I grew up in a house where every Sunday morning my father would spin Thelonious Monk and John Coltrane albums, so I spent my adolescence shying away from classical music, which seemed too stiff and square for my tastes. The closest I ever came to orchestras and recital halls were the albums Miles Davis put out with classical arranger Gil Evans and the occasional school band concert. But, it seems like every day there's a classical concert happening in Rochester, and most are tied somehow to the Eastman School of Music. So when it was time to explore the world of classical music, Kilbourn Hall seemed the logical place to start.

With the auditorium half-filled with other Eastman students, I couldn't resist talking to the single girl in front of me, jamming out with headphones in her ears. Oddly enough, it was pianist Naz Pourmulek, who would accompany Robert Miller in the second half of the guitarist's Master of Music degree recital.

Pourmulek talked about how developed classical music is compared to pop, but also how connected they are. So when the first tune started, I listened for the melody lines that Pourmulek said would develop over time and build to a climax. That was the key; not to be disappointed by the lack of danceable rhythms, but rather to enjoy the beauty of well crafted themes.

Right from the start, I was impressed by the emotion that Miller could pour out of his six strings on "Barden Klange, Op. 13" by Johann Kaspar. He was playing with intensity, and at times with a subtle plucking of notes that reverberated throughout Kilbourn. He bobbed his head back and forth as he strummed chords, then tilted his head back and closed his eyes while his fingers gracefully danced across the strings.

Sure, he missed some notes here and there, but as he jokingly told me afterward, he was stretching and trying to give a show. Those are to be expected. And as he worked through a varied set of Mertz, Takemitsu, and Rodrigo, he managed to captivate and entertain. The second set was a classical version of call and response; an intense 25 minutes of back and forth between two chordal instruments, Pourmulek and Miller taking turns accompanying each other on Manuel Ponce's "Concierto del Sur."

As I often do when I hear someone play that impresses me, I made my way back stage to spend a few minutes talking shop. Everyone has that one album that, as a kid, made him love music. I should have expected nothing less from this talented, but seemingly untraditional, classical guitarist than to find out that for him, it was Wes Montgomery's "Boss Guitar." Of course, with many classical musicians falling into the trap of playing reserved so as not to botch an audition or competition, perhaps it's the visible emotion that came through in his playing that made it so accessible to me.