About Me

Robert Clark Laidlaw

Classical & Improvisational Guitar
Photo taken in my late twenties

My nickname has been Tito ever since my birth in Mexico City in the earliest days of my parents’ marriage.

I've played classical and improvisational guitar since age thirteen. My repertoire spans from fifteenth century vihuela and lute transcriptions to twentieth century music written expressly for the guitar. My improvisations blend classical, flamenco, and jazz ideas.

At age seventeen I had the honor of studying with Alexander Bellow at his home in New York City who taught me how to extend awareness of my body to the instrument.

In my early twenties, I also had the honor of studying improvisation privately with the legendary Ran Blake, head of Third Stream Music at New England conservatory who taught me how to connect my imagination to the instrument.

Their combined mastery forms the conceptual basis of my technique.

Slide from GUITAR PRESO

Senior Guitar Recital

February 26, 1974

Taft School, Watertown, Connecticut

Culmination of semester-long independent study