Kevin David Harding

Guitarist and teacher Kevin Harding has a Master’s in Guitar Performance from Virginia Commonwealth University’s Jazz Studies program. Kevin has been an adjunct professor of music at the University of Richmond since 1996, Virginia Commonwealth University since 2005, and Randolph-Macon College since 2008. He teaches performing ensembles, guitar lessons, and a variety of lecture classes. Before becoming a teacher he performed in Vienna, Berlin, Zurich, Ottawa and Boston nightclubs. He has also played more recently in Cuba and Brazil. In 1997, he was a guest performer at the Eighth Festival de Guitarra in Lima, Peru. 

In addition to his studies at VCU, Kevin has taken lessons in West Africa on the kora (21 string harp-lute) with the Gambian jali (praise singer) Alhaji Papa Susso. He has also studied privately with Brazilian master guitarists Romero Lubambo and Toninho Horta and in Rio de Janeiro with choro guitarist Bilinho Teixeira.

In 2003, Kevin founded the Richmond-based Brazilian quartet, Quatro na Bossa, with vocalist Laura Ann Singh. In addition to regular local performances, the group has played at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C., and two, week-long engagements at Dizzy’s Club (Jazz at Lincoln Center) in Manhattan. Also in New York, Quatro na Bossa recorded their first CD for the Japanese label, Venus Records, in August 2007.

As a jazz musician, Kevin has played numerous gigs with Doug Richard’s repertory jazz orchestra, The Great American Music Ensemble, at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., and elsewhere, including a two-hour, live radio broadcast from National Public Radio studio 4-A. Two of those gigs featured legendary bassist Milt Hinton; one featured Dr. Frank Foster of the Count Basie Orchestra. In smaller groups, Kevin has performed with bebop pianist Barry Harris, trumpeter Clark Terry, violinist Joe Kennedy Jr., and singer Rene Marie.