kenrosser.com

Ken Rosser was primarily self-taught as a guitar player until enrolling at Cal State Fullerton, where he studied classical guitar with Scott Zeidel. After leaving CSUF, he continued to study classical guitar privately with David Grimes. Since then he has also studied jazz guitar with Larry Coryell, Joe Diorio and Ted Greene, lap steel with Greg Leisz, Chinese pipa with Hu Shufeng, Vietnamese Dan Bau with Chau Nguyen, African guitar with Abdoulaye Diabate, jazz improvisation with saxophonist Bennie Wallace, and performed in workshops with Harvie Swartz, John Abercrombie, Billy Hart, Joey Baron, Billy Higgins, Alphonso Johnson, Jimmy Haslip and Richie Beirach and with classical composer/guitarist John Duarte.
Since then Ken Rosser has performed with Vinny Golia, Brad Dutz, Richard Sinclair, Kevin Ayers, Tootie Heath, Billy Childs, Steve Hunter, Joe Porcaro, Emil Richards, Marta Santos, Milcho Leviev, Buzz Feiten, Ann Le Baron, Sherman Ferguson, Ann Dyer, Nels Cline, Alex Cline, Phillip Greenlief, Roberto Miranda, John Klemmer, Sweet Baby J'ai, the Carter Brothers Blues Band, Tom Heasley, the Larry Steen World Jazz Ensemble, Ralph Carney, Kim Richmond, Incendio, Dekajazz, King Cake, the Bruce Eskovitz Jazz Orchestra, the Southern California Chinese Community Orchestra and Los Angeles Chinese Zither Orchestra (playing Chinese pipa) and the Elvis Schoenberg Orchestra Surreal.
Ken can currently be seen performing with the Grandmothers (featuring ex-Frank Zappa alumni Don Preston, Bunk Gardner, Roy Estrada and Napoleon Murphy Brock playing Zappa's music), West African kora virtuoso Prince Diabate, the Bobby Bradford Mo'tet, the David Pritchard Guitar Quartet, Steve Lockwood Ensemble, vocalist Angela Carole Brown, the Steve Weisberg Band, acoustic world music/jazz group Quarteto Nuevo and others.
He has recorded for Warner Brothers and Nine Winds records, the films American Beauty and Runaway Jury, several television shows and commercials, played at the Monterey Jazz Festival, The Frankurt Jazz Festival in Germany, the International Reggae Festival in New Orleans and won an L.A. Theatre Award for his delta blues-inspired score for the play "Turning Points". He played in Hal Wilner's "Let's Eat - A Tribute To The Firesign Theater" at UCLA's Royce Hall, backing singers Stan Ridgway, Todd Rundgren and Dave Thomas (of Pere Ubu). He also performed John Cage's MusicCircus under Cage's direction as part of the composer's 75th birthday celebration at the Los Angeles Arts Festival.
He has taught guitar at the Los Angeles Music Academy, the International Music Seminars in Switzerland and France, and is currently on staff at the Guitar Institute of Technology in Hollywood.