Tony Morris is the Executive Director of the Classical Guitar Alive nonprofit organization, and is a musician/writer/producer working in radio, television, and film in Austin, Texas.
He is Executive Producer of the award-winning Classical Guitar Alive! radio program, which he began in 1993 as a volunteer at KMFA radio in Austin, Texas. In 1997, Classical Guitar Alive! began national distribution and currently airs each week on 250+ stations in the USA and abroad, and is distributed via PRX.org, Public Radio Exchange.
In 2022 he produced a series of three mini-documentaries for public television, Music In Medicine, filmed at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, Texas, for broadcast on PBS stations nationwide as interstitials content. In 2019, he filmed the pilot episode of a new TV program for PBS stations, American Classic, at the Bishop’s Palace in Galveston, Texas.
In addition to his work as a public media producer, he directs a Music In Medicine program, which has presented hundreds of free musical performances as a soloist, and in ensembles in hospitals and hospices since 2004.
He is a classical guitarist who has performed at the White House in Washington, DC (2002, 2004, 2005). In 2009, he transcribed three unpublished pieces by Paraguayan guitarist-composer Agustin Barrios Mangoré from 1913 recordings discovered by Rico Stover and Federico Sheppard, including the long-sought encore piece “Bicho Feo.”
In 2010 he was invited by the U.S. State Department to serve as Cultural Envoy to Paraguay for a 12-day tour of concerts and media outreach. His blog about his diplomatic service resulted in a commission to write a screenplay, Mangoré, based on life of Paraguayan guitarist-composer Agustin Barrios Mangoré.
He received degrees from the University of Texas at Austin, and the University of South Carolina and served as guitar professor at Texas Lutheran University (2006-2011), and frequently serves as adjudicator at guitar festivals and competitions.
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