Richard Pinnell
Guitar / Music History
332 Center for the Arts
rpinnell@uwlax.edu
BIOGRAPHY:
Dr. Richard Pinnell serves the Department in areas of music history and guitar instruction, at the rank of Professor. Having come to UW-L in 1984, he previously taught at Los Angeles Valley College and the University of Wisconsin —Stevens Point. He was trained at the University of Utah and Brigham Young University (B.A., M.A.), and he completed the Ph.D. at UCLA, where his pioneering research was on the Baroque guitar. He subsequently published the first guitar history of that era, entitled Francesco Corbetta and the Baroque Guitar, with a Transcription of His Works (UMI Research Press, 1980), 2 volumes. Dr. Pinnell’s research and published articles on aspects of the guitar led to his Fulbright senior research fellowship in Buenos Aires and Montevideo during 1989-90. As a result of his research abroad and the support several university research grants and two sabbaticals, he was able to publish The Rioplatense Guitar: The Early Guitar in Argentina and Uruguay (The Bold Strummer, 1993). Dr. Pinnell served a term as Department Chair during the NASM review, which he conducted; thereby the Department received its national accreditation. Before coming to UW-L, Dr. Pinnell established the first applied guitar degree in the UW-System at Stevens Point , in either jazz or classical guitar. He subsequently brought both instrumental tracks to UW-L: a student may specialize in either jazz guitar (mainstream studies culminating in the style of Joe Pass ) or classical guitar (with emphasis on the recital repertoire of Andres Segovia). Moreover, Dr. Pinnell also teaches the history core (classes in each of the musical periods) and the music history electives.