Alumni Profile: Kahlil Sarikey

After winning Eastman School of Music's Guitar Concerto Competition, Kahlil Sarikey, '10, a classical guitarist and graduate of Buffalo State's music program, will perform with the Eastman Philharmonia in late March.

Competing against six other guitarists, Sarikey wowed the judges with his performance of “Concerto Elegiaco,” by Leo Brouwer. Each contestant performed with an Eastman pianist in front of a panel of three Eastman-associated judges. 

“They took the orchestra part and arranged it for piano,” explained Sarikey, who is now a second-year graduate student at Eastman. While Sarikey said he gets nervous before every performance, he was well-prepared for the competition which settled his nerves a little. “Once you get up there,” he said, “you just go for it.”

Sarikey transferred to Buffalo State in his sophomore year after discovering classical guitar at Finger Lakes Community College as a recording major.

“One requirement was to take classical guitar lessons,” explained Sarikey, who started playing the electric guitar in fourth grade. “I just fell in love with it.”

Sarikey is working toward a master’s in music at Eastman, and he hopes to earn his doctorate in musical arts at either Eastman or the Manhattan School of Music and eventually teach at the college level.