SFCM's Harris Guitar Collection is one of the most valued aspects of the Conservatory's Guitar Department: It contains over 40 instruments from the 19th and 20th centuries, pivotal centuries for the development of the "modern" or "Spanish" guitar. These represent a cross-section of the most important luthiers from the era of the six-string guitar's introduction in southern Spain to its adoption in wider Europe, Great Britain, North and South America, and Asia.

SFCM's Guitar Department features world-class instructors like Chair David Tanenbaum, Marc Teicholz (first-prize at the berberInternational Guitar Foundation of America Competition), internationally renowned performer and instructor Meng Su, and historical guitar specialist Richard Savino. Aside from solo and ensemble performances opportunities, Guitar students are frequently invited to record on historic instruments from the Harris Guitar Collection—which are kept in a secure, climate-controlled display in the Ann Getty Center's atrium—for videos and albums.

The Harris Guitar Collection's 1949 Barbero guitar.

The newest addition to the Collection, this 1949 Marcelo Barbero guitar was made in Madrid and features a spruce top and Brazilian rosewood back and sides. For years, it was the performance guitar of 20th-century Spanish composer and guitarist Quintín Esquembre. Barbero passed his style and methods to another luthier, Arcángel Fernández, and the Harris Collection also features one of Fernández's guitars from 1962.

The back of the Harris Guitar Collection's 1949 Barbero guitar.

Barbero (1904-1956) was one of the most influential classical and flamenco Spanish-style guitar makers of the 20th century. He began as a sweep-up boy in José Ramirez I's shop and was subsequently trained by Ramirez's son after the elder man's death in 1923. However, Barbero was most influenced by Santos Hernández and finished a number of Hernández's guitars after his death in 1943. (The Collection has a Hernández from 1930,  formerely owned by the Romero family.) Today, Barbero guitars are extremely valuable and sell online for anywhere from $12,000 to north of $40,000.

A close-up of the label and soundhole decoration (rosette) of the 1949 Barbero.

The Collection was donated by guitar aficionado and artist/author L. John Harris. Below, he and Teicholz weigh in on what makes the Barbero so special.

"When David Tanenbaum, Marc Teicholz and I first encountered the 1949 Barbero in the spring of 2024 and compared it to the Collection's 1947 Barbero, we immediately acknowledged that the '49 rosewood 'negra' Barbero would be a better fit for the collection than the '47 cypress 'blanca,'" Harris explains. "Not because of the sound alone—we fell in love with the dark, resonant tone of the '49 over the lighter percussive tone of the '47—but because the set-up, style, and materials of the guitar were more in keeping with the classical orientation of the collection."

Citing the Barbero's "delicate, honeyed, and nuanced tone," Teicholz chose the guitar as one of two on "opposite ends of the spectrum" to record two movements from Joaquín Turina's Cinco Danzas Gitanas, Op. 55. "For the more extroverted movements we used the Collection's 1984 Miguel Rodriguez, and I am not sure that I have ever encountered a more explosive, testosterone-fueled sports car of a guitar," he explains. Calling the Barbero "the yang to the Rodriguez's yin," Teicholz used the older guitar for the more delicate movements, adding, "I have no doubt that my playing was influenced by the two guitars' contrasting characters."

Learn more about studying guitar at SFCM.