The Pacific Guitar Ensemble began in 2010 when two friends, classical guitarist David Tanenbaum and steel-string guitarist Peppino D'Agostino, decided they wanted to form a larger guitar ensemble that could perform a wide variety of repertoire. After they gathered together members of the guitar faculty from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music with some of its most exceptional alumni, and combined nylon strings with steel, electric basses with 17th century theorbos, a new eclectic group of pluckers was born.

While the Pacific Guitar Ensemble's repertoire features original music written by composers like Brazilian guitar legend Sergio Assad, noted minimalist Belinda Reynolds, and group's own brilliant steel-string stylist Peppino D'Agostino, it also includes fresh arrangements of great composers from Bach to Brahms, Dowland to Rossini. Guitarists like nothing better than to get together to play for and with each other, learning and copying, sharing and competing. The Pacific Guitar Ensemble is a group dedicated to keeping this dynamic process alive and we hope and believe that audiences will enjoy being a party to it.

Ensemble Members

David Tanenbaum


Peppino D'Agostino


Marc Teicholz


Lawrence Ferrara


Michael Bautista


Jon Mendle


Paul Psarras


Antoniy Kakamakov