The natural acoustics of the historic Chester Meeting House make it an incredible room for fingerstyle guitar, carrying every delicate bassline right to the back row. This fall, AcousticMusic.Org brings world-class fingerstyle guitar back to Chester with the return of our Art of the Guitar concert series.

Kicking off the lineup on September 19 is legendary fingerstyle guitarist Guy Van Duser, alongside long-time collaborator and clar inet virtuoso Billy Novick. Known for their appearances on NPR's A Prairie Home Companion, the duo brings decades of classic swing and fingerstyle repertoire to Connecticut.

What makes intimate, historic spaces like the Chester Meeting House uniquely suited for acoustic guitar performances?

Older buildings have lots of reflecting surfaces, generally lots of wood for a warm vibe, and are essentially acoustic instruments themselves. Perfect for an acoustic guitar.

Your solo counterpoint arrangement of "The Stars & Stripes Forever" is legendary. How do you approach translating an entire brass band march onto a single six-string guitar?

I guess I was thinking of the sound of the marching band as one giant instrument and tried to transfer the sounds onto another instrument. It’s not really every note played by all the instruments in the band, but it manages to give the impression provided you really play it like a march instead of a classical guitar piece. It’s all in the energy.

You’ve played a variety of instruments over your career, including your famed 1969 Martin D-28. When playing an acoustic guitar in a historic hall, what specific tonewoods or mechanical qualities do you look for?

Whether I’m in an historic hall or in front of a microphone in a studio, I prefer the sound of spruce tops and rosewood back and sides. I like the warm sound of spruce and the reflective qualities of rosewood give good projection. I use steel strings in the studio and generally nylon strings when I perform with Billy on stage.

When you perform as a duo with Billy Novick, how much of your live set is planned ahead of time, and how much leaves room for spontaneous improvisation and banter with the room?

Billy and I have favorite tunes and get to a half dozen of them in a set, not necessarily in the same order, and we check on stage with each other to see what’s next and maybe offer something that we don’t play all the time.

What’s the most important piece of advice or wisdom you would give to a young guitarist trying to find their own original voice on the acoustic guitar today?

I would say that finding your own original voice means doing a lot of playing and a lot of playing with other people; finding your way through a lot of music helps you find your own path of doing it. And there’s a “Stars and Stripes Forever” somewhere in your future, even though you don’t know what it will be right now.