Guitar Pedals 101 with Kurt Johnson

The world of guitar pedals and effects is ever expanding and can be overwhelming to navigate. Come here local guitarist/lap steel player Kurt Johnson speak about how to approach building your sound from scratch. Kurt will also talk about his career as a member of national touring band Mikaela Davis and Southern Star. This group has played many of the most important club and festival stages in the nation and were recently invited to perform in Cabo, Mexico in May 2026 as part of a festival organized by the wildly popular jam band Goose. Come to hear Kurt speak, ask questions, and hear him give a pedal demo! Free and open to all.

About Kurt:
Kurt Johnson is a multi-instrumentalist performer, composer, session musician, and educator based in Rochester, New York. Currently, he can be found performing with: Rounder Records recording artist Mikaela Davis & Southern Star; the long-standing instrumental trio, The Moho Collective; and his singer/songwriter project, The Wallboards.

He was a founding member of the psych-rock band, Maybird, and with them was a Columbia Records recording artist under Grammy Award winning producer Danger Mouse's label, 30th Century Records, from 2015-2019. Kurt is also a founding member of Paradise, Uganda, a cross-cultural collaboration that benefits homeless youth in Kampala, Uganda.

​Kurt has worked with Grammy Award winning drummer and producer Patrick Carney of The Black Keys, Grammy Award winning producer Brian Burton (Danger Mouse) and Dana Colley of Morphine, most notably. As a seasoned performer, he has toured and shared the stage with Lake Street Dive, The Gipsy Kings, Portugal. the Man, Circles Around the Sun, Marco Benevento, Jason Crosby, The Babe Rainbow, Bat McGrath, Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad and many more.

​Having been teaching multidisciplinary music privately for nearly a decade, Kurt was a founding faculty member at the Rochester Contemporary School of Music. He has also augmented many local music programs as a guest instructor. Throughout his years of teaching, he continues to be a dedicated student of contemporary, traditional, and ethnic music and has studied with musical giants such as Ali Akbar Khan, David Liebman, Tony Trischka, Musekiwa Chingodza, David Baker, Gordon Stone, Bob Sneider, and many more.

Learn more: https://www.kurtgjohnson.com/

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Co-hosted with: Theatre Arts Program, Music Program, Performing Arts Scholars (OWNER), College of Liberal Arts Student Services, Performing Arts, NTID Department of Performing Arts

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