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Avril Kinsey was born in 1955 in the United Kingdom. In 1956 her parents moved to Cape Town, South Africa where she spent her formative years studying classical guitar, piano and dancing. She later completed a Teachers Licentiate Diploma in Music at the University of Cape Town before being awarded a scholarship to attend the Spanish Santiago de Compostela guitar master classes under the direction of Jose Tomas in 1979. She has studied with many internationally renowned guitarists and teachers, including Alice Artzt, Narciso Yepes, Ernesto Bitetti, Carlos Bonell, and Christopher Parkening. In 2011 she completed a research Masters of Music degree cum laude from the University of Cape Town. She is the recipient of numerous awards including the Jules Kramer Fine Arts and Music Scholarship, the KW Johnstone Research Bursary and the Adcock Ingram Classical Guitar Competition First Prize. Her doctoral degree studies in music composition commenced in 2013.

Her performing career has taken her to Singapore, Malaysia, Portugal, Spain, Holland, Belgium, Austria, Germany, Denmark, England, Scotland, North America, Greece and Italy, many of which led to numerous live radio and television broadcasts. In 1988 she made her orchestral debut with the National Symphony Orchestra performing Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez under the baton of Garcia Asensio. Performing with the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra in 1996 she accompanied Luciano Pavarotti during the Cape Town visit of his world tour. Kinsey has presented papers at the Royal Academy of Music (UK), Mannes College, The New School for Music (USA), The Volterra Project (Italy), South African Society for Research in Music, The Cape Town International Guitar Festival and at the inaugural opening of the International Guitar Research Centre (Surrey University, UK) in 2014.

Kinsey has composed over 35 works for, and including, the classical guitar. Most have been published by Art Music Editions and many recorded on the Art Music label. Her works have been featured in television documentaries and radio programs (SABCTV, BBC Radio and TV, Austrian Radio) and KPFK Radio in the USA. Several of her guitar works include the re-creation of bird calls and the sounds of ethnic African instruments.

Kinsey is the author of two music books Guitar Music from Africa and Guitar on Safari and the performer on five compact discs including Guitar Music from Africa. Her writings and articles have been published in Classical Guitar (UK) and Soundboard (USA). Her research interests are guitar pedagogy, collaboration methodologies, socio-cultural functions of music and organizational communication in music institutions. Kinsey is the founding director of the Cape Town Academy of Music and the Cape Town International Guitar Festival. She is an established international teacher in the fields of guitar pedagogy and music artistry.

http://mysite.mweb.co.za/residents/akinsey/akinseybio.html