What is Musicarium?
Founded in 2015, Andy McKee's Musicarium is an acoustic guitar retreat focused on fingerstyle guitar technique and composition. Every summer, Andy and a team of some of the world's finest acoustic guitarists gather at unique locations in America to teach, perform, and hang out for 4 days and 4 nights with Musicarium attendees from around the world.
Musicarium has hosted such notable guitarists as Eric Johnson, Tommy Emmanuel, Jon Gomm, Antoine Dufour, Don Ross, Preston Reed, Billy McLaughlin, Calum Graham, Mike Dawes, Trevor Gordon Hall, and many more.
In previous years, Musicarium has been located in Big Indian, NY, Petaluma, CA, Cambria, CA, Santa Rosa, Ca, Nashville, TN, and Lawrence, KS. 2026 will see Musicarium in Moab, Utah.
Structure of Musicarium
Musicarium is focused on modern fingerstyle guitar performance and composition. There are typically 3 renowned fingerstyle guitar instructors along with Andy at Musicarium each year.
Along with the primary instructors, special guests make an appearance at Musicarium. Special guests are not necessarily from the fingerstyle genre, or even guitarists per se, and have included; guitarist Eric Johnson, luthier Michael Greenfield, film composer Vince DiCola and videographer Randy Lutge, who has a unique archive of Michael Hedges footage.
In the evenings there is an open mic for the attendees, offering the opportunity to perform for everyone, as well as concerts put on by the instructors.
A note from Andy:
"Musicarium is my musical highlight every year"
"In 2024, I decided to takeover handling Musicarium myself and make it a bigger part of my life than before. I've spent the last 20 years touring all over Earth, visiting and performing in more countries than I ever expected to. I plan on continuing to compose and perform for years to come, but I'd like to focus some of my energies in this new direction; spreading the joy of learning how to create and play music in this incredible style for the acoustic guitar.
If you are curious about this approach to the guitar, I want to encourage you to join us! I don't think you will regret it, in fact, I think you will make new friends that will last you a lifetime. We've had attendees from all corners of the globe that have attended multiple Musicariums and stayed in touch throughout the years. I hope to meet you there some day!"
-Andy