Biography

Dr. Connie Sheu is a dynamic guitarist, devoted teacher, and ardent advocate of classical guitar. In demand as both a soloist and chamber musician, her playing has been hailed by the New York Sun as “excellent, ruminative... scholarly." According to Classical Guitar Magazine, “Her debut recording displays, without a doubt, her talents as a concert artist.”

Past performances have brought her to Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, 92nd StY, Merkin Hall, Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall; venues in Moldova, Italy, Hungary; and across the United States. She is a frequent performer on various concert series and music festivals, and has appeared at the Women in Guitar Festival, New York Guitar Festival, University of Washington Guitar Workshop, Denver Guitar Festival, and Guitar Foundation of America International Convention. Dr. Sheu also adjudicates for various competitions, including the American String Teacher’s Association Competition, Guitar Foundation of America International Youth Competition, Denver Guitar Competition, and James Stroud Classical Guitar Competition.

Dr. Sheu studied U.S. History and Music at Columbia University, and earned a Master of Music from the Juilliard School. She completed her Doctorate of Musical Arts at the University of Southern California under William Kanengiser and Pepe Romero. She also studied under scholarship at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana with Oscar Ghiglia in Siena, Italy.

Dr. Sheu performs with flutist Elise Henry as Duo Arroyo. She currently teaches at Pomona College and the Colburn School.

Concert Reviews

"Sheu presented these relatively unfamiliar works as if we were all visiting a gallery. She gave brief verbal introductions for each of the pieces on the program without ever going into excessive detail, allowing those of us on audience side to then “browse” among the selections she had prepared. In many respects the overall spirit was one of encounter, similar in nature to Kruisbrink’s musical memory of her encounter the Segovia. By all rights, these are acquaintances worthy of another visit or two."

-Steve Smoliar, Examiner.com, March 23, 2013

"Sheu's program was entitled "The Woman's Voice: Original Music for Guitar by Female Composers." This program was a unique set which illuminated the fact that history's female guitar-composers are often under appreciated...Connie Sheu is a superb character player. And, through the lens of feminism, she was able to provide a fresh perspective on the music and begin a conversation about gender equality. Sheu's capable and energetic hands provide perhaps the most convincing performances of these works today. She is a brilliant advocate for women's contribution to the guitar."

-David DeDionisio, Soundboard Magazine, Vol. 39 No. 1

"The brilliant guitarist Connie Sheu gave a revelatory recital devoted to the music of distaff composers. Emilia Giuliani-Guglielmi was a daughter of the famed Mauro Giuliani and performed with him in a duo in the last years of his life. Her Variazioni su un tema di Mercadante, Op. 9, is in very much in the virtuosic classical style of her famous father, and Sheu played it with appropriate flamboyance and panache.

The Sei preludi, Op. 46, was written in the Romantic style of Emilia’s generation. The pieces are intimate and redolent of a deeply felt solitude, and Sheu responded with an expressive rubato and warm tone. The most striking work on the program was Segovia, a neoclassical homage to the early 20th-century Spanish master, by Ida Presti, an outstanding guitarist composer well-known in midcentury."

-Scott Cmiel, San Francisco Classical Voice, July 18, 2012

"Her playing was seamless; every note was played with care."

-MaryLou Roberts, American Suzuki Journal, Vol 40 #4

"...This guitar suite by Martin, titled "Quatre pieces breves," takes full advantage of the unique sonority of the instrument, allowing the player to pierce individual notes through space with crystalline accuracy.  Connie Sheu was particularly good at this type of accenture and did an excellent job of framing the more bizarre notes meant by the composer to shock. Ms. Sheu intoned the third piece, titled "Plainte," in a ruminative and searching manner,and her measured interpretation of the final "Comme une gigue" was scholarly."

-Fred Kirshnit, New York Sun, April 14, 2006