John Culwell, D.M.A.

John Culwell is a classical guitarist, educator, and artistic director whose work bridges performance, scholarship, and community engagement. He performs faculty and guest recitals, chamber concerts, orchestral appearances, and premieres new music for guitar. His engagements include appearances with the Greater Anderson Musical Arts Consortium. He has also appeared with (GAMAC) and the Atlanta Guitar Guild, as well as projects at New York Live Arts Theatre and international tours in Spain with the Giannini String Quartet and clarinetist Oskar Espina-Ruiz. Most recently, he performed Joaquín Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez with the Anderson Symphony Orchestra. He is the winner of the University of Georgia Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition (2021).

Dr. Culwell serves as Adjunct Instructor of Guitar at Anderson University, where he teaches applied lessons and class guitar and directs the AU Guitar Ensemble. His teaching emphasizes functional musicianship, stylistic flexibility, and the ability to perform confidently in both solo and ensemble settings. He is also the Founder and Director of the Anderson Guitar Society, which presents concerts, masterclasses, and performance classes connecting students, educators, and professional artists in the region.

He earned the Doctor of Musical Arts in Guitar Performance from the University of Georgia, where he studied with Daniel Bolshoy and completed a minor in Music Theory. He served as a Teaching Assistant in Aural Skills during his doctoral studies. His dissertation, A New Approach to Reading for the Classical Guitar, presents a framework connecting aural skills and instrumental training to enhance sight-reading development.

He completed his Bachelor of Music at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, where he studied with Joseph Pecoraro and was awarded the William R. Kenan Excellence Scholarship.