BEEVILLE — When Marcos Montez talks, the tone of his voice echoes those of his guitar: mellow and quiet assurance.

Not what Coastal Bend College music instructor Gene Stephenson was expecting.

“He just showed up one day and started playing classical guitar,” Stephenson says. “I was just taken aback. He is an exceptionally talented individual.”

The 18-year-old Beeville native is a music major at Coastal Bend College, specializing in guitar music not from Spain or Mexico, but from South America, specifically Paraguay.

What impressed Stephenson was that Montez only started playing guitar in high school.

“I hadn’t read a piece of music until then,” Montez says.

That was four years ago.

Today, Montez is leaving his instructors, including Stephenson, behind, his eyes firmly planted on Texas State University in San Marcos.

“I’m trying to help him find a suitable guitar instructor,” Stephenson says.

If a prospective candidate wants to succeed with Montez, he better have a working knowledge of Guitarist Francisco Tarrega (“He perfected the technique of modern guitar,” Montez says) and Paraguayan guitarist and composer Agustin Barrios — whose music Montez credits with inspiring him to specialize in South American guitar. “His music just flows,” Montez says.

“South American music has got a certain sound to it,” he explains.

His current repertoire amounts to four or five compositions. “I have enough to get by,” he says.

Montez is taking basic courses at CBC, including math, which he finds helpful.

“I’ve always heard that people who are good at math are good musically,” he says. “It helps me with rhythm and playing percussion for the college band.”

His professional demeanor is exemplified by his reaction to his first performance, in high school. “I was nervous, but I didn’t let it get to me,” he remembers.

What has gotten to him is the recent theft of his BMX bicycle, which he figured has been reduced to parts by now.

Another measure is his collection of guitars: two classical, two electric one bass.

His favorite is his Prudencio Saez, handmade from Valencia, Spain.

He bought it locally, at Tee’s Music shop. “They let me take a couple of them home to try them out,” he explains. “As soon as I started playing the Prudencio, I knew I liked it,” he says. “The feel of the neck, how it strummed and how it resonated. It has a warm tone instead of dry.”

The instrument cost many hundreds of dollars, but Montez, always forging ahead, fondly talks about one he likes for a couple of thousand dollars.

His career focus, however, is on the business side of music.

“Performing is the dream of every musician,” he admits, “but I have to eat and pay the bills, so I am tempering my dreams with reality.”

Montez’s quiet determination is something Stephenson noticed immediately. “He has found a niche for himself, and he doesn’t let the outside world get in his way.”

Bill Clough is a reporter at the Bee-Picayune and can be reached at 358-2550, ext. 122, or at beepic@mySouTex.com.