International Guitar Duo

Continuing our tradition of bringing extraordinary musicians who are rarely heard in Memphis, we are proud to present the International Guitar Duo, New Zealand’s Mark Mazengarb and New Yorker Loren Barrigar .

Loren and Mark first met in 2005 at Jorma Kaukonen’s Fur Peace Ranch guitar workshop, working with the great Tommy Emmanuel. Mark was just completing his degree in classical guitar at the University of North Carolina and Loren was already established in New York, but they instantly recognized the strength they had as a guitar duo.

It would be more than two years before their paths converged professionally... in Nashville at the 2008 Chet Atkins Appreciation Society convention, an international gathering of hundreds of guitarists. They were added to the final show due to popular demand from those who had heard them throughout the week, wowed not only by their spectacular technical grasp of the guitar, but also by their spontaneous creativity.

Their varied repertoire consists of stunning guitar duets as well as songs (they both sing) and ranges from jazz to bluegrass and country, and if you like the thumb-picking techniques pioneered by guitar greats Chet Atkins, Jerry Reed, and Les Paul, you will be in music heaven.

Their first album won the 2011 SAMMY (Syracuse Area Music Award) for Best Album and their latest album, Onward, was released last August.

www.lorenandmark.com and www.mamamusic.org