Born in Houston, TX to a French mother and an Ecuadorian father, Fernand Vera is an active performer, educator, author, composer/arranger, producer, and electronic musician. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Music from the University of St. Thomas in Houston and Masters of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from the University of North Texas.

Since 2012, Fernand has directed the thriving Guitar Studies program at Collin College in Plano, TX. He is the Artistic Director of the annual Collin College Guitar Festival, held each spring semester.  As an educator and author, Fernand has written several guitar method books: The Beginning Guitar Method, Vol. 1, now in its sixth edition (co-written with Olga Amelkina-Vera), The Beginning Guitar Method, Vol. 2 for continuing guitar students, and  Guitar Fitness: Technical Studies for the Advancing Guitarist. These publications are used as guitar studies curriculum at Collin College for class guitar and applied lessons.  In addition, he continuously contributes to the guitar ensemble repertoire through his numerous compositions, arrangements, and transcriptions. 

Fernand is also an active performer in Kithara Duo, a classical guitar duo formed with his wife, Olga Amelkina-Vera. Performing throughout the country, Kithara Duo’s engaging presentations (both concerts and masterclasses) communicate to a wide range of audience members, resulting in many touching comments from presenters and students.

Equally comfortable on stage and in the recording studio, Fernand was the producer and recording engineer for Kithara Duo’s critically acclaimed debut CD, Beings (Soundset Recordings, 2011) and the group’s second release, Lingua Franca (2015). Fernand was also a producer for Ka Ao (2022), the new album of Olga Amelkina-Vera’s original guitar works for Frameworks Records.

In 2020, Fernand reinvented himself as an electronic musician and producer, and released a debut album of original electronic music, titled Dappled Shade, under the stage name Monsieur Glize.  Since then, Monsieur Glize released and EP and nine singles. Most recently, one of this singles, Voyage (2022) was featured as Song of the Day on Austin’s KUTX 98.9 in June 2022. He continues to release new singles regularly, and his music is available on iTunes, Spotify, and all other online platforms.  You can follow Monsieur Glize on Instagram @monsieurglize and listen to his music here.