Matthew CochranGuitarist and composer

The Classical Guitar Dispatch

A podcast that tells the story of the guitar. Matthew draws on his own life in music, digs into the instrument’s history, and talks with some of the most influential voices in the guitar world today.

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Episodes

  • LAGQ Part 1: Eh, Go Ahead… Meet Your HeroesWith Bill Kanengiser, John Dearman, Scott Tennant and Andrew YorkThe first of two episodes on the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, tracing their first twenty years, from forming at USC in 1980 to their recordings for Delos and Sony Classical.Episode 6 · September 4, 2026 · 54 minSubstackApple PodcastsSpotify
  • Julian Bream: A (Re)introduction“Julian Bream is not for everybody. Except he kind of is.” Starting at Bream’s grave in Wiltshire, a case for the guitarist, and for the music he brought into being by Walton, Britten, Brouwer and Takemitsu.Episode 5 · July 24, 2026 · 29 minSubstackApple PodcastsSpotify
  • Christopher Parkening, J.S. Bach, and Banana BoxesThanksgiving Day, 1988, in rural Pennsylvania: a twelve-year-old Matthew finds Parkening Plays Bach in a box of donated records, and the classical guitar takes hold.Episode 4 · June 26, 2026 · 17 minSubstackApple PodcastsSpotify
  • The Noble Profession, Part 2With Candice Mowbray, Thomas Viloteau and Brandon AckerThree guitarists who built teaching careers outside the conservatory and university talk about how they did it.Episode 3 · June 19, 2026 · 47 minSubstackApple PodcastsSpotify
  • The Noble Profession, Part 1With Kevin Vigil, Stanley Yates and Chuck HulihanA look at the profession of teaching the guitar, drawing on Matthew’s own twenty-five years in the studio.Episode 2 · June 12, 2026 · 42 minSubstackApple PodcastsSpotify
  • Cochran & McAllister in Sutherland, ScotlandWith Matthew McAllister and luthier Michael RitchieThe two Matthews visit the peat bogs of rural Scotland, busk at a bakery, join an accidental singalong, and take home a new guitar by Michael Ritchie.Episode 1 · June 5, 2026 · 26 minSubstackApple PodcastsSpotify

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