Tommy Emmanuel Clinic


Tommy Emmanuel Clinic

This event is not open to the public. Admission only with Berklee ID. Event details are available to Berklee community members who sign in at berklee.net.

Two-time Grammy nominee Tommy Emmanuel has a professional career that spans over four decades and continues to intersect with some of the finest musicians throughout the world. A household name in his native Australia, Emmanuel has garnered hundreds of thousands of loyal fans worldwide. Tommy's unique style—he calls it simply "finger style"—is akin to playing guitar the way a pianist plays piano, using all ten fingers.

Guitar legend Chet Atkins was one of the first to inspire Emmanuel to pick up the guitar as a child. Decades later, Atkins himself became one of Emmanuel's biggest fans. In 1999, Chet honored Tommy Emmanuel with the title of "Certified Guitar Player" for his lifetime contribution to the instrument, a rare honor shared by only three other people in the world (Jerry Reed, Steve Wariner, and John Knowles). Atkins eventually recorded with Emmanuel in 1996 on The Day the Finger Pickers Took Over the World, for which Emmanuel received his first Grammy award nomination. This was also Atkins's last recording.