Collection: Knopf, Michael

Dr Michael Knopf was born in the United States and has lived in Australia for the past 41 years. A guitarist/composer, Knopf performs music from the classical guitar’s repertoire with a particular interest in the music of J.S. Bach. He also performs jazz standards and his own improvisations, but his main focus is in presenting his own compositions. These evocative and engaging works combine elements from his eclectic guitar-playing career spanning over 56 years. Knopf has been a classical guitarists for most of his career. Elements of Classical, Flamenco, Persian/Arab/Indian classical music, Jazz, Rock, and 20th century compositional ideas can be evident in his works and performances.

His compositions for his instrument of choice embrace the gamut of guitar styles and genres due to a life-long association with several genres.These include his signature “guitar chant” style with pieces featuring idiosyncratic guitar techniques and cultural stylisms from a variety of musical sources. This was also the focus of his doctoral study that resulted in some landmark compositions and the theorization of poly genre and poly style composition.

Knopf has composed over 420 works for guitar including a major guitar concerto, the Eclectic Fantasies for solo guitar, suites, chamber music and individual pieces. He also has works for other instruments, for orchestra and choral music. His compositions have been performed in Australia, the United States, Canada, China, Japan and Europe.

Knopf’s recordings can be sampled and purchased from his bandcamp site- https://michaeldknopf.bandcamp.com, as we as from his persoanl website www.michaelknopf.com.

His YouTube channel is at https://www.youtube.com/user/michaeldknopf and he also has music posted on Soundcloud.