One of the world’s foremost fingerstyle guitarists and harp-guitarists Muriel Anderson returns to the Pocahontas County Opera House on Saturday, March 8, at 7:30 p.m.
Anderson was the first woman to have won the National Fingerstyle Guitar Championship. In 2009, Anderson was also a bronze-level winner of Acoustic Guitar’s reader’s choice award for “best classical guitarist.” She received a degree in music from DePaul University and went on to study with classical virtuoso Christopher Parkening and with Nashville legend Chet Atkins.
An engaging performer, her joy of music, humor, and facility across musical genres is revered by guitarists and audiences worldwide. She has recorded with Chet Atkins, performed in New York with Les Paul, at Chicago’s Orchestra Hall with the Chicago Symphony and in Tennessee with the Nashville Chamber Orchestra.
She is host and founder of Muriel Anderson’s All Star Guitar Night, the premiere music event at the semi-annual National Association of Music Merchants trade shows. Anderson is also the founder of the Music for Life Alliance charity. She is a prolific composer of music on guitar and harp guitar, and tours year-round in North America, Europe and the Far East.
Her unique approach to the instrument transforms the guitar into a lyrical choir, then a marching band, then a Japanese koto, then a Bluegrass band. One minute Anderson is launching into a Beatles tune and the next, Chopin’s Minute Waltz.
Opera House doors open at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $8 and available in advance at pocahontasoperahouse.org and at the Fourth Avenue Gallery in Marlinton. Youth 17 and younger are admitted free of charge.
The Pocahontas County Opera House is located at 818 Third Avenue in Marlinton. Performances at the Opera House are informal, family-friendly and open to all. The entrance and main seating are accessible to persons with disabilities. Persons with disabilities are encouraged to attend; special accommodations can be arranged upon request by calling 304-799-6645.
The Opera House Performance Series is presented with financial assistance through a grant from the West Virginia Division of Culture and History and the National Endowment for the Arts, with approval from the West Virginia Commission on the Arts. Support is also provided by Pocahontas County Drama, Fairs and Festivals, the Pocahontas County Convention and Visitors Bureau, NRAO, Pendleton Community Bank, the Law Office of Roger D. Forman, Allegheny Mountain Radio, Stephen and Cynthia Olson, Sam and Dru Kusic, David and Carole Cobb, Doug Bernier, New Hope Lutheran Church, Kim Dilts and J.T. Arbogast.