Biography

Jeffrey Briggs is a classical, flamenco, and fingerstyle guitarist and composer, and also plays Latin American music on the guitar, the Venezuelan cuatro, and the Andean charango. He has studied with Spanish flamenco guitarist Juan Serrano, Nubian singer and oud player Hamza el Din, and Argentine charango virtuoso Jaime Torres.

He played guitar in the critically acclaimed musical Twist of Fate at the Tiffany Theatre in Los Angeles, winner of 5 awards from the LA Drama Critics Circle and the LA Weekly, including Best Musical and Best Musical Band of 1995, and composed and performed music for The Bullfight, a play by Venezuelan writer Rodolfo Santana at the Stages Theatre Center in Hollywood in 2000. In 2002 he led the Jeffrey Briggs Trio at the Hollywood and Highland Center.

He has recorded with the Twist of Fate band, Josh Cruze (Banditos de Amor), John Avila (Oingo Boingo), Iranian tar player Kamil Alipour, Persian pop singers Shayyad and Parviz Basmipour, and Israeli musician/composer Smadar Galor; and has played at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, the Cinegrill, Viva Madrid, Holly Street Bar & Grill, Angelique Cafe, Pacific Asia Museum, John O’Groats, Twin Palms, Euro Cafe, Nuno’s, and Luna Negra in the Los Angeles area, as well as Lahoz Restaurant in Huntington Beach and Café Sevilla in San Diego.

He has performed at Cornell, Ohio State, Denison, California Lutheran, and Capital universities, as well as UCLA, Cal State LA, Cal State Irvine, Occidental College, the Claremont Colleges, and Cypress College, the Mulholland and Beverly Hills Tennis Clubs, and the Miramonte and other wineries in Temecula.

In March 2012 his guitar reached millions of people via Univision and Fox on the Latin show "Q'Viva: The Chosen", starring Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony, with 11 of his pieces used in profiles of talent show contestants from different Latin American countries.

For several days in December of 2011, and again in 2014 and 2016, his album Christmas Guitar was the top download to radio stations around the world from Airplay Direct, the main source for radio music globally.

His music has also been aired on NBC, MTV, the Independent Film Channel, Oxygen, Bravo, VH-1, Logo, TVLand, Spike, Planet Green, and Mexico's Si channel, KPFK-FM Los Angeles, Radio Belgrano and Radio Mendoza in Argentina, and is available for licensing from music libraries in London, Toronto, New York, and Los Angeles.

Jeffrey Briggs is also an independent video producer, writer, photographer, and graphic artist. Born in Ithaca, N.Y., he went to Ithaca High School and the International School of Geneva, Switzerland. He has a BA in anthropology from Cornell University, an MA in anthropology from the University of Michigan, and an MFA in film from Ohio University; and has taught photography at Cornell University, film production at Denison University, and television production at Capital University.

From 1969 to 1971 he produced films, videos, and photography of preschool children for the High Scope Educational Research Foundation, whose studies became the foundation of the Head Start early education program, documenting schools in Harlem, Chicago, Greenwood, Mississippi, Florida, and London, England.

He was a videographer and photographer for the Public Library of Columbus and Franklin County from 1980 to 1988, where his work helped win two National Library Awards for best library PR. He also received an Ohio Arts Council grant to produce “Columbus USA”, a feature documentary of the city shot over an entire year, whose purpose was to show as wide a variety of people and activities as possible. It premiered to critical acclaim at the Columbus Museum of Art in 1983.

He was photography critic for the Columbus Dispatch for 7 years.

El Charanguero, his video documentary about Argentinian musician Jaime Torres, has aired on PBS stations throughout the United States, and is being distributed internationally.

Before coming to Los Angeles in 1995 Briggs was leader of the Latin American band Sangría, which performed throughout the Midwest. He has also accompanied a number of flamenco dancers and dance classes.

He has taught guitar for the City of Claremont, as well as giving bilingual instruction at Candelas Guitars in East LA, and now does private lessons.

He exhibited his art, photography, and collage at several galleries in Columbus, Ohio, including a one-man show at Capital University. Since moving to LA in 1995, he has shown his work at Quoting Artists gallery and the Pasadena Public Library.

Jeffrey Briggs
(626) 864-0982
jeffrey900@rocketmail.com

Sites:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/jeffrey-briggs/81604918

https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/jeffreybriggs

https://soundcloud.com/jeffreybriggs

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_khyuoZVqowOvVryMfb6N6P5jmhlQEJvZw

https://www.deviantart.com/jeffreybriggs