A San Antonio, TX native, Jake Ramirez began his musical journey in 2001 when he received an electric guitar as a gift. Jake currently holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Texas State University-San Marcos and a Master of Music degree from the University of Texas at San Antonio, where he studied under Mark Anthony Cruz and Dr. Matthew Dunne, respectively. Jake has won prizes in music competitions around the U.S. as a soloist and in ensemble format, including the 2009 UT-Brownsville Guitar Ensemble Competition and the 2013 UTSA COLFA Research Conference Graduate Music Competition. He has performed in numerous master classes with guitar luminaries such as David Russell, Bruce Holzman, Adam Holzman, Jason Vieaux, Andrew Zohn, Jerome Ducharme, Matteo Mela, and Isaac Bustos, among others. A dedicated teacher, Jake has taught elementary-level group guitar classes at the UTSA Downtown String Project as well as college-level applied guitar and beginning guitar classes as a Lecturer at UTSA. In 2013, Jake founded Guitar San Antonio, a non-profit arts organization bringing world class award-winning guitarists to perform and teach in various educational institutions and concert venues in the San Antonio area. Furthermore, Guitar San Antonio was founded to provide the diverse population of San Antonio with high quality guitar concerts featuring the world’s best concert artists, as well as to develop and advocate for the inclusion of high quality guitar programs and group guitar classes in the hundreds of elementary, middle and high schools in San Antonio and the surrounding area.