About

Ken Pasciak is a guitarist, composer, arranger and music theorist.

Ken’s diverse musical interests have led to roles with ensembles of various styles, ranging from classical to jazz standards and fusion to progressive rock. He was a founding member of the Vermont based tango quintet, La Rebelión del Tango, which specialized in the works of Astor Piazzolla, and was also a member of an eclectic guitar-accordion duo, The Leading Tones Project, which performed a refined blend of various musical styles. As a solo performer, Ken specializes in classical guitar and performs a diverse repertoire that includes works by Fernando Sor, Matteo Carcassi and Leo Brouwer, plus a variety of original arrangements and compositions.

As a guitar teacher, Ken believes that students, given the proper musical tools, will not only excel to achieve their performance goals, but can flourish as musicians. Lessons focus on the acquisition and development of playing techniques, music theory as it applies to the guitar, and the application of these to students’ interests, for example, jazz improvisation, crafting solos or riffs, or accompanying vocalists and other instrumentalists.

As a composer, Ken specializes in music for solo guitar and other small ensembles, experimenting with extended and altered harmonies, utilizing open strings in novel ways, and employing keys not commonly found in the guitar repertoire. His composition, Eight Octatonic Studies, explores the octatonic collection as a source of pitch material outside of a traditional tonal context, leading to haunting melodies and eccentric harmonies. In 2019, he founded a music publishing business that specializes in arrangements for guitar and ensembles with guitar in various genres and styles.

Ken is a graduate of the University of Buffalo and holds degrees in engineering and music. He earned a Master’s degree in music theory from the University of Massachusetts. His thesis, “A Transformational Approach to Japanese Traditional Music of the Edo Period,” develops a novel voice-leading space that yields insights into musical intervallic structure, trichordal transposition and hexachordal voice leading. Ken is currently an affiliate artist at Middlebury College and teaches private lessons on guitar and in music theory in Vermont.

Lessons           Tango Rebellion           The Leading Tones Project           Sheet Music