Jose Antonio Escobar

 Jose Antonio Escobar   “...The mastery, intelligence and sound of José Antonio on such diverse pieces undoubtedly position him among the outstanding guitarists of our time.“ (Le Cahiers de la Guitare, Paris, 2002) “Finally José Antonio Escobar gave us Villa-Lobos’ 12 Etudes, demonstrating that he is one of the finest young players to have emerged from South America in recent years” (Robert Matthew-Walker, Musical Opinion, London,  May 2007). “Escobar is an expressive, mature artist who has transcended the nitty-gritty of technique and gets to the essence of the music.” (Jeffrey Rossman, Classical Voice of North Carolina, 2008). “Guitar aficionados need to hear Escobar’s absolutely stunning playing.” (Göran Forsling,...

Read more »

Jorge Santos

 Jorge Santos Turíbio Santos (Turibio Soares Santos) is considered one of the best Brazilian guitar players alive. His father, Turíbio Soares da Silva Santos Filho, and his mother, Neide Lobato Soares Santos, also from Maranhão, were joyful persons, fond of music and serenades. The family moved to Rio de Janeiro in 1946, bringon also Turíbio’s newly born sister, Giselda. The siblings Ronaldo and Cláudio were born in Rio de Janeiro in 1948 and 1955, respectively. Upon their arrival to Rio, the whole family lived together with Turíbio’s grandparents, Dona Martiniana and Isaac Lobato, in the Tijuca district. Later, in 1948, they moved to one of the earliest buildings set up in Copacabana, at Avenida Nossa Senhora de Copacabana,...

Read more »

John Williams

 John Christopher Williams  John Christopher Williams was born in Melbourne, Australia on 24th April 1941. His father, Leonard Williams, had emigrated to Australia from London in the late 1930s, where he met his wife, Malaan, through a common love of jazz music and political activism. Len was a respected jazz guitarist whose interests had slowly turned towards the classical repertoire, and when John was four years old, he received his first guitar from his father, although John insists that proper tuition did not start for another two or three years. Because of his new-found love for classical technique, Len refused to allow John to dabble in more free-form styles of playing, a fact often regretted by the virtuoso in later...

Read more »

Johann Sebastian Bach

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH BIOGRAPHY 1685-1750      Baroque Composer J.S. Bach wrote the genius UNFINISHED masterpiece "ART OF FUGUE" in his last years, while SLOWLY GOING BLIND!   Johann Sebastian Bach is THE most brilliant BAROQUE COMPOSER in history. Bach wrote the genius unfinished masterpiece "ART OF FUGUE" in his last years, while SLOWLY GOING BLIND.  After an eye operation, Bach reportedly died mid-bar while writing the final fugue, having just composed a musical notation based on his name:   B A C H.   Johann Sebastian Bach was born on March 21, 1685 in Eisenach, Germany into a musical family. He was taught violin by his...

Read more »

Göran Söllscher

 Göran Söllscher   Although the two are often mentioned in a single breath, the temperament, style, and even career details of Swedish classical guitarist Göran Söllscher and those of the controversial and famous Japanese guitar virtuoso Kazuhito Yamashita are really just about as different as one could imagine. Yamashita was thrust into the limelight while still a teenager; Söllscher, on the other hand, continued his conservatory studies until his mid-twenties and took his time building up a major international career. Yamashita puts his amazing technical skill on display each and every night (and sometimes gets criticized for doing so); Söllscher is altogether more reserved, allowing mechanism to dominate only when he...

Read more »

Francisco Tárrega

Francisco Tárrega   Francisco Tárrega was an important Spanish composer whose music and style of guitar playing became strongly influential in the twentieth century. He was central to reviving the guitar as a solo instrument in recital and concerts. Among his most popular compositions are Recuerdos de la Alhambra and Danza mora. He wrote nearly eighty original works for the guitar and over a hundred transcriptions, mostly of piano pieces by Chopin, Beethoven, and others. Francisco Tárrega was born on November 21, 1852, in Villareal, Castellon, Spain. An accident in his early childhood permanently impaired his eyesight. He was taught his first lessons on guitar by Eugeni Ruiz, ironically a blind musician. In 1862, concert...

Read more »

Fernando Sor

 Fernando Sor There was a time, (25-30 year’s ago) that a Classical Guitar recital would seem incomplete without the inclusion of a work by Fernando Sor. Today it is rare for him to be included in a concert programme. It must be said that his other works , Operas, Ballets, etc., have been silent since his death, and today his reputation rests solely as a composer of guitar music. It cannot be that today’s new generation of young guitarists find his pieces unworthy, as his contribution to the literature of the guitar is undeniable, (the critic Fetis adorned Sor with the title “The Beethoven of the Guitar”). He is acknowledged in the development of technique for the instrument and his collaboration with makers improved ...

Read more »

Ferdinando Carulli

 Ferdinando Carulli   Classical guitarists owe a debt of gratitude to this Italian-turned-Parisian guitar master. Ferdinando Carulli, born to an affluent, upper-class family, began his musical training under the tutelage of a priest; who was little more than a musical dilettante himself. Carulli first learned music on the cello. It was not until he was about 20 years of age that he took up the guitar, which at that time, more resembled a lute and might have five or six pairs of strings. From that time forward, Carulli devoted his life to developing the guitar as a classical instrument and to popularizing guitar music. Guitarists were few in Naples in Carulli's time; he, therefore, had to study on his own and consequently,...

Read more »

Ernesto Bitetti

 Ernesto Bitetti Ernesto Bitetti was born in Rosario, Argentina and has lived in Madrid since 1968. His performances extend to the five Continents, playing in such famous halls as the Bolshoi (St. Petersburg, Russia), Metropolitan Festival (Tokyo), Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), Lincoln Center (New York), Pleyel (Paris), Teatro Colon (Buenos Aires), Musikverein (Vienna), Queen Elizabeth Hall (London), Town Hall (Sydney), Teatro Real (Madrid), City Hall (Manila), Opera (Rome), Tchaikowsky (Moscow), Kennedy Center (Washington, D.C.), Gulbenkian (Lisbon), Herkulesaal (Munich) and many others. Mr. Bitetti has been invited by the most prestigious chamber orchestras such as the English Chamber, Prague Chamber, Zagreb...

Read more »

Enrique Granados

 Enrique Granados   Enrique Granados was born in 1867 in Lerida, Spain. He began his musical studies at an early age. At first, he studied the piano in Barcelona with Joan Baptista Pujol, who studied with the Mallorcan pianist and student of Liszt Pere Tintorer. Pujol was the one who created what could be called the first Catalan piano tradition. Among his numerous students were Albeniz, Malats (teacher of Mompou) and Ricard Viñes. In 1887, Granados moved to Paris to study with Charles de Beriot. In Paris as well as continuing his friendships with Albeniz, Nin and Viñes, he came into direct contact with the most important French composers of the time like Faure, Debussy, Ravel, Dukas, d’Indy, establishing a very close...

Read more »

Elena Papandreou

ELENA PAPANDREOU   The Washington Post says of her that she is "…a poet of the guitar." One of her former teachers, Leo Brouwer, is even more effusive: "If you want to hear music of the highest level of interpretation with poetical perfection, you must hear Elena Papandreou". The Greek guitarist Elena Papandreou was born in Athens in 1966. Elena Papandreou studied with Evangelos Boudounis at the Greek National Conservatory and graduated in 1985. She continued her studies with Gordon Crosskey at the Royal Northern College of Music (UK) on a British Council scholarship, obtaining the Diploma in Advanced Studies in Musical Performance in 1986. She hasalso been tutored by Alirio Diaz, Oscar Ghiglia, Julian Bream, Leo Brouwer and...

Read more »

Eduardo Fernández

 Eduardo Fernández The Uruguayan guitarist, Eduardo Fernández, began his studies of guitar at age 7. His principal teachers were Abel Carlevaro, Guido Santórsola and Héctor Tosar. After being prized in several international competitions, the most notable being the 1972 Porto Alegre (Brazil) and 1975 Radio France (Paris) competitions, he won the first prize of the 1975 Andrés Segovia Competition in Mallorca (Spain). Eduardo Fernández' New York debut in 1977 won critical accolades, being described as "A top guitarist...Rarely has this reviewer heard a more impressive debut recital on any instrument" (Donal Henahan, The New York Times). Fernández has returned to the USA every season since then, playing with prestigious orchestras...

Read more »

Eduardo Falú

Eduardo Falú Eduardo Falú (born July 7, 1923) is a well-known Argentine folk music guitarist and composer. Eduardo Falú was born in El Galpón, a village near San José de Metán in the province of Salta, Argentina in 1923. His parents, Juan and Fada Falú, were Syrian immigrants. Raised in rural surroundings, he was strongly influenced by the folk traditions of Salta (which remain, in Falú's words, "something lively, dynamic and evolutionary"). Falú was given his first guitar as a gift during childhood, and he began to perform traditional folk tunes of the Argentine Northwest as a troubadour. He formed a duo with César Perdiguero, and became well known in the region during the 1940s. Largely self-taught, Falu deepened his knowledge...

Read more »

Duo Presti - Lagoya

In praise of classical guitarists Alexandre Lagoya and Ida Presti   Alexandre Lagoya (1929-1999) and Ida Presti (1924-1967) formed the greatest classical guitar duet in the world to date. This was not simply due to their technical excellence, but their subtlety and force in emotional expression. They also transcribed music for the instrument from many sources, most notably the harpsichord, violin and piano. By the time Lagoya—born in Alexandria, Egypt of Italian and Greek parentage—was 19, he had already given about 500 concerts throughout the Middle East. He decided to move to Paris and continue his studies with Jean Saudry, also studying harmony and counterpoint with Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos. He met...

Read more »

Duo Assad

 Duo Assad   Sérgio Assad was born in 1952 in Brazil and is one of the world’s important contemporary composer for the classical guitar. He often performs in duo with his brother Odair Assad and together they form the legendary Assad Duo sometimes known as the The Assad Brothers as well. They studied the classical guitar with Monina Tavora, a former student of Andres Segovia, for seven years. Sergio once stated: “I believe we were always meant to be a team right from the first time we picked up our guitars. We began playing guitar at exactly the same time and we always studied with the same teachers learning the same music and techniques. Such interaction can only really happen with brothers, because we shared every aspect...

Read more »

Duo Abreu

 Duo Abreu   Classical Guitar Magazine exclaims: “The maturity of musicianship and technical virtuosity …is simply outstanding.” in describing the Brasil Guitar Duo, winner of the Concert Artists Guild International Competition.  Equally at home on a Classical or World Music series, the Duo’s innovative programs feature a seamless blend of traditional and Brazilian works, resulting in a global tour schedule and numerous critically acclaimed recordings. The Brasil Guitar Duo’s 2011-12 US recital tours include the Concert Associations of Anchorage and Fairbanks in Alaska, California’s Lancaster Performing Arts Center and the “Sundays Live” series at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Strathmore...

Read more »

Domenico Scarlatti

 Domenico Scarlatti   Composer, born at Naples on the 26th of October 1685. Presumably he studied first under his father, composer Alessandro Scarlatti, but he was in all probability also a pupil of Gaetano Greco. In 1704 he remodelled Pollaroli's Irene for performance at Naples. Soon after this his father sent him to Venice, where he studied under Gasparini, and became intimate with Thomas Roseingrave. Domenico was already a harpsichord player of eminence, and at a trial of skill with Handel at the palace of Cardinal Ottoboni in Rome he was adjudged his equal on that instrument, although inferior on the organ. In 1709 Domenico entered the service of Marie Casimire, queen of Poland, then living in Rome, and composed several...

Read more »

Dionso Aguado

 Dionso Aguado Born in Madrid, this Spanish Maestro surname is derived from the spanish word for "soaked" : this was a nickname an ancient relative, a knight, acquired after returning from a battle caked in mud! Dionisio Aguado was taught by Miguel Garcia. At this time tablature was still the notation of choice for guitarists in Spain. Frederico Moretti began employing 5-line staff notation, distinguishing different parts through the use of note stems and rests. Along with others, such as Fernando Sor also a Spaniard, Aguado switched to this new guitar notation. In the aftermath of the Napoleonic french invasions of Spain (1808), Aguado continued to perfect and develop his technique while working as a guitar teacher...

Read more »

Dilermando Reis

 Dilermando Reis   Dilermando Reis, probably the most famous Brazilian popular guitarist, was born in São Paulo, but lived most of his life in Rio de Janeiro, where he worked actively in radio and recordings. From 1941 to 1975 he recorded over forty albums. Reis was the son of the guitarist Francisco Reis who was also his first teacher. At 17, Dilermando attended a recital in his city Guaratinguetá by the guitarist Levino da Conceição. Inspired by the dexterity of the blind musician, Reis became his accompanist throughout the tour of Brazil. After a while he moved to Rio de Janeiro, where he became a guitar teacher. In 1935, he premiered on Radio Clube do Brasil, presented by Renato Murce. Soon his mastery at...

Read more »

David Russell

The Scottish guitarist, David Russell, was born in Glasgow, and while still very young (age 5), moved with his parents to Menorca, a Spanish island in the Mediterranean. His father, an artist, was an avid amateur guitarist. It became natural for David to pick up the instrument, and his father began to teach him to play it. He cannot remember when he did not play the guitar. Before he could read music, he could play the pieces by ear that he had learned from listening to Andrés Segovia recordings. When he got somewhat older he also learned to play violin and French horn. David Russell returned to Britain at the age of 16 to attend the Royal Academy of Music in London. There his primary teacher was Hector Quine. He also continued to...

Read more »