Tiegen Costa

BIO/DESCRIPTION

Tiegen Costa is an Edmonton-based guitar graduate from MacEwan University’s Bachelor of Jazz and Contemporary Popular Music, majoring in performance. Known for his comprehensive strength in many different styles, Tiegen has played in many different scenarios ranging from hard swingin’ Big Bands, Pit Orchestras, Latin Ensembles to Hard Rock, Funk, and small combo Jazz groups. Tiegen has studied closely under Juno-award-nominee Jim Head and has taken lessons with some of New York’s guitar giants, including Julian Lage, Mike Stern and Yotam Silberstein.

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Costa’s love for music developed from a young age. His father, George, is credited to being his inspiration for picking up the guitar, often stating that Tiegen was raised with a guitar in one hand and a hockey stick in the other. He grew a love for blues/rock music through this early influence, most notably with guitar virtuosos Stevie Ray Vaughan and B.B King.

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While Costa had always been associated with jazz ensembles throughout his secondary education, his acceptance into MacEwan University’s Jazz and Contemporary Popular Music program caused a complete shift in career aspirations. What was once blues and rock quickly turned to funk and bebop.

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Throughout his time at MacEwan, Costa had played in a variety of live music scenarios. He has been featured in various funk/soul collectives (The MPC, Down To Funk, Youch), Big Bands (MacEwan’s Big Band lead by Jerrold Dubyk, The 2017 ECSD All-Star collective), Latin ensembles (Rodrigo Sosa’s Somos Fiesta), and various jazz combos.

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Today, Costa’s career continues to grow through live performance, as well as private instruction.