Harris Guitar Collection
From a press release announcing the gift of the Harris Guitar Collection to the San Francisco Conservatory of Music:
The Harris Guitar Collection features 40 classical and flamenco guitars from the pivotal century of modern guitar making, from the mid-1800s to the mid-1900s. The collection, on rotating display at The San Francisco Conservatory of Music, includes instruments from the significant luthiers from the period when the “Spanish guitar” with six strings emerged in southern Spain, through its adoption in Europe, Great Britain, South America, and Asia by the mid-20th Century.
The collection’s creator, L. John Harris, a life long student of the guitar, formed a foundation in 2012—The Harris Guitar Foundation—to support the classical guitar in the Bay Area, naming the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and the Omni Foundation for the Performing Arts as the beneficiaries of the foundation’s mission, which included programs such as the annual Guitarrada events held at SFCM, with students, faculty and guest performers playing and discussing instruments from the collection on stage.
In November 2020, L. John Harris and SFCM announced that the Harris Guitar Collection will have a permanent home at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Harris closed the foundation and donated the collection to the Conservatory in honor of Sol Harris, his grandfather.
“I’m so pleased to be able to give these fine instruments a home at SFCM and look forward to helping shape their new life there. I owe a great debt of gratitude to my grandfather, Sol Harris, who launched an interior textile company, S. Harris Company, in San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake and fire. It was his success that made it possible for me to invest in my lifelong passion for the classical guitar, so I dedicate this gift to him. I’m sure he would approve of the Harris Collection’s permanent home at SFCM.”
Harris will now serve as the curator of the Harris Guitar Collection at SFCM and will oversee programs that allow students, faculty, visiting performers, luthiers, and scholars to play, record, and study the instruments and their relationship to period repertoire. The collection’s advisory committee will include SFCM faculty members, David Tanenbaum (Department Chair), Marc Teicholz, Richard Savino, Meng Su, and Sergio Assad.
Vintage HGC Recordings and Videos (See Books & More):
The Harris Guitar Collection at SFCM launched the Vintage HGC series of recordings in 2016 with former faculty member, Marcin Dylla performing on four instruments from the collection. Another “Vintage HGC” recording is forthcoming in 2021 from the first guitar department chairman at SFCM, George Sakellariou. Future recordings and videos are being planned.
L. John Harris with a portion of his guitar collection at Villa Maybeck
The Harris Guitar Collection at San Francisco Conservatory of Music