International Guitar Night
About the Artists
Jim "Kimo" West
Luca Stricagnoli
Roxane Elfasci
Minnie Marks
Jim "Kimo" West is an American acoustic guitarist, composer, and producer recognized as one of the foremost modern practitioners of Hawaiian ki ho‘alu (slack-key guitar). In 2021, West won the Grammy Award for Best New Age Album for his solo recording More Guitar Stories. He is a recipient of the Hawaii Music Award and a multiple-time nominee for Hawaii's Nā Hōkū Hanohano Awards.
West has served as lead guitarist for "Weird Al" Yankovic for more than four decades. His work with Yankovic spans four Grammy-winning albums, global arena tours, and the 2014 release Mandatory Fun, which debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200. West’s original slack-key compositions and arrangements are featured regularly across film, network television, and documentary soundtracks.
Luca Stricagnoli is an Italian independent acoustic guitarist, composer, and guitar inventor based in Nashville. Through his videos and album releases, Stricagnoli has built a global audience exceeding 1 million subscribers, 250,000 streams, and more than 250 million video views across digital platforms. He also toured across over 30 countries globally as a concert artist extraordinaire.
Stricagnoli is recognized for designing his own instruments that expand the potential of the acoustic guitar, including a triple-neck acoustic and a mechanical reverse-slide neck attachment. Using simultaneous multi-hand tapping, percussive body techniques, and independent bass and melody lines, he performs his signature complex arrangements of rock, pop, and classical anthems on a single acoustic instrument.
Roxane Elfasci is a French classical guitarist, arranger, and recording artist. After completing academic studies at HEC Paris, Elfasci received formal conservatory training in classical guitar at the Pôle Supérieur de Paris. .
Elfasci established an international audience through recorded classical transcriptions, led by her solo arrangement of Claude Debussy’s "Clair de lune," which generated millions of views worldwide. In 2021, she released her debut solo album, Hommage à Debussy, followed by Poésie Française, her second solo album, and GLASS GAZE, an ambitious project featuring arrangements of Philip Glass’s piano Études for two guitars and percussion. Elfasci performs across Europe as a soloist and chamber musician. The 2027 tour marks her official United States touring debut.
Minnie Marks is an Australian blues guitarist, singer-songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist known for driving alternate-tuned slide work and foot-stomp percussion. Marks began touring nationally throughout Australia as a teenager, winning the 2011 Byron Bay Bluesfest Busking Competition and subsequent People’s Choice Awards at the Blues at Bridgetown Festival and the Nannup Music Festival.
With a catalog comprising three studio albums and a live international concert recording, Marks has completed extensive headline tours throughout Australia and Europe, sharing festival stages with artists including Keb' Mo', Joe Bonamassa, and John Butler. International Guitar Night XXVII marks her second performing arts center tour across the United States.