Scott Tennant


Scott Tennant is a Grammy Award-winning American classical guitarist. He is a member of the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet and is the author of the Pumping Nylon series of instructional books, repertoire supplements, and DVD.
Scott Tennant is a founding member of the Grammy-winning ensemble Los Angeles Guitar Quartet and is himself considered to be one of the world's top classical guitarists. Born in Detroit, Michigan in March 1962, he began his musical and guitar studies at the age of six. He attended in Detroit, where he also studied violin, and trombone and was in the graduating class of 1980.
He was admitted into the school of music of the University of Southern California in 1980, and studied there until 1986. He won silver medals in both the Toronto International Guitar Competition in 1984, and Paris Radio France Competition in 1988, and won the gold medal/first prize in the Tokyo International Competition in 1989.
Tennant has been a guest artist on music series and major guitar festivals around the world. Past seasons have taken him to such festivals in Ubeda, Milan, São Paulo, Tokyo, Osaka, Paris, Orleans, Ansbach and Wetzlar, Bergen, Amsterdam, Mexico, Dundee, Bath among others all over the United States and Canada. He has authored several books and articles on guitar technique, including the best-seller Pumping Nylon, which has attained a "cult" classic status. He has made numerous recordings as a soloist on the GHA and Delos labels, and with the LAGQ he has recorded for GHA, Delos, Sony Classical, Windham Hill, Deutsche Grammophon and Telarc labels. Their Telarc release "LAGQ Latin"was nominated for a Grammy, and it was their current Telarc title "LAGQ's Guitar Heroes" which won a Grammy as the best classical crossover recording of 2005. He has written articles for Soundboard Magazine, Acoustic Guitar Magazine, and Gendai Guitar Magazine.
He taught guitar at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music from 1989–1993, and has since been on the faculty of the USC Thornton School of Music.