Vicki Genfan - Biography

Biography

Vicki Genfan took up the guitar at the age of five. Her father played 12-string guitar, mandolin and fiddle and had a good voice, her older brother played guitar too. She studied classical music and jazz at Ithaca College in New York. Besides guitar Genfan plays piano, banjo, hand percussion and trombone.

1994 she produced her first album Native on cassette, but didn't sell it in commercially significant numbers. 2001 her equally self - produced CD Outside the Box was published. She won the Just Plain Folks Award the same year for her the title song, "New Grass" on that album. 2003, Vicki Genfan Live was published by the German label Acoustic Music Records, a live-recording at Open Strings Festival in Osnabrück, Germany. 2004 Vicki Genfan placed second at Mountain Stage New Song Festival in West Virginia with her song Eleanor. In 2006 Genfan published the double CD Up Close & Personal. The first CD is titled Up Close and contains only instrumentals, the second CD Personal showcases her singing and songwriting abilities.

Vicki Genfan was on stage with several well-known fellow guitarists, for example Tommy Emmanuel, Laurence Juber, Kaki King and Jennifer Batten. Because of her technique and lyrical way of playing and singing she was compared to Michael Hedges or Pat Metheny. Vicki Genfan featured in several American and international magazines and was labeled "Queen of Open Tunings".

Genfan won Guitar Player magazine's Guitar Superstar '08 contest at San Francisco's Great American Music Hall in September 2008.

While not on tour abroad she gives concerts in the northeastern United States. She is an experienced teacher, lectures at workshops and guitar clinics and teaches private lessons. Recently she works on a guitar video featuring her music and technique and plans to publish a book with her music.

Genfan lives in Fairview, New Jersey.