If a lesser guitarist outspokenly challenged the classical guitar status quo, the criticism could be more easily dismissed. But Kevin Gallagher’s resume and world-renowned talent make his remarks not just relevant, but significant.

“The problem with classical guitar right now,” Gallagher wrote in Originality, a piece he contributed to the New York Classical Guitar Society Newsletter in 2006, “is, no matter how different and original our playing may be to the few who know, the simple fact is that the concept of playing classical music on an unamplified nylon string guitar is not original to the world anymore.” He challenges the classical guitar community to move beyond simply aping the genre’s greats and to embrace the opportunity presented by technology and modern popular instruments.

Having been compared favorably to classical guitar luminaries such as Andres Segovia and Julian Bream, Gallagher has certainly earned the right to question authority. And as a classical guitar player who unabashedly counts Eddie Van Halen among his heroes, Gallagher’s iconoclasm is hardly surprising.

Gallagher’s roots in rock guitar began at age 12, when he first began to play in a band with friends, but his curiosity soon led him to jazz and classical guitar. He went on to study under Benjamin Verdery at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music, and then under Sharon Isbin at the Julliard School.

Soon thereafter, Gallagher started collecting competition victories at venues around the world, taking first prize in the 1993 Guitar Foundation of America competition, the 1993 Artists International Competition, the 1994 American String Teachers Association, the 1996 Naumburg Competition, and the 1997 Francisco Tárrega Guitar Competition in Spain, where he became the first American classical guitarist ever to win the top prize.

He has recorded four albums of classical guitar, with his 1999 release “Guitar Recital” hailed as “one of the very best NAXOS guitar recordings” by Classical Guitar Magazine (London) in 2000.

In 2001, Gallagher began to incorporate his rock and electric guitar roots into his classical performances, performing contemporary classical pieces on the electric guitar. Continuing to challenge the academy and expand the instrument, he then founded Electric Kompany, a chamber rock quartet (electric guitar, electric bass, drums and keyboard) that, according to its mission statement, “is an ensemble dedicated to arranging, composing, and commissioning contemporary music for rock quartet -- the ‘modern instrument’ ensemble of our times.”

Gallagher bills himself on his MySpace page as “classical guitarist and pedagogue.” Bringing a classical sensibility to rock guitar and a rock ethos to the classical guitar, Gallagher is committed to defying the assumptions of his instrument and relentlessly pursuing originality.