Douglas Rubio is recognized nationwide as an outstanding performer on the classical guitar. His brilliant solo performances inspire standing ovations, and he is a gold medal chamber musician. The Santa Barbara News-Press praised his playing for its “considerable sensitivity and bravura.” His programs offer a fascinating mix of the old, the new, the traditional, and the off-the-beaten-path.

Rubio has performed for the Santa Barbara Fall Music Festival (Calif.), the Beverly Hills Live! Concert Series, the Ithaca College (New York), Ball State University (Indiana), Middle Tennessee, and William Paterson University (New Jersey) guitar festivals, Penn State and Austin Peay (Tennessee) Universities, Catholic University of America (Washington, D.C.), University of San Diego, and Rhodes (Memphis), Hampton (Virginia), and Skidmore (New York) Colleges. He has also performed for guitar societies throughout the U.S., including those in Philadelphia, St. Louis, Chicago, Upstate New York, and Orange County (California). His numerous engagements in the Midwest include the American Conservatory of Music, Bradley, Illinois Wesleyan, and Millikin Universities, and Knox College. He has been the featured concerto soloist with the Montecito and Pennsylvania Centre chamber orchestras, and the Orchestra of Northern New York, and his playing has been broadcast live on radio stations KFAC and KPFK in Los Angeles. In 1992 he was selected for inclusion on the Artstour Artist Roster of the Illinois Arts Council.

Rubio is especially active in the field of chamber music. As a member of the Avalon Guitar Duo he won First Prize in the 1985 GFA International Duo Guitar Competition. The duo has gone on to perform throughout the United States, and is featured on the compact disc GFA Winners Circle 1982-1993. Rubio performs frequently with Sweet, Fair & Wise, a trio of flute, tenor voice, and guitar. His eclectic background also includes three years as a member of the Digital Arts Consort, a MIDI synthesizer ensemble.

Douglas Rubio is a graduate of the University of California at Irvine, and holds both a Master of Music degree and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in classical guitar performance from the University of Southern California (USC). His private teachers include James F. Smith, Pepe Romero, and Frederick Noad, and he has performed in a large number of master classes. This impressive list includes Manuel Barrueco, David Russell, Christopher Parkening, Oscar Ghiglia, José Tomas, Michael Lorimer, David Leisner, and composer Joaquín Rodrigo.

A native of Southern California, Rubio is Professor of Classical Guitar and Chair of the Music Performance Department at the State University of New York at Potsdam. Prior to moving to upstate New York, he ran a very successful guitar program at Illinois State University.