Alan Rinehart has made many contributions to the guitar world as a performer, teacher, and music editor. Completing studies at Western Michigan University and a Professional Music Training Diploma from Vancouver Community College, he studied lute repertoire and technique in London, England at the Early Music Centre with Anthony Rooley, Jakob Lindberg, and Emma Kirkby. His study of historical performance practices led to the ability to play the lute with a softer 'no nail' sound and the guitar with standard concert guitar technique.

In 1980 he gave a critically acclaimed London debut which was described by GUITAR INTERNATIONAL magazine as: "consistently clean and musical...he has a pleasantly relaxed stage manner which won over the audience right from the word go". In addition to many concert recitals, he has performed at international guitar festivals in Toronto and Quebec and on CBC radio and TV. A strong advocate of new music and well as historical repertoire, he has commissioned and/or premiered major works by many contemporary composers including John W. Duarte, Maximo Diego Pujol, and Canadians Stephen Chatman, Brian Tate and John Oliver.

He has released eight solo CDs and one CD with the Vancouver Guitar Quartet, all to international critical praise. His sixth solo CD, Verdi’s Guitar was chosen by Classical Guitar Magazine as one of the top 10 recordings of the year.

His latest solo CD of the music of Baroque composer Sylvius Leopold Weiss was released in September 2021. Completed recordings released on digital streaming platforms include Musick to Delight, Elizabethan lute music played on guitar and soon to be released Soiree, light music from early to late 19th century. Alan has also been editing and fingering three volumes of John W. Duarte's transcriptions of lute music, published by Ut Orpheus.

Alan Rinehart is a co-founder of The Vancouver Guitar Quartet that became a regular part of the Vancouver and Western Canadian music scene in the late 1980's with many concert and radio appearances including broadcast concerts on CBC's ARTS NATIONAL, and enthusiastically acclaimed performances as featured artists in the host pavilion at EXPO 86. After an hiatus of a number of years the Quartet reformed in 1996 and released its debut recording "Estampas" in 1999. The Quartet disbanded in 2003.

His editorial work has included arranging and engraving the guitar performance edition of the Moscow lute manuscript of Sylvius Leopold Weiss for Editions Orphee and compiling and engraving a volume of music by Spanish guitarist A. J. Manjon for Chanterelle-Mel Bay as well as preparation of guitar solo and ensemble music for his own company NovaScribe Editions.

He was a faculty member of the music schools at the University of British Columbia and Vancouver Community College from 1983 to 2003. At UBC, he and Michael Strutt developed one of the most comprehensive guitar performance programs in Canada. He continues to be in demand as an adjudicator, instructor and clinician. His students have won major competitions and have completed advanced degrees in guitar performance and composition and established significant careers in the music world.

After a long time residency in Vancouver, B.C., he moved to Nelson, B.C. in 2004 where, in addition to teaching at the Nelson Academy of Music, he was on the Board of the Nelson and District Arts Council and was the coordinator of the 19th Northwest Guitar Festival, a 3 day event held in Nelson April 16-18, 2009.

While in Nelson, he hosted "the Art and Times of the Guitar", a weekly one hour radio show devoted to the classical guitar, for 11 seasons (176 shows) on CJLY, Kootenay Coop Radio www.kootenaycoopradio.co

He is currently living and working in Nanaimo, BC