential of education and the arts to change lives; and a commitment to welcoming and serving people of all ages, races, religions, and ethnicities. For more information, visit www.92NY.org.
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• December 18 from 7:30 to 9:30 pm

  December 18, 2025 07:30 to December 18, 2025 09:30
• 92NY
  1395 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY

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  6467654773 or [email protected]
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