Biography

Sean Harkness left Burlington, VT for New York City in 1994 to immerse himself in their music scene. Known especially for duets and ensemble work with singers from Broadway, television, and screen, Harkness is now a first-call guitarist who compliments a dazzling client list of artists and productions worldwide. Sean performs extensively both as a solo artist and sideman worldwide, and in New York City’s finest jazz, rock, folk, cabaret, blues, R&B, and singer/songwriter venues. Sean’s first guitar arrived on his eleventh birthday. Within six months, he had a weekly theater engagement in Bridgeport, CT. After high school bands and studies with Brian Keane and Sal Salvador [Stan Kenton Band], Harkness studied at Berklee College of Music in Boston. Then after a year of busking the streets of Europe, Harkness moved to Vermont where for five years he worked in the shop assisting master guitar builder Chip Wilson. After hearing Sean perform, T.O. Mann invited him to study guitar technique. Mann helped Harkness develop a signature touch on the instrument that caught the ears of Windham Hill Records and other producers. Today Sean is a musical Artist and guitarist living in New York City’s unofficial borough of Jersey City Heights. He composes and arranges music for solo guitar and for small ensembles, and accompanies many singers, musicians, and theatrical productions.