Only one person has ever won the world's top competitions in both fingerstyle & classical guitar, the 1998 National Fingerpicking Champion & the Guitar Foundation of America International Classical Guitar Competition. That person is Michael Chapdelaine. Prior to winning the Championship, Chapdelaine had also won top honors in four international classical guitar competitions, including First Prize in the Guitar Foundation of America Competition. He has been awarded two National Endowment for the Arts Solo Recitalist Fellowships & holds a Master of Music degree from Florida State University. In recent years, he has toured 4 continents & been seen around the world on CNN & Headline News. Chapdelaine, who studied with Andrés Segovia, earned the distinction of winning the 20th annual National Fingerpicking Championship, traditionally dominated by steel string players, while playing on a nylon string classical guitar. He bested an international field of guitarist by playing a broad spectrum of musical genres ranging from traditional South American dance music to his own fingerstyle compositions, which included a blues number he calls Blue Chile. 'The biggest thrill about winning Winfield was seeing how much people like my original compositions,' Chapdelaine said. His original works, which he has only recently introduced to the public, bring together a broad variety of musical styles from classical to country to blues. 'I grew up playing pop music in Navy clubs... I needed to find a way to mix the groove & fun of that music with the discipline & expressive beauty of classical music. Music is fun, if it's not fun, why bother?'