Like a lot of kids in his generation, Scott Cmiel’s interest in the guitar started with the Beatles. After seeing A Hard Day’s Night, he got a job delivering newspapers so he could earn the money needed to buy his first guitar. He has been making music ever since, first in rock bands and folk groups, and later as a classical guitarist. A natural teacher by inclination, he began instructing others while still in his teens. Decades later, he is widely acclaimed as an inspirational instructor of students and the guiding force behind SFCM’s Pre-College and Continuing Education guitar programs for years.

Scott Cmiel.

It may surprise Cmiel's younger students that he didn’t come to classical guitar until, as a sophomore at Northwestern University earning a biology degree, he heard Andrés Segovia play a recital at Chicago’s Orchestra Hall. He immediately added a music minor to his studies and subsequently played guitar and lute in ensembles while an undergrad; after graduating, he began teaching at the Chicago Conservatory College. Wanting to further his studies he went to SFCM where two students of Andrés Segovia, Michael Lorimer and George Sakellariou, had established its Guitar Department in 1964, the same year Cmiel took up the instrument.

The guitar was just becoming a respected instrument in the classical world and, though there were a handful of professionals who played at a high level, there was no established tradition of pedagogy and guitar students' technical faculties weren't usually on par with orchestral musicians. Cmiel remembers, “Collegiate Guitar Department Chair David Tanenbaum was a student at the time and was a notable exception… we were all amazed by his ability.”

“I remember paying really close attention to the teachers of violin and cello and piano,” Cmiel said of his early days at the Conservatory. “I studied pedagogy with Irene Sharp, who had an international reputation as a cello teacher. Because of this work and my experience teaching in Chicago I was hired to teach in the Pre-College almost as soon as I arrived at SFCM. I was convinced that in addition to teaching technical control our goal should be to nurture well-rounded musicians, so I also taught musicianship and later became chair of the musicianship program.”

Cmiel continued, “I like the variety of people I work with and accept students between the ages of five and 85. I love the Conservatory; it encourages people to find their own way, and the idea that every student is unique, so you have to treat each student differently.” Pre-College students are encouraged to determine for themselves what role music should play in their lives and are not pressured to follow music as a career. Of course Continuing Education students already have a wide variety of careers and are simply looking for ways to express their love of music."

Cmiel’s approach has paid off: His students have received scholarships at some of the most prestigious music schools in the country, as well as elite academic institutions like Harvard, MIT, Northwestern University, Stanford, UC Berkeley and Yale University. Among the most visible of his students is Julian Lage, a jazz guitarist who came through the Pre-College program en route to becoming one of the most respected and popular instrumentalists working. “Julian came in playing blues but he wanted to learn classical guitar,” Cmiel remembers. “Some on the audition committee were dubious but I was convinced he had talent, offered to teach him myself, and couldn’t be more pleased with my decision given his immense subsequent accomplishments.”

The SFCM Guitar Youth Orchestra and guitar quartets are highlights of the Pre-College, and it’s a program Cmiel has built up over decades. “The guitar world, when I began, was very much a soloist’s world,” he recalls. “I got involved in ensemble playing after I heard the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet and thought, ‘We should do this for our students.’ At first, he said, he was dogged by the guitar’s reputation as a late-comer to the classical world: “Some people felt, ‘The chamber music program is for string quartets,’ so I just started rehearsing groups on my own, putting together students, and taking 15 minutes out of this private lesson, 15 minutes out of that lesson, to create time when students could work together and it proved very worthwhile. The guitarist William Kanengiser once said to me, ‘As a soloist, you learn how to be a great performer. But playing with other people is how you learn how to be a great musician.’” 

“Ensembles also build community,” Cmiel continues, “just getting the students together helps them both musically and socially, and helps them understand a little bit more about what being a musician is and how you have to create a community to be a musician” You don’t have to look any further than the faculty to see proof of the community: the Pre-College guitar faculty Angelica Artelt, Theresa Calpotura, Jon Mendle, Mark Simons, and Ross Thompson are each accomplished teachers in their own right. The Collegiate guitar faculty David Tanenbaum, Richard Savino, Meng Su and Marc Teicholz give masterclasses and have invited Pre-College students to join them in concert. Scott’s son Matthew, an SFCM graduate, teaches conducting in the program. 

Reflecting back on four decades of teaching, Cmiel sees his focus has shifted away from playing pedagogical catch-up to an emphasis on encouraging unique personal expression and developing community. “For the longest time I was interested in closing the gap between the guitarists and the more established instruments. But to tell you the truth, I think we've done that. Our students regularly win top awards in national and international competitions and have been featured on national radio and television. SFCM is a wonderful place to learn to be a musician.” 

Learn more about SFCM's Guitar, Pre-College, and Continuing Education departments.