The Gretsch Electric Guitar Ensemble will start celebrating its 20th anniversary during the Elmhurst College Electric Guitar Ensembles Concert on Tuesday, November 13.

The concert will feature performances by not only the premier Gretsch ensemble, but also the Elmhurst College Electric Guitar Collective, a group open to all electric guitar students. Under the direction of music department faculty member Mike Pinto, both groups will perform music from a variety of genres, including jazz, Latin, pop and rock.

What became the Gretsch Electric Guitar Ensemble began in 1992 as a way for guitarists to get more opportunities to perform and to play different kinds of music, Pinto said. Typically, a music ensemble has only one spot for an electric guitarist. The Gretsch ensemble, an audition-only group, comprises five guitarists, a bass guitarist and a drummer.

To showcase their talents, the ensemble recently recorded and filmed one of their arrangements, Spin Cycle, in the College’s Gretsch Recording Studio, which is marking its 25th anniversary this year.

The Gretsch Electric Guitar Ensemble is named for Elmhurst alumnus Fred W. Gretsch (Class of 1971), president of The Gretsch Company, renowned manufacturer of guitars and drums. Since the early 1990s the Gretsch family has funded student scholarships in music and music business, as well as the development of the Gretsch Recording Studio.

The Electric Guitar Ensembles Concert will begin at 7:30 p.m. on November 13 in the Mill Theatre. Admission is free. For more information, call (630) 617-3390.