California Guitar Trio & Montreal 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 Bert Lams, Hideyo Moriya and Paul Richards, 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 humor that enable concert-goers to feel like they're part of the music, not just spectators. In fact, the group's goal is to transcend their instruments, so people focus on the music first, and its considerable technical prowess a distant second.

CGT's 14 albums, streamed over 11 million times on Pandora, offer diverse snapshots of the group's mercurial muse. The trio's most recent release Masterworks showcases its classical side, with expansive takes on Bach, Beethoven, Arvo Pärt, and Schubert. Other highlights include 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 reimagines timeless material by artists such as Mike Oldfield, Penguin Café Orchestra, Pink Floyd, and Queen.

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 Endeavour.
CGT's lineup is truly the sum of its distinct parts: Utah native Paul Richards immersed himself in rock, blues, jazz, and folk during his early days and while attending The University of Utah's jazz guitar program. Bert Lams, originally from Belgium, graduated from the prestigious Royal Conservatory of Music in Brussels, specializing in classical guitar. Tokyo-born Hideyo Moriya began his guitar journey with surf music and British rock, before relocating to Boston to study at Berklee.

All three 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 guitar sextet.

Two decades and 1,500+ gigs later, the CGT remains intensely committed to explore, evolve and communicate a wide-ranging musical worldview.


Described by the CBC as the "hottest" guitar ensemble in Canada, MG3 has quickly established itself as a force to be reckoned with, as well as an interactive force in various musical forms. For over 15 years, the trio's virtuosity, rigour, creativity and impressive stage presence – where humour and interacting with the public go hand in hand – have been winning over audiences around the world. The trio, composed of guitarists Marc Morin, Sébastien Dufour and Glenn Lévesque, has given hundreds of concerts in some of the most prestigious venues across North America, Europe, New Zealand and Australia, including the BB King Blues Club in New York, the Rundetårnet in Copenhagen, and the legendary Concertgebouw in Amsterdam.

Throughout the years, the trio has collaborated and shared the stage with world-renowned ensembles and artists, such as the Orchestre symphonique de Québec, Jorane et Solorazaf. Their most memorable collaboration to date was, without a doubt, with the California Guitar Trio (CGT), when both ensembles joined forces to give an unforgettable concert, brilliantly performing some of the greatest rock classics from Queen, The Beatles, a few "spaghetti western" themes by Ennio Morricone, as well as some of their original compositions. Starting in the fall of 2010, the sextet has toured across Canada and the United States, performing in over 100 cities.

Winner of the 2011 Opus Award for "concert of the year" in the Jazz / World Music category, MG3 has released six albums. Der Prinz, under the Analekta label, has been launched in February 2014, during the 15th edition of the MONTRÉAL EN LUMIÈRE Festival.