Founded in 2025 by Oregonian classical guitar virtuoso and Artistic Director, Tye Austin, M.M., Wilder Frets: Classical Guitar in the Wilderness is a fiscally sponsored concert series of Fractured Atlas (a 501(c)(3) non-profit arts service organization) that replaces the traditional concert hall with breathtaking wilderness landscapes across the Pacific Northwest. The project was sparked by a moment of global disruption and creative resolve. When the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered live music venues in 2020, Artistic Director Tye Austin chose not to wait for concert halls to re-open. Instead, he turned to the forests, rivers, deserts, and other wilderness landscapes in his home state of Oregon—spaces that offered both refuge and a natural stage for artistic expression. What began as a practical response to crisis quickly evolved into a bold vision: an artist-centered wilderness concert model that reconnects people with community, culture, and nature.
Wilder Frets is also inspired by a deeper historical legacy. In studying how the arts have persisted through periods of profound upheaval, Tye found inspiration in the Works Progress Administration’s (WPA) Federal Music and Theatre Projects, which sustained artists and provided free public concerts and theatrical performances—often outdoors—to US communities during the Great Depression when Americans were still recovering from the 1919 Spanish Flu pandemic. That spirit of cultural resilience and public access to the arts continues to guide Wilder Frets’ mission today. We are committed to fair compensation for artists, commissioning new classical guitar works inspired by nature, and offering free concert tickets, classical guitars, and pre-concert masterclasses through our Fret Not Tickets and Free Frets Initiative.
Fret Not Tickets
Building on the legacy of the WPA, our Fret Not Tickets program provides free and subsidized access to our wilderness concerts, with priority given to at-risk youth, orphans, foster families, single-parent households, SNAP recipients, and historically underserved communities. In our inaugural season, we will offer 50 complimentary Fret Not Tickets per concert, significantly expanding public access to live classical guitar performances. Donors may also pre-purchase Fret Not Tickets to sponsor attendance for those in need. A $500 contribution enables ten individuals to experience a Wilder Frets concert at no cost, helping make world-class musical experiences more widely available to everyone.
Free Frets Initiative
The Free Frets Initiative is Wilder Frets’ commitment to free music education for at-risk and underserved youth across the Pacific Northwest. Free Frets provides classical guitars and pre-concert masterclasses for aspiring classical guitarists at no cost. Our goal for the 2026 concert season is to gift a minimum of 10 classical guitars and teach at least 10 classical guitar students in pre-concert masterclasses, empowering the next generation of aspiring guitar virtuosi. Please email info@wilderfrets.org to request a complimentary guitar and/or sign up for a free masterclass at least 2-weeks before the date of the concert you plan to attend.
The Wilder Sound: Innovation & Design
In order to preserve high-fidelity acoustics in open-air concert settings, Wilder Frets employs advanced wireless headphone technology that delivers concert-hall quality sound through low-power radio transmission, eliminating the need for traditional amplification systems. This approach integrates seamlessly with the natural environment, allowing audiences to experience live music while wandering through old-growth forests, wildflower meadows, geothermal hot springs, and other wilderness landscapes where the surrounding soundscape becomes an extension of the musical performance. By minimizing environmental impact and avoiding intrusive speaker systems, Wilder Frets aligns artistic presentation with ecological stewardship, redefining how live music concerts can be experienced in nature.
Wilder Media: Audio & Video Production
Beyond the intimate energy of our live performances, we aim to preserve and share the unique magic of Wilder Frets concerts with audiences world-wide. Each concert will be captured through high-quality live streams, bringing the immersive experience directly to viewers no matter where they are located. In addition, carefully crafted audio recordings and cinematic music videos will allow listeners to revisit the serene beauty and raw emotion of these performances on Youtube and other social media platforms. By blending the artistry of the classical guitar with the untamed ambiance of the natural world, we strive to create world-class media content that resonates far beyond the wilderness, inviting audiences around the globe to experience classical guitar music as they’ve never heard it before.
Classical Guitar in Chamber & Orchestral Music
In addition to solo concerts, Wilder Frets is dedicated to presenting the classical guitar within chamber and orchestral music settings. Select performances bring together emerging and internationally recognized musicians to highlight the instrument’s versatility and expressive depth, positioning it as both a leading and collaborative voice across diverse ensembles. Through performances of established repertoire and premieres of new works by Tye Austin and other contemporary composers, the classical guitar is showcased as an integral part of the chamber and orchestral music traditions.
Artist Biography
Tye Austin, M.M. — Classical Guitar Virtuoso & Artistic Director
Hailed by NBC News for making “the guitar sing like it was invented only to be in his hands,” Oregonian classical guitarist, composer, and Artistic Director Tye Austin is the principal headliner of all Wilder Frets performances. An internationally recognized virtuoso, he has appeared at Carnegie Hall, London’s Royal Albert Hall, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and concert halls around the world. His career highlights include performances for 300 world leaders at the United Nations, a private concert for the former Australian Prime Minister and delegates at the UN Plaza World Tower, and a music performance and education residency at The iSchool of Music in Shanghai, China before joining Royal Caribbean International as principal classical guitarist in 2020.
Descending from Franco-Spanish pirates of the Caribbean, Austin is known for his expressive versatility, performing solo guitar repertoire from Spain, Portugal, France, the Caribbean Islands, and the Americas—including classical, flamenco, fado, chanson, tango, salsa, samba, bossa nova, choro, reggae, jazz, and his own original compositions. He also sings in English, Spanish, French, Italian, and Portuguese. In addition to his solo guitar concerts, he frequently performs chamber music with various string quartets, chamber ensembles, and symphonic orchestras nationwide.
A celebrated composer, Austin has received multiple commissions, including a 2017 collaboration with the United States French Embassy for the Netflix series Versailles. In 2019, Classical Guitar Magazine named him one of the world’s top 10 composers for guitar chamber music. His music seeks to “glorify Yah and heal the human spirit.”
Austin discovered the classical guitar at age 16 after attending a life-changing music festival, and he has since built a formidable music career from his own volition. He holds a Master of Music from the New England Conservatory under the tutelage of Eliot Fisk. He has studied in masterclasses with Grammy-winners Sharon Isbin, Jason Vieaux, and Scott Tennant, and completed additional training at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Granada, Spain.
He performs on a custom 2024 Maxwell T. Sipe guitar, hand-crafted from ten tree species native to Oregon, and is sponsored by Savage Classical Guitar Strings, Sagework Guitar Supports, and Sipe Guitars.
Austin is currently preparing his debut album, Iberia: Spanish Guitar Music, to be recorded at Pyrophorus Studios in Barcelona, Spain in 2026. In his spare time, he can be found snowboarding, surfing, fly-fishing, foraging, or unwinding in one of Oregon’s many geo-thermal hot springs.
