“Mr. Tosone…brings out the special qualities of each [interviewee] with shrewdly conducted interviews.” Review in Soundboard magazine (Winter 2002)

Fans of classical music and of the guitar will want to add Jim Tosone's groundbreaking book Classical Guitarists: Conversations to their library. Conversations is the first book to bring together in-depth first-person interviews with today's pre-eminent classical guitarists and the composers with whom they have worked closely. Along with the interviews are reviews of the artists' recordings and concerts, and discographies of their recordings. Also featured is an interview with Harold Shaw, the greatest artist manager in the history of the classical guitar.

Guitarists include: Julian Bream, John Williams, Eliot Fisk, Sharon Isbin, David Starobin, David Tanenbaum and David Leisner. Composers include: Richard Rodney Bennett, and Pulitzer Prize winners George Crumb and Aaron Jay Kernis.

The book gives the reader a behind-the-scenes look at the lives, careers, experiences and thoughts of a select group of artists who have shaped and are continuing to shape the classical guitar world.

The interviews and reviews were written by Jim Tosone, Contributing Editor and Staff Reviewer for Guitar Review, the world's leading classical guitar magazine, where his articles and reviews have appeared since 1991. He has also written for Soundboard magazine and authored the classical guitar entries for the three-volume Music in the Twentieth Century. His transcription for guitar of J. S. Bach’s Suite No.1 for Solo ’Cello was premiered at the 1991 Toronto Guitarfest.

Tosone has played classical guitar for over 20 years. He studied privately with Dr. Nicholas Goluses, who at the time was Chairman of the Guitar Department at the Manhattan School of Music. He has also performed in master classes for internationally renowned guitarists David Tanenbaum, Hubert Käppel, and Raphaëlla Smits.