John Vitale & students

press release: Join us at Heid Music Madison on Saturday, April 29, from 1-2 p.m. for Heid Live, a monthly entertainment series featuring local instrumental and vocal musicians. 

This month, we'll be featuring Heid Music guitar instructor John Vitale and three of his students. John is a versatile pro guitarist performing regularly in the Madison and Chicago area, and loves teaching at Heid. He performs at American Players Theater in the summer with Marilyn Fisher and at Liliana’s Restaurant in Fitchburg, as well as many corporate events and fundraisers. John will perform a couple of numbers, but this performance is to showcase a few of his students:

• Rohan, age 13, will perform a Blues and Classical selection.

• Peyton Engel, law professional by day, will play selections from Fernando Sor, and Duets (with John) by Jimi Hendrix (Little Wing) and Madison Icon Cliff Frederiksen (Phillin up the Church). Peyton started playing (mostly) rock guitar in high school, and played in various second-rate cover bands through college. He had lessons for the first year or so, and then was self-taught after that. In recent years he got interested in playing more sophisticated pieces, and realized that he needed fundamentals he never developed in his earlier playing. He studies classical guitar with John, along with some jazz.

• Matt Kvernan, financial exec by day, will perform Duets with John, incluing Greensleeves, All of Me and a couple of Django Reinhardt style Jazz selections. Having first picked up the guitar as a junior in high school, Matt has taken his playing to the next level. David Gilmour (Pink Floyd), Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin), Jimi Hendrix, Albert King, Stevie Ray Vaughn and Django Reinhardt are some of the guitarists who inspire him.