Some are performers. Some are teachers. Some are craftsmen. But it's rare indeed to discover a true triple threat like Pomona's Jack Sanders.

In a basement studio in Thatcher, Jack Sanders pulls one of his works in progress out of its leather case--a hand-carved vihuela, a 16th-century Spanish Renaissance cousin of the guitar.

The sheer craftsmanship of the instrument--a kind of objet d'art in its own right even before making a sound--is enough to elicit gasps. Examine the woods: spruce for the soundboard, mahogany for the back and sides and Spanish cypress for the slender neck, all period-perfect. Look closely at the intricate rosette motif in the center of the guitar, modeled after symbols appearing on vintage vihuela sheet music by 16th-century composer Luis de Narvaez and hand-carved by Sanders with nothing more than a small knife.

Such attention to detail is second-nature for Sanders, who takes as much time and patience teaching Pomona undergraduates as building his beloved guitars. And when the longtime Pomona guitar instructor strums the instrument with the same hands that spent almost 160 hours in its creation, the clarity and precision of his playing are equally impressive.

Sanders began playing guitar at age 10, first tackling the popular "surf" strains of the era (The Ventures, The Safaris and the like). Creating a portrait of the artist as a young surfer, Sanders even made appearances in Bud Browne's early surfer film "Going Surfing," as well as making a splash in both Surfer and Surfing magazines during the '70s.

So how does one chart a course from aping Dick Dale surfer-stomp to capturing the studied nuances of period chamber quartets? It wasn't until a young Sanders first heard an early recording by famed classical guitarist Andrˇs Segovia that he realized "this is what I really wanted to do with the rest of my life." From that point on, classical music became his first love, as well as his chosen career path.

"To Segovia's credit, his repertoire was often quite eclectic, ranging from a piece written in 1535 to a piece written in 1850 to a piece written in 1930, sequentially," Sanders explains. Following suit, Sanders' own first Segovia-inspired recording emulated such a wide-ranging palette, encompassing 16th-century music by Luis Milan and Fernando Sor, as well as modern Spanish composers. Far from the "ax-wielders" of our modern era, artists who inspire him include Mahler and Bruckner, "but I also love Josquin," a 15th-century choral composer whose music can usually be heard while Sanders constructs his guitars at home. "And, yes, occasionally, I'll put on The Yardbirds," he admits with a laugh.

In fact, Sanders finds purists' tendency to malign contemporary popular music a kind of facile knee-jerk reaction: "People are expressing the same things, just finding alternative ways of doing it," he says. "Ultimately, though, it's not what you do, but what you have to say, that's important. Much of what people find attractive about classical music, especially played live, is the timelessness of it--the fact that music that may have been first composed in, say, 1450 is still alive. You can perform it today and still feel what the composer is trying to communicate to an audience."

Though he's in no hurry to abandon his "day job" as a teacher, Sanders has managed to tour extensively throughout his career, including a 1988 tour to China, where he was the first guitarist to perform at the prestigious Shanghai Conservatory since the Cultural Revolution. He has also found time to record three CD's. His most recent, titled "Just Preludes" (Townhall Records), is a collection of 34 pieces from classical composers ranging from Mexico's Manuel Ponce to Brazil's Heitor Villa-Lobos.

Although Sanders made his name doing chamber music, his most recent solo recordings reveal an evolved playing style that is riveting on first impact, more bold and "sexy" than what most might think of as typical classical music. In fact, Sanders' romance with the vihuela--both instrument and repertoire--runs so deep that his upcoming album project promises to be a collection of 16-century Spanish vihuela pieces, set to be recorded this coming spring at Pomona and available by winter 2002.

Compared to the raw spontaneity of live performance, Sanders admits, "recording an album can be a rather grueling process." In concert, he says, "you play without the fear of making a mistake, able to get lost in the passion of the moment." The trick, he says, is keeping that "gung-ho" attitude in the recording studio. "You may be recording for several hours straight, and trying to maintain that intensity, concentration and level of performance can be physically and mentally exhausting."

If there's one thing that has kept his busy routine ("If I'm not teaching or playing guitars, I'm building them") from getting stale during the two decades he has spent teaching and performing at Pomona, it's the inspiration--and challenge--he gets from his students. Comparing Pomona students to others he has taught, he cites "the almost-superhuman discipline of Pomona students," who possess a sheer force of will he

hasn't encountered elsewhere. "Bottom line is: most of these students don't have to have guitar lessons, but something inside them gets value out of the discipline and creative process involved."

Sanders brings the same energy to his teaching whether he's leading a master class or working with a novice. "I take it as a personal challenge to see how effectively I can teach beginners, and I take pride in the fact that I can teach them even better than I could, say, 15 years ago," he says. "As a teacher, you frequently live vicariously through your students, tending to view your students' progress and personal growth as your own."

Here too, there's plenty to take pride in. Take, for example, recent grad Lucas Harris '96, who's living in New York and leading an early-music ensemble called Common Ground, which recently released its debut CD, "Poetry & Music." Or musician Scott Pauley '87, whose acclaimed period ensemble, Chatham Baroque, signed a seven-record deal with Dorian Records in 1997. The group just finished recording its sixth album, a collection of theatre music/sonatas by Henry Purcell, due out in the spring of 2002.

Citing Sanders' influence, Pauley rattles off several of his mentor's strengths: "First, he is a master technician. He knows the mechanics and physics of the guitar. Secondly, he has a great practical musical sense of how to approach a piece of music--technique may be a foundation, but going a step further to play musically is something he always emphasizes." Then too, Pauley says his exposure to both lute and vihuela pieces while under Sanders' wing "helped me discover the Renaissance and Baroque music that I love and now play professionally."

Like many Pomona faculty, Sanders keeps in touch with his former students, building a strong sense of community over the years, inviting them back to sit in on a class, or even to try a hand at teaching one. "At Pomona, I've found it's just as rewarding to teach those students who practice and play just for the sheer joy of it," he says, adding, "When all is said and done, I hope they've learned as much from me as I've learned from them."

Gregg Mitchell '89 is a freelance writer living in Los Angeles.