Sean Shibe: Tiny Desk Concert

Tom Huizenga | December 12, 2025
For classical guitarist Sean Shibe, conventions and limitations are made to be broken. As expected, he plays Spanish standard repertoire and intricate Baroque tunes on his nylon-strung guitar as well as anyone. Note the quiet, wistful intimacy Shibe offers in a cancion by Federico Mompou and a Bach sarabande. Shibe is so inside the music that his cheek often rests on the top of his instrument.

The Scottish guitarist loves to plug in, too. He knows how to shred, yet he can also make his electric guitar sound as light as a butterfly’s wing — as in the ethereal closing number in this set, “High on a Rocky Ledge,” by the eccentric American street musician Moondog.

Shibe is fearless in the face of challenges, which explains why the bulk of his Tiny Desk set is devoted to the new, finger-twisting music written for him by English composer Thomas Adès. “He explodes the technical limits of the instrument,” Shibe explains. “He explodes my hands as well. He almost explodes the guitar.” From imitating bells in tricky harmonics to frenzied marches of complex chords and avalanches of notes, the music looks all but unplayable as you watch Shibe’s fingers fly over the entire fretboard. But close your eyes and the music sounds fresh and confident, mapping new territory for the classical guitar.

SET LIST
Thomas Adès: Courante – Here was a swift (for Max Ernst)
Federico Mompou: Canción No. 6
Thomas Adès: Carillon de Ville (for Hector Berlioz)
Thomas Adès: Overture, Queen of the Spiders
J.S. Bach: Sarabande (from Suite in E minor, BWV 996)
Moondog: “High on a Rocky Ledge”

MUSICIANS
Sean Shibe: guitar

TINY DESK TEAM
Producer: Tom Huizenga
Director/Editor: Kara Frame
Audio Technical Director: Josh Newell
Host/Series Producer: Bobby Carter
Videographers: Kara Frame, Maia Stern
Audio Engineer: Josephine Nyounai
Production Assistants: Dhanika Pineda, Dora Levite
Photographer: Michael Zamora
Tiny Desk Team: Joshua Bryant, Ashley Pointer
Series Editor: Lars Gotrich
Executive Producer: Suraya Mohamed
Executive Director: Sonali Mehta
Series Creators: Bob Boilen, Stephen Thompson, Robin Hilton

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