Guitarist

Mgr. (MA) Miroslav Zahradník, PhD. – guitarist, composer, music theorist, music publicist, music teacher (*born in 1975 in Považská Bystrica, Slovak Republic). He commenced playing guitar as a self-taught person at secondary school, where he founded his first band. He developed his talent with the help of his friends, rock guitarists first. At that time, he admired the greats of the rock scene, such as Yngwie Malmsteen, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, John Petrucci, Eric Clapton, Gary Moore, Carlos Santana…

In 1995, during the statutory military service, he won first place in the national Army competition of artistic creativeness for playing the rock guitar. Later he expanded his knowledge of music theory and harmony in the form of extramural studies at the Žilina Conservatory in the classroom of jazz producer Arnošt Coufal (1997-1998). He completed jazz guitar courses (with David Dorúžka, Matúš Jakabčic, Stano Počaj…). The guitar players, such as Pat Metheny, Jim Hall, Wes Montgomery, Pat Martino, Bill Frisell, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Wolfgang Muthspiel, Scott Henderson, Jeff Beck, Robben Ford, etc., offered him further inspiration.

Since 2002, he has been working as a lecturer of jazz, rock and blues guitar play at the private music academy Musicana in Bratislava (Slovak Republic), since 2016 as a teacher of electric guitar at the Conservatory in Topolcany.
In 2018 he obtained a PhD. degree in modern jazz harmony at the Department of Musicology in Bratislava.

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