Matanya Ophee Collection

Guitarist, publisher, scholar, art dealer, commercial airline pilot . . . Matanya Ophee (1932–2017) had several careers and many interests, with one overriding passion: the classical guitar. Ophee amassed one of the world's largest collections of 19th- and 20th-century classical guitar music, which was acquired in May 2021 by the Special Collections Research Center of Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina.

Highlights from the Ophee Collection include over five hundred first and early editions of major guitar composers including Fernando Sor, Mauro Giuliani, Matteo Carcassi, Ferdinando Carulli, and many others, as well as the only complete manuscript of the Dix Etudes by Giulio Regondi, discovered by Ophee in 1987. The collection also includes the personal scores and papers of Argentinian guitarist Domingo Prat (1886–1944), as well as a large amount of rare music for the Russian 7-string guitar from the 19th and 20th centuries. As founder of Editions Orphée, Ophee published some of the finest editions of classical guitar music--much of it from his own collection.

This website includes more information on the collection, as well as digitized files of public domain music. When downloading files, please credit the Ophee Collection, Special Collections Research Center, Appalachian State University. Check back often as we continue to add new resources.