Brendan left his hometown of Rockport, Massachusetts at the age of 13, and has been playing and studying guitar with increasing intensity since then. Four years at Phillips Exeter Academy, where he studied with Bob Squires and Apostolos Paraskevas, led to to four years at the Oberlin Conservatory, where he studied with Steve Aron, which led to two years at the San Francisco Conservatory, where he studied with David Tanenbaum.

In the middle of his Oberlin tenure Brendan spent a very formative year studying flamenco guitar in the cities of Granada (where he studied at Carmen de las Ceuvas) and Cordoba, in the Andalusian region of Spain. He sometimes thinks about the advice he got from his last teacher in Spain, which was to “Stay in Spain and play flamenco, do not return to the states and study classical guitar.” Brendan had come to realize that to play flamenco is to live it completely, and was not willing to give up his life in the states, or put aside his growing passion for the classical guitar - he does not regret returning, but there is a lingering sense of melancholy. Perhaps one day he&rsqo;ll return to Spain.

After graduating in 2008 from the SF Conservatory with a Master’s degree, Brendan went on to win prizes in 8 consecutive competitions in the US and Canada, including 1st prizes in the Louisville and Rosario festivals. Brendan plays on a guitar made by David Pace.