Alan Rinehart has made many contributions to the guitar world as a performer, teacher, and music editor. Completing studies at Western Michigan University and a Professional Music Training Diploma from Vancouver Community College, he studied lute repertoire and technique in London, England at the Early Music Centre with Anthony Rooley, Jakob Lindberg, Nigel North and Emma Kirkby. In 1980 he gave a critically acclaimed London debut which was described by GUITAR INTERNATIONAL magazine as: "consistently clean and musical...he has a pleasantly relaxed stage manner which won over the audience right from the word go". In addition to many concert recitals, he has performed at international music festivals in Spain, the United States, Toronto and Quebec and appeared on CBC radio and TV. He is a co�founder of The Vancouver Guitar Quartet, which became a regular part of the Vancouver and Western Canadian music scene from the late 1980s to 2003, with many concert and radio appearances. He has released three solo CDs and one CD with the Vancouver Guitar Quartet that have received international critical praise; Renaissance Masters and Latin Romantics in 1981, Musical Banquet in 2000, The Golden Century in 2010 and Estampas with the VGQ in 1999. From 1983 to 2003 he was a faculty member of the music schools at the University of British Columbia and Vancouver Community College He moved to Nelson in 2004 where in addition to hosting The Art and Times of the Guitar, a look at history, music, players and news from the world of the classical guitar on Kootenay Coop Radio he taught at the Nelson Academy of Music, was a member of the Board of the Nelson and District Arts Council, was music director of the TD Bank Sunday Coffee concert series at the Kootenay Gallery in Castlegar from 2007-2010 and was the coordinator of the 19th Northwest Guitar Festival, a 3 day event which was held in Nelson April 16-18, 2009. He currently lives in Kelowna B.C. “fluent technique...all the allure one could ask” The Times of London "The playing was consistently clean and musical with a good regard for sound, and he has a pleasantly relaxed manner which won over the audience right from the word go." GUITAR INTERNATIONAL magazine, London, England, (London Debut, The Purcell Room)