Brandon Scott Besharah: acoustic fingerstyle guitar, saxophone, clarinet and banjo.
"Outrageously talented!" is how Kingston's All Folks Festival described Brandon Scott Besharah.
Nirada/Sony recording artist and guitarist, Don Ross, says that Brandon is "an impressive performer...a bright light on the acoustic guitar frontier."
The Toronto Celtic Society quotes, "Brandon's heavy wood energy is an easy match for Ashley MacIsaac's frenetic fiddling."
The Amazing Kreskin had this to say about Brandon's song composed in his honour with wordsmith Lizzy Shanks: "The song is called the Amazing, but you tell them, they're amazing, these people really did some job! I'm going out to have a ball this next week when I come to Toronto"(the trip he was referring to was to host Besharah's CD release at Toronto's Glenn Gould Theatre.)
John Northcott, host of CBC's Entertainment Tonight, said in reference to Brandon that, "when you cross a jazz saxophone player with a guitarist, the result is some remarkable guitar work!"
Brandon has studied advanced acoustic guitar technique in France under Pierre Bensusan, and with Canadian guitarist Don Ross for two years. Brandon also studied Jazz theory under New York based musician Barry Harris through his workshops, and saxophone under Kirk MacDonald.
Through the North Toronto school of music, and privately, Brandon has been teaching Guitar, flute, clarinet, saxophone and music theory for over 25 years.
Brandon has performed with Don Thompson, Oliver Schroer, Don Ross, Haygood Hardy, Guido Basso, Mae Moore, Pat LaBarbara to name but a few. He has also shared performances with Jeff Healey, Colin James, Lighthouse, Albert King, Michelle Wright, Jane Bennet and many more well established artists.
Brandon has provided over 300 original compositions that include 24 string quartet pieces, a retail acoustic guitar package for Sound Ideas , Rock, Jazz, Funk and World Library music for CTV Music and many thematic titles for use in feature films.
He has made several appearances on all the major television networks and has had his music video "Try" played regularly on Much Music.
Brandon's instrumental prowess was also featured on the 1998 Juno Award winning album by Judy and David. He had also composed the theme for the 2001 Juno Awards. Brandon has been awarded several Ontario Arts Council, Factor and VideoFact Grants for several projects during his career.
He had won the award for Best Performer of the year on CIUT's "Acoustic Workshop" radio show.
Brandon has also spent two years working for Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines as a member of their orchestra, and as assistant Musical Director, traveling all over the world performing music.
