Today we’d like to introduce you to Evan Taucher.
Evan, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I’ve loved making music for as long as I can remember. When I was six years old, I began playing the piano after begging my parents for one. For the next six years, I studied classical piano and entered piano competitions. When I began middle school, I started playing alto saxophone and began growing tired of practicing the piano.
During high school, I continued playing the saxophone, but I learned that many other people in the band and orchestra program played guitar. My best friend had a guitar lying around and we would take turns playing video games. Whenever it wasn’t my turn to play the game, I’d try to pluck through melodies or songs I’d heard on the guitar.
Something drew me to it. Something about the way the strings vibrated the wood of the guitar spoke to me like none of the other instruments I played did. It still does. Guitar quickly became my main focus. I borrowed my friend’s guitar and eventually my parents bought me one of my own for my birthday.
From that moment on, I spent every day and night playing guitar, reading about guitar, thinking about guitar, and meeting others that felt the same. I was very fortunate to be around so many passionate, curious, and intelligent musicians at just my local public school.
Then, I went off to college after being accepted to Florida State University. I knew that they had a great music program, but as far as guitar went, only a classical guitar program, and I hadn’t tried that style yet. After my first year of college and not yet declaring a major, I decided in the summer of 2011 to take a classical guitar lesson.
My preconceived notion of classical guitar was that it was for boring, slow music. I quickly found out that I was wrong. Classical guitar turned out to be an interesting mix between everything I’d love. I’ll explain – most of high school, I played electric guitar, focusing on instrumental music and a lot of the faster side of playing, I suppose like most teenagers. But later, I’d began playing acoustic (steel string) guitar and enjoyed the idea of making everything without the assistance of pedals and amps, but I just wasn’t as fast with it.
Once I began studying classical guitar, I learned about so much of the beautiful repertoire. The music of Tarrega, Barrios, Villa-Lobos and so many others struck me. Not only was some of it virtuosic and therefore incredibly expressive, but it had depth to it like I hadn’t heard before. It might have been my early childhood memories of hearing my grandfather play the music of Chopin, Mozart, and Brahms on the piano that brought classical guitar full circle to me. Whatever it was, I was in love and knew from that first lesson that I had to pursue this sound.
And that’s really what leads me to today. Since then, I’ve put my all into my craft every day and every night. I am more in love with making music than ever, and in this short career I’ve already had the chance to meet and work with so many of my heroes. And I’m fortunate to work with passionate students, colleagues and masters of the guitar every day.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
There have definitely been struggles along the way. Most of them are in regards to sacrifice. The strange thing about it is that when it comes to pursuing a passion, sacrifice seems to come naturally but you hardly realize the consequences of the sacrifices until later.
Ever since starting classical guitar, I always felt the need to be catching-up to others. I began studying the classical guitar at the university level which is very difficult because I was surrounded by people that had been studying already for many years. So, the past ten years of my life haven’t been normal by any stretch of the definition.
When it came to my time at university, every decision became a calculated cost-benefit analysis. There was no practice time to spare, but somehow I still needed to pass my classes and make enough money to stay afloat. That being said, I quickly excelled at the guitar. If my professor at the time, Bruce Holzman asked me to practice something, I did so, ten times over and then some. Of my own accord, I was practicing seven to nine hours a day; something that later I realized was likely unnecessary. The only way to accomplish this was to get little to no sleep and pass up on almost every extraneous opportunity that presented itself. I would often stay in the practice rooms till five or six in the morning and catch class only a few hours later. So obviously, I was falling asleep in my classes, failing my exams, losing my scholarships and overall being a terrible student (except in my guitar classes of course!).
At the end of the day, I was willing to sacrifice anything for practice time and this chance at having a shot at doing what I love. Oftentimes, this meant jeopardizing friendships and relationships as well. My roommates at the time had a running joke that went something like “Oh, Evan can’t come because he has to practice”. All of this being said, I don’t regret a second of it. In fact, much of the sacrifice I believe was in fact needed. However, now I have the privilege of sharing my experiences to mentor and guide the next generation of guitarists to help steer them in a healthier direction that works in parallel with what they’re trying to achieve.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Something I’m passionate about is sharing my journey, music, and experiences with others both on stage and online. Within a few months of starting to study the classical guitar, I began making videos sharing my experience with others because I knew one day others may find it useful. I’ve kept this promise to myself and to those who follow and support me because ultimately, it’s something I love to do, and it brings the community a bit closer, and fortunately I’ve built a following doing so!
Having a foot in both worlds has always been important to me. While I began building a social media presence, I didn’t want to be known just for that. I wanted to build a fanbase alongside a career. After all, social media was never what I was passionate about. It’s simply a tool to share and connect with others. This is the same premise I still operate on today.
Social media is actually what has connected myself and some of my closest friends and colleagues that I worked with today, two of which being Hannah Murphy and Phil Goldenberg. In the past couple of years, we co-founded a 501(c)(3) nonprofit called Ex-Aequo Artists. We are just finishing up a visual album and documentary titled “Changing the Canon” where we commissioned nine new works for the guitar by nine Black American composers. Each of these will be recorded and published. We gained the support of both the Augustine Foundation as well as the Rainwater Grant for Innovation. Just before this, we hosted the first virtual guitar festival and the largest online guitar competition to date, with over 150 competitors in a single category. Through our artist collective, we aim to set the bar for the next generation of musicians around the world.
If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
A strong work ethic and a fairly high openness to experience is undoubtedly what has led me to where I am today. I have my parents, family, and peers to ultimately thank for that. I also strongly believe that you have to work extremely hard to fall into situations in which you “get lucky”. I’ve also constantly chosen to surround myself with people I want to learn to be more like. The old adage is correct: you are the sum of the five people you’re closest to. That being said, you can learn something from absolutely anyone. This is what I believe to be the difference between people who end up being miserable as opposed to living a joy-filled life. There is beauty and knowledge within every person, place, and thing you encounter.
Contact Info:
- Email: evantaucher@gmail.com
- Website: www.evantaucher.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/evantaucher/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/evantaucher
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/evantaucher
