Mihnea Burduja

  Mihnea “Misha” Burduja is a guitar player originally from Piatra-Neamt, Romania, currently based in Atlanta, GA. He graduated from Georgia State University in May 2024 where he was enrolled in the Jazz Studies and Guitar Performance program. He was a member of the GSU jazz band, conducted by Dr. Gordon Vernick, and has been included multiple times on the Dean’s List and President’s List for his academic work. At the same time, he is teaching private guitar lessons, focusing on advanced guitar techniques for Rock and Funk. After finishing the Jazz Studies and Guitar Performance program in Atlanta, he is going to focus on teaching guitar, music theory, as well as writing music for Film, Video Games, TV and Theater.

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  At age 12, he was inspired by his brother to pick up the classical guitar. About a year later, he started playing the electric guitar due to his shift in musical taste. Along with the many hours of practice, his playing was influenced by musicians such as Jimmy Page, Steve Vai, Paco de Lucia, Django Reinhardt, Kiko Loureiro, as well as many classical composers such as Igor Stravinsky, Gustav Holst, or Sergei Prokofiev. During his teenage years, he played a wide variety of styles including R&B, Rock, Funk, as well as traditional Romanian wedding music.

 

  At age 18, he moved to Bucharest, one of the biggest cities in Eastern Europe, where he could have access to more diverse sources of information. He began studying with Corrado Sgandurra, a Musicians Institute (GIT) alumni and a member of Mike Varney’s Shrapnel Records, who also encouraged him to move to the United States to study Jazz Theory and Improvisation. At the same time, he was teaching private guitar lessons, focusing on advanced guitar techniques for Rock and Funk.