Dirck Nagy
Dirck Nagy hails from a long line of frustrated musicians of German and Hungarian origin. Although he was raised in rural Colorado, some of his childhood was spent in Austria and Hungary, where he acquired a taste for "spätzle" and paprika.
He holds a Master of Music degree from the University of Northern Colorado, where he also taught Music Theory and conducted a guitar ensemble. His principal teachers were Steve Waechter and Jonathan Leathwood (guitar), R. Evan Copley and John McLaird (composition) and Jack Herrick (horn). He has also studied guitar with John Holmquist, Ricardo Iznaola and Javier Calderon, and performed in master classes for William Kanengiser, Evangelos Assimakopoulos, and Kevin Gallagher, among others.
Dirck currently lives in La Crosse, Wisconsin, where he teaches guitar and plays an occasional recital. He is an active composer and arranger whose compositions were recently featured in the "Contemporary Music Series" and "Pedagogy Forum" of Soundboard, the Journal of the Guitar Foundation of America. His compositions include chamber music involving guitar, as well as solo piano, brass, and vocal music. Works in progress include a large choral piece and a guitar concerto.
In addition to his musical pursuits, he has been a carpenter, a cook, a warehouse manager, and a professional athletic trainer, coaching Alpine ski racing at international levels of competition.
Education
- Bachelor of Arts, University of Colorado, Denver
- Bachelor of Music, University of Northern Colorado
- Master of Music, University of Northern Colorado
- Significant coursework towards a DMA, University of Wisconsin, Madison
