Hailed for their “extraordinary technique and musicianship,” Duo 220 has established a firm position at the forefront of American guitar ensembles. Drawing inspiration from their predecessors while also looking forward, Duo 220 strives to create programs that are new, fresh and accessible through a mixture of both standards and lesser-known works in the guitar duo repertoire, inventive and effective transcriptions, and newly commissioned works by young composers, with an emphasis on reaching as broad an audience as possible. Stroud and Larison have received enthusiastic responses from audiences across the U.S. and abroad headlining in such venues as the Texas A&M International Guitar Symposium, The Louisville International Guitar Festival, The Wilmington Guitar Society, the Corsham Arts Festival (U.K.), The Sierra Nevada Guitar Society, Guitar Sarasota, and the Troy University Guitar Festival. Established in 2007, Duo 220 received a highly transformative series of coachings from Sergio Assad of the Assad Duo in 2008.
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About a recent performance from Adam Larison, Cleveland Classical wrote, “Larison played a beautifully delineated, soaring melody with lovely variety in dynamics, especially in the final fade to nothingness.” As a soloist, he has performed across the U.S. and abroad including in the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Tignes Space (Tignes, France), the Cleveland Guitar Society, the New Mexico International Guitar Festival, the Cincinnati Guitar Society, and Guitar Sarasota. He has performed North American and world premieres of works by Georg Friedrich Haas, Robert Morris, and Sebastian Anthony Birch. Adam currently serves on the faculty of Kent State University in Ohio where he teaches both on the Stark Campus and in the Hugh A. Glauser School of Music. He most recently served as a guest clinician for the Greater Cincinnati Guitar Society, the Servite Ensemble Festival, and as a guest adjudicator for the Texas A&M International Guitar Competition, the Youngstown State Concerto Competition, and the Tuesday Musical Scholarship competition at the University of Akron. His formative teachers were Louis Critchfiled, John Truitt, Mickey Jones, Bruce Holzman, Sergio Assad, Judicael Perroy, Nicholas Goluses, and Paul Odette.
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Andrew Stroud began studying the classical guitar with his father while living in Bath, England.
His teachers have included composer Thomas Coffey, renowned American performer Stephen Robinson, French virtuoso Judicaël Perroy, and Bruce Holzman. He holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Stetson University. He completed both Master of Music degree and Doctor of Music degrees at Florida State University. At FSU, Stroud was awarded three consecutive graduate teaching assistantships. He has performed in the master classes of Oscar Ghiglia, the Assad Duo, Paul Galbraith, Roland Dyens, Eduardo Fernandez, Paco Pena, Lorenzo Micheli, Matteo Mela, the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet and many other world renowned musicians.
Andrew has won accolades at many international competitions including the Columbus State Guitar Symposium, Guitare Lachine Competition (Montreal), Rosario Competition (Columbia, SC), Schadt International Concerto Competition (Allentown, PA), the Dr. Luis Sigall Competition (Vina del Mar, Chile), Guitar Foundation of America Competition, and the Christopher Parkening Competition (Malibu, CA), the world’s largest prize guitar competition.
As a soloist, Andrew has enjoyed performing in a wide array of venues. Among them are the Festival Mediterreano della Chitarra in Italy, featured solo performances in West Palm Beach’s Gala Concert and a performance at the Veteran World Fencing Championships Gala. As a Chamber Musician, he has performed in diverse roles ranging from orchestral music to opera. He has been featured on local and national broadcasts on television and NPR. In 2009, Andrew made his South American debut, giving master classes and concerts in Chile. He has been a featured soloist on series such as the Seven Hills Guitar Series, Guitar Sarasota, and the Troy University Guitar Festival.
Among his other endeavors have been lectures, master classes and teaching.. He has recorded for the Hands on Teaching method, and has authored articles published in Soundboard magazine. He served on the faculty of Wallace Community College as instructor and department chair, where he founded the WCC International Artist Series. He has reviewed texts for W.W. Norton and Co. and in 2012, Lambert Academic Publishing published his book, Johann Kaspar Mertz and Style Hongrois. In 2017, he was appointed director of the lauded guitar program at Servite High School in Anaheim, CA.
Duo 220 performs on guitars by David Whiteman.