Mel Bay's Master Anthology of Fingerstyle Guitar Solos: Featuring Solos by the World's Finest Fingerstyle Guitarists! Vol. 1
Self-taught as a guitarist from the age of 12, Stephen Rekas was introduced to the classic guitar as a sophomore by Jerry Tertocha, a fellow student at Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois. Within a month of that meeting, Stephen traded his steel-string acoustic guitar for a nylon-string instrument. While active in Millikin's Jazz Lab Band as a trumpeter, Stephen majored in English and Biology. It wasn't until after graduation that the guitar became a full-time avocation. He took his first formal guitar lessons from Bernard Windt, a cellist and amateur luthier in Ashland, Oregon. While living in Oregon, Stephen met classic guitarist and lutenist, Karl Herreshoff and was inspired to study the guitar seriously.In January of 1972, on a lead from Herreshoff and new age composer Ray Lynch, Stephen traveled to Barcelona, Spain to study the guitar with composer/guitarist Eduardo Sainz de la Maza. "I immediately learned how ignorant I was about the guitar," he said of his first lessons with the maestro. What began as a one-year student-teacher commitment ended up becoming a decade-long sojourn including additional studies with Maria Luisa Anido and masterclasses with Emilio Pujol and José Tomás. "Just as Paris was Hemmingway's Moveable Feast, Spain was for me a New World of music, language, relationships, and visual and culinary delights."Stephen returned to academia at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville. There he earned additional bachelor's degrees in music theory/comp, guitar performance, and Spanish literature followed by a master's degree in guitar performance. Stephen's formal music education culminated with the completion of the post-graduate program in "Composition for the Film and Television Industry" at the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles.Since February of 1996, Stephen has been employed by Mel Bay Publications where he enjoys a multi-faceted position; he compiles and edits Mel Bay's monthly webzine Guitar Sessions, and also reviews new book submissions, cultivates artist/author relations, and edits guitar and mandolin publications.