Fundraiser with guitarist Tom Rasely

The singer/songwriter will lead a fundraiser for the Earlville Opera House on Friday.

EARLVILLE, N.Y. » Renowned musician Tom Rasely will perform a fundraiser for the EarlvilleOperaHouseonFriday, May 4 at 7 p.m.

Rasely performs a unique experience of instrumental guitar music: A relaxing finger-style that blends elements of classical, bossa, folk, and pop. He offers original songs and fresh arrangements of familiar and traditional folk songs, classical favorites, hymns, and Christmas carols (in season). Rasely has taught thousands of players, performed in 26 states and parts of Canada, performed at the White House twice for Christmas VIP tours, and participated in more than 80 recording projects, many as featured artist. He is originally from Central New York.

In 1964, Rasely began playing the guitar, shortly after theBeatleshit theAmerican music scene. He studied music at Onondaga Community College in Syracuse and received a Bachelor of Music Education from SUNY Fredonia (‘73).

As a teacher, Rasely has taught thousands of players: At his private studio; at the NPM Guitar Schools all across the country; as director of the Norwich Guitar School; and at the National Guitar Workshop in Connecticut. Two of his songs were featured in Fingerstyle Guitar Magazine: “Innuendo” in Issue No. 61, and “La Valse” Issue No. 64 and his arrangement of “Jupiter” (by Gustav Holst) on Fingerstyle Guitar Journal on-line. Rasely has written several guitar instruction books, including the “Chord Chart Guitar Method” (self-published), and “Types andUses of the Capo” (Mel Bay Publications).

“My music is a neo-romantic statement of melody,” Rasely said. “My goal is to create music that is (to paraphrase Broadway composer Jule Styne) melodically strong and harmonically attractive; music that someone will want to perform more than once, music that someone will want to listen to more than once. Recording allowsme to get a quality performance into the hands (and ears) of a large number of people.”

Rasely’s latest release is “Voices”, an album of 20 original instrumental songs, each of which contains some kind of vocal component. It is available at CDBaby.com, Amazon, Spotify and iTunes, and will be available at the EOH on May 4.

All tickets are $10 and 75 percent of proceeds go toward supporting the artistic mission of Opera House and preserving its historic 1892 theater.

For more information, or to purchase tickets, visit www.rasely.com, www. earlvilleoperahouse.com or call 315-691-3550. The Opera House is located at 18 E. Main St., Earlville.