An Evening with the California Guitar Trio

On Saturday, October 11, 2025, the California Guitar Trio will perform in the WITF Atrium (4801 Lindle Road, Harrisburg, PA). The doors will open at 6:00 PM and the show will start at 7:00 PM.

Seating is limited, so please sign up soon. To support our artist, we have established a recommended donation of $35.00 per person. All proceeds are directed to the artists.

SAFETY/BYOB/FOOD:  This will be a BYOB event; wine, beer (no glass), and cold food snacks. 

We will provide bottled water, hot coffee, hot tea, and Polly's famous chocolate chip cookies.

To learn more about our Mansion Concerts, go to www.mansionconcert.com.
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About The California Guitar Trio

The universe of guitar knows no boundaries for The California Guitar Trio. Since 1991, the group has enthralled listeners with a singular sound that fearlessly crisscrosses genres. The trio’s questing spirit drives it to explore the intersections between rock, jazz, classical, and world music. It even throws in the occasional surf or spaghetti Western tune for good measure.

Comprised of Tom Griesgraber, Bert Lams, and Paul Richards (l to r above), the group has established a unique, personal connection with audiences. In addition to dazzling musicianship and interplay, The California Guitar Trio’s (CGT) shows are full of captivating stories and humour that enable concertgoers to feel like they’re part of the music, not just spectators.

CGT’s 21 albums, streamed over 115 million times on Pandora, Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Music, offer diverse snapshots of the group’s mercurial muse. The trio’s latest album, “Live In Scottsdale – On Tour With King Crimson,” is a recording of the final opening set from the 2021 tour with the legendary King Crimson and features the new CGT 2.0 lineup with Tom Griesgraber on Chapman Stick.

CGT's most recent studio release, Elegy, showcases its acoustic side, with beautiful, lush originals and innovative cover arrangements of Beatles, Radiohead, and more. Other highlights include Masterworks, an album of classical works, with expansive takes on Bach, Beethoven, Arvo Pärt, and Schubert. Andromeda, which combines their many influences into a visionary album of original material; CG3+2, an exploration of kinetic rock territory in collaboration with bassist Tony Levin and drummer Pat Mastelotto; and Echoes, which re-imagines timeless material by artists such as Mike Oldfield, Penguin Café Orchestra, Pink Floyd, and Queen.

Music Samples:

 The trio’s output has made a major global impact, having served as the soundtrack for Olympics coverage and programs on CNN, CBS, NBC, and ESPN. They have fans in high places, too: NASA used their music to wake the crew aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavor.

CGT’s lineup is truly the sum of its distinct parts: A Utah native now residing in Los Angeles, Paul Richards immersed himself in rock, blues, and jazz during his early days and while attending The University of Utah’s jazz guitar program. While on and off the road, Paul enjoys doing landscape photography. Prints of his work, including photos from Robert Fripp and Toyah Wilcox’s English garden, are available here. Paul’s Landscape Photography.

Bert Lams, originally from Belgium, graduated from the prestigious Royal Conservatory of Music in Brussels, winning awards in classical guitar performance. Bert Lams currently lives with his family in Jupiter, Florida.

Tom Griesgraber, the only California native in the group, is from Encinitas. Tom is a virtuoso player of the Chapman Stick, a guitar/bass hybrid tapping instrument invented in California by Emmett Chapman. Tom is a graduate of the Berklee School of Music in Boston.

Tokyo-born Hideyo Moriya began his guitar journey with surf music and British rock before relocating to Boston to study at Berklee. Hideyo is currently on hiatus from touring and lives in Chiba, Japan.

Lams, Richards, and Moriya felt the call to push themselves to the limit by enrolling in Robert Fripp’s challenging Guitar Craft courses, where they first met in 1987. They went on to tour together as part of Fripp’s League of Crafty Guitarists, before forming the California Guitar Trio in Los Angeles four years later.

Recently, the trio expanded its collaborative possibilities by working within a six-guitar format with the Montreal Guitar Trio. During these groundbreaking, highly entertaining shows, the acts perform inventive arrangements of each other’s repertoire and new music for a guitar sextet. In 2019, this powerful “phenomensemble” released In A Landscape featuring innovative arrangements for six guitars.

"32 years and 2000+ gigs later, the CGT remains intensely committed to explore, evolve, and communicate a wide-ranging musical worldview." – Anil Prasad

What do others have to say about CGT?

“Their set … [was] intricate, exciting, unpredictable, and a thrill… It’s wonderful when a group of talented, unassuming musicians can allow their music to do the talking for them.” Music Connection

“These are very crafty musicians who can write fine songs! Highly recommended for fans of artsy instrumental albums…” ProgArchives

“For lovers of superb instrumental music, the debut by the California Guitar Trio, Yamanashi Blues, is one of the best of the ’90s.” AllMusic

“Virtuoso performances by three amazingly talented players… Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ with the audience singing all of Freddie Mercury’s lines… magical quartet … excellent on Vivaldi’s ‘Winter’… a treat.” Salt Lake City Weekly