Zoran Dukić (1969, Zagreb) was presented with a guitar at the early age of six. Today he is one of the most distinguished classical guitarists of our time. His concert performances, both as a soloist or with an orchestra, leave long-lasting impressions on audiences and critics alike.

He graduated from the Music Academy of Zagreb with Darko Petrinjak and completed his studies with Hubert Käppel at the Hochschule für Musik in Cologne.

In his “tour de force” competition years (1990-1997) Zoran Dukić has won an astonishing number of competitions, more than any other guitarist in the world. He is the only guitarist to have won both “Andrés Segovia” competitions, in Granada and in Palma de Mallorca. Showing astounding mastery in a wide variety of musical periods and styles he has also won competitions dedicated to „Fernando Sor“, „Manuel Ponce“, „Manuel de Falla“, and „Francisco Tárrega“ among others. In the greatest Spanish guitar competition in Madrid, patronized by the Royal Family, he was awarded, in addition to the first prize, the special prize for the best interpretation of Spanish music (first time awarded to a non-Spaniard). In numerous competitions he was selected by the audience itself for the prize of the public, a self-evident testimony to his natural ability to communicate through music.

His performances throughout the 5 continents have inspired numerous composers to dedicate their works to him. His premiers of new music are strengthened by his admiration of contemporary musical expression. His programs include works by Takemitsu, Henze, Reily, Carter or Gubaidulina among many others. He has also toured with entire Bach programs, performing complete cycles of lute, violin or cello suites. Music by J. S. Bach is still the focal point of his musical life.

He also has a special affinity for Spanish and South American musical idiom, the core repertoire of classical guitar. Currently, his carefully balanced programs present a range of music from Bach to Britten, from Sor to Albéniz, from Tárrega to Villa-Lobos and Brouwer.

Being exceptionally enthusiastic and dedicated to teaching, his pedagogical activities are equally impressive. Having taught at the Zagreb Music Academy and Hochschule Für Musik in Aachen, he is currently teaching at the Royal Conservatory of Music in The Hague and at the Escuela Superior de Musica in Barcelona, he has educated generations of young classical guitarists and has one of the most successful classes in Europe. In addition to this, he regularly gives masterclasses all over the world and is often an invited guest to numerous guitar festivals. Zoran Dukić is also a very active chamber music performer and a founding member of the „Trio de Cologne“. He has recorded compact discs for labels in Germany, Spain, Belgium and Canada.

Judicaël Perroy is widely known as an extraordinary virtuoso classical guitarist and musician with several prizes to his credit. In 1997 he captured the prestigious first prize of the 15th Guitar Foundation of America International Competition and Convention awarding him tour of the United States and Canada with more than sixty concerts and master classes. 

​Born in 1973 in Paris, he began playing the guitar at age 7 attending the Conservatoire Municipal Inter-districts of Paris. He studied with Delia Estrada and Raymond Gratien at the Ecole Nationale d'Aulnay-sous-Bois where he graduated with honors.  At age 11, he performed as soloist in two concertos by Vivaldi with Ensemble Instrumental du Mans, under the direction of André Girard and continued his musical studies with Roberto Aussel and Daniel Lavialle. At 14, he won second prize at the International guitar competition of Ile de France. In 1992, he won the grand prize and audience prize at the 15th Concours international de guitare René Bartoli by unanimous jury decision. In 1994, he received Licence de Concert from Ecole Normale de Musique in Paris from Alberto Ponce’s class and later that year he was awarded the 1st prize at the 7th International Competition of Bourg-Madame where the final vote was by the general public without any jury. In 1996, he was the first prize winner of his graduating class at the National Conservatory of Music and Dance in Paris (Paris Conservatoire).

​During his GFA victory tour Mel Bay Publications recorded and published his live concert in Lubbock (Texas).  Following his GFA victory tour, a CD recording entitled “Aspen Suite” as well as his earlier CD recording on the French label QUANTUM received high praise and won 5 Diapasons, awarded by Diapason magazine and was subsequently re-released on Bayard Musique recording label in 2008. He has recorded two CDs for the collection of Bayard Musique Meditation including a Disc with flutist Florence Bellon and another with harpist Joanna Kozielska. He recorded an all Bach CD for Naxos label which includes an impressive and unprecedented performance of Bach’s second keyboard partita transcription on the classical guitar. In 2016, he recorded a  CD of Ponce’s music (Naxos) which features the premiere of Sonata no. 2 as well as new CD for Contrastes Records titled “Paris est une solitude peuplée”. Judicaël's current discography includes eight albums and one DVD. In addition, Judicaël has given many concerts in France that have been broadcast live on France-Musique.

In great demand as a teacher, Judicaël is regularly invited to give master classes at many of the top conservatories and universities in the United States and abroad. His students have won several top prizes in regional, national and international competitions including Guitar Foundation of America, while emerging as mature and upcoming rising stars of classical guitar and international music scene. Mr. Perroy has held teaching positions at Ecole Nationale de Musique d'Aulnay-sous-Bois and Ecole Nationale de Musique Blanc-Mesnil (1995 to 2004). In the winter of 2000, he was chosen to substitute for the chair of guitar department, Steven Robinson, at Stetson University.

​In 2017, Judicaël was appointed to the faculty at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. He continues to hold a teaching position in Lille’s apPSEA (Association de préfiguration du Pôle supérieur d'enseignements artistiques) Nord-Pas-de-Calais,France.

https://www.judicael-perroy.com

Campbell is an internationally award winning classical guitarist from Canberra, Australia, and is currently based in Linz, Austria, where he has recently been appointed Guitar Professor at the Anton Bruckner Privatuniversität of Music.

Campbell completed his Bachelor degree (First Class Hons) with Hubert Käppel at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz in Cologne, Germany, and continued his postgraduate studies with Judicaël Perroy at the Haute Ecole de Musique Genève. Prior, he was a student of Timothy Kain and Minh Le Hoang at the ANU School of Music in Canberra, Australia. He began studying the classical guitar at the late age of 17, and now, he is regarded as one of the leading guitarists of his generation.

Campbell has greatly benefited from significant study periods at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena with Oscar Ghiglia and with Carlo Marchione. He has had the privilege of participating in numerous masterclasses with musicians and scholars such as David Russell, Roberto Aussel, Zoran Dukic, Marcin Dylla, Lorenzo Micheli, Ricardo Gallén, Pavel Steidl, Roland Dyens and more.

He has given concerts all around Australia and in Japan, Korea, Germany, Norway, Montenegro, Switzerland, Belgium, The Netherlands, Spain, Croatia, Brazil, Finland, India, Italy, Portugal, France, China, Austria, Serbia, Romania and Greece as a soloist and a chamber musician. He has appeared on several major radio stations including Classic FM UK, ABC Classic FM, WDR 3 (German Classic FM), and many more. He has performed and given masterclasses in many of the worlds most prestigious guitar festivals and music concert series’, including Koblenz International Guitar Festival, Iserlohn International Guitar Festival, Cultura Artistica – Sao Paulo, Berlin International Guitar Festival, Paris International Guitar Festival, GuitarArt Festival, Forum Gitarre Wien and many more.

Campbell is a sponsored D’addario and Guitarlift Artist and plays on a 2015 Antonius Müller Guitar.

He has won over 30 prizes in International competitions.

https://campbelldiamondguitar.com

Carlo Marchione has been part of the leading group of classical guitarists of the last 30 years. Carlo has performed as a solo guitarist, with orchestras and chamber music ensembles. Nowadays he is a professor and regularly leads master classes at various European Conservatoires as well as being a regular guest at Festivals throughout Europe. For his outstanding contribution to the development of the guitar, in 2017 he has been awarded with one of the most prestigious international prizes for the didactic, the Golden Guitar.

He started taking guitar lessons from the age of 10 with by Master L. Cauzzo, and later on with L. Gallucci. In 1976, he entered the local Conservatorio Santa Cecilia in his native town, passing the entrance exam in 1st place out of 100 applicants. There he studied with Master Mario Gangi, graduating with honours in 1983.In the course of his career he has been awarded many top prizes in International competitions (Ancona 1979/80, "L. Legnani" Parma 1981, "M. Giuliani" 1982, "Ville de Sablé" 1985, Gargnano 1989, "N. Paganini" 1991, "Città di Latina" 1992). Besides that, he has inspired composers such as A. Carlevaro, C. Domeniconi, S. Iannarelli, K. Vassiliev, A. Ourkouzounov, G. Drozd and John W. Duarte to write pieces for him. Always looking for new ideas for his repertoire, he discovered almost forgotten compositions which come out like jewels through his genial transcriptions. Highly praised by the press of his editing Violin Fantasies 12 by Georg Philipp Telemann, which is released as a CD and music book. He is a highly distinguished acknowledged seminar senior lecturer in the area of guitar music analysis. He currently teaches at:

o Conservatorium Maastricht (The Netherlands).
o Pôle Superiour d'enseignements artistiques (apPSEA) in Lille, (France).
o Musical Academy "Civica Scuola delle Arti" in Rome (Italy).
o Conservatori Superior de Música de les Illes Balears in Mallorca (Spain).
o Scuola di Specializzazione post laurea in Beni Musicali in Torino (Italy).

Besides these activities, he is also an enthusiastic online teacher, having found with his fiancée the Marchione Online Academy, teaching here top students from all over the world. Carlo is also very active as music publisher, having his own online publishing company, MarchioneMusic Editions, through which they release every month a new guitar transcription.

www.carlo-marchione.com

"Hopkinson Smith, without doubt the finest lute player in the world today."  (San Francisco Chronicle)

Born in New York in 1946, Swiss-American lutenist Hopkinson Smith graduated from Harvard with Honors in Music in 1972. His instrumental studies took him to Europe where he worked with Emilio Pujol, a great pedagogue in the highest Catalan artistic tradition, and with the Swiss lutenist, Eugen Dombois, whose sense of organic unity between performer, instrument, and historical period has had lasting effects on him. He has been involved in numerous chamber music projects and was one of the founding members of the ensemble Hespèrion XX. Since the mid-80’s, he has focused almost exclusively on the solo repertoires for early plucked instrument, producing a series of prize-winning recordings for Astrée and Naïve, which feature Spanish music for vihuela and baroque guitar, French lute music of the Renaissance and baroque, English and Italian music of the 16th early 17th century and music from the German high baroque.

The recording of his lute arrangements of the Bach solo violin Sonatas and Partitas, released in the year 2000, has been universally acclaimed by the press. Gramophone magazine called it “the best recording of these works on any instrument”. A Dowland recording, released in early 2005, won a Diapason d’Or and was called ‘wonderfully personal’ in a review in the New York Times. A recording with music from the world of Francesco da Milano, was awarded a Diapason d’Or de l’Année (the French equivalent of a Grammy award) in November 2009 and has been called “the first recording to do justice to Francesco’s reputation.” A CD with the first three Bach Cello Suites played on the German Theorbo was released in early 2013, has also won a Diapason d’Or and was called “totally riveting” in the BBC Music Magazine.

Hopkinson Smith has performed and given master classes throughout Eastern and Western Europe, North and South America, Australia, New Zealand, Korea and Japan sometimes combining the life-style of a hermit with that of a gypsy. In 2007 and 2009, he gave concerts and workshops in Palestine under the auspices of the Barenboim-Said Foundation and the Swiss Arts Council. In 2010, he received the music prize from the Italian Region of Puglia with the inscription “maestro dei maestri, massimo interprete delle musiche per liuto dell’antica Europa Mediterranea”. He lives in Basel, Switzerland where he teaches at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis.  

https://www.hopkinsonsmith.com

Stepan Rak’s life and artistic path has been well documented in encyclopedias, in TV interviews here in the Czech Republic and abroad, on radio programs and in many other printed publications. Let’s take a look at some highlights from the more recent years of this storied career.

In the year 2000, Stepan Rak was historically and officially named the first Professor of Guitar in the Czech Republic. This title was bestowed upon him by President Vaclav Havel.

In 2001, he became the first guitarist in the world to be invited to perform solo at the famed P.I. Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow. The concert was received overwhelmingly well, resulting in a second invitation. In that same year, he performed in Mexico with Alfred Strejček at the VIVAT COMENIUS concert, held in honor of J.A. Komensky. This marked the second collaboration for the artists on the American continent.

Stepan Rak then returned to perform at the P.I. Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow in 2002, where he also performed at the world-renowned Moscow Fall festival. In that same year, the artist added Japan to the list of 73 countries where he had already performed.

In 2003, KYTARA, MÁ LÁSKA (trans. Guitar, My Love), the book he co-authored with Jaroslava Urbanova, was released. The book was dedicated to several celebrities, founders of guitar schools in the Czech Republic, and Professor Stepan Urban.

In February 2004, Stepan Rak became the first Czech guitarist ever invited to China. At the theatre in Peking he dazzled his audience with his Chvála čaje (trans. Ode to Tea) concert. And in March of that year, he hosted the international festival for world-champion guitarists in California. His U.S. audience was mystified with his breath taking composition 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Later in 2005, the artist visited many venues in several other countries and at home in the Czech Republic while celebrating his 60th birthday.

In November 2006, Stepan Rak was presented with the gift of a lifetime, a one-of-a-kind stone guitar carved for him by the sculptor Jan Řeřich. This guitar possesses extraordinary, resonating properties that the artist utilizes in his KYTAROTERAPIE (tran. Guitarotherapy).

At the end of 2007, he and his graduates from HAMU (the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague) commemorated 25 years of guitar with a concert at the academy where founded guitar as a field of study in 1982. On November 4, 2007, Rak and Strejček were at it again. This time the pair teamed up in Florence, Italy at the Uffizi Gallery, where they performed a memorable rendition of the late Jan Amos Komensky’s Obecná porada o nápravě věcí lidských (trans. General Consultation on the Reform of Human Affairs) in front a portrait of Komensky painted by Rembrandt. Then, in December, the two artists christened a newly-released selection of readings from Komensky’s famed work.

Stepan Rak is an enchanting artist who enthralls listeners with interpretations of a championship caliber and an elite composer all wrapped up into one musical, spiritual performing virtuoso.

http://www.stepanrak.cz/stepan-rak-biography.html

Maria Linnemann was born in 1947 in Amsterdam but grew up in England. She studied Conducting, Violin and Piano at the Royal Academy of Music in London, and later dedicated her studies to the Classical Guitar, inspired by the German Guitarist and Painter Martin Nicolai. Since 1971 she has lived mainly in Germany, working as a musician, guitarist and teacher, and has published many of her more than 500 compositions with renowned publishing houses, such as Ricordi (Halleonard), Trekel Verlag Hamburg, and Henri Lemoine in Paris.

Over the years Maria Linnemann has been invited to work at many national and international guitar festivals, giving masterclasses and seminars, and sitting on competition juries.

She has travelled extensively, also spending five years in China as a Professor of English. Among her compositions are works for guitar solo-, duo- and trio, as well as chamber music with guitar.

Her music is loved and much played all over the world.

http://www.maria-linnemann.de

Petrit Çeku’s exquisite sensibility and expressiveness have attracted and engaged audiences worldwide. He has performed many recitals throughout Europe and North America and was a soloist with major symphonic orchestras such as Baltimore Symphony, Czech Chamber Philharmonic, State Hermitage Orchestra of St. Petersburg and Zagreb Philharmonic. He also appears regularly with the famed string ensemble Zagreb Soloists and is a founding member of Guitar Trio Elogio, established in 2008. Hailed by guitar critic Colin Cooper as “a soloist of the highest ability”. Çeku is the first prize winner of many international guitar competitions, including the most prestigious ones like Parkening (Malibu, USA), Schadt (Allentown, USA), Biasini (Bologna, Italy), and Pittaluga (Alessandria, Italy).

Born in 1985 in Prizren, Kosovo, Çeku took his first guitar lessons with Luan Sapunxhiu. In 2002 he moved to Zagreb, Croatia, after receiving an invitation to study with Xhevdet Sahatxhija. In 2008, Çeku graduated from the Zagreb Academy of Music, in the renowned class of Darko Petrinjak. He then went on to study with the great master, Manuel Barrueco, at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore USA, where he completed his studies in 2013. Çeku’s first CD was released in 2008 by Naxos. In May 2015 the Spanish label Eudora issued his recording of all six Bach Cello Suites, arranged by Valter Dešpalj. Petrit Çeku plays on a Ross Gutmeier guitar.

http://petritceku.com

With a duo repertoire ranging from emotional soundscapes to intoxicating rhythmical pieces, violinist Bjarke Falgren and guitarist Sönke Meinen re-shaped the sound of a violin and guitar duo. In their compositions the two virtuosos blend folk influences with classical music, fingerstyle guitar and a pinch of jazz.

Their highly acclaimed duo debut album got nominated twice for the Danish Music Awards 2019: In the categories „World Music Album of the Year“ and „Composer of the Year“.

Denmark-based Bjarke Falgren tours all around the world and writes and produces music for film and theatre. As well as in the duo with Sönke Meinen, Falgren is also currently active as a solo artist and as a member of various band constellations, e. g. Hot N Spicy, World On A String or the Bjarke Falgren & Paolo Russo Duo. Jazz violin legend Svend Asmussen has enthusiastically designated him as his successor stating: “Bjarke Falgren is the hardest swingin´ fiddler I have heard since Stuff Smith.”

German guitarist Sönke Meinen also performs solo and together with jazz guitarist Philipp Wiechert. He has won numerous prizes, and in 2016 he collected awards at two of the largest international guitar competitions: the well-respected „Guitar Masters“ (first prize) and the European Guitar Award (sponsoring prize). The Australian guitar wizard Tommy Emmanuel introduced Sönke Meinen to his audience as „one of the most creative guitarists in the scene today“.

Falgren and Meinen coax a wide range of different timbres out of their instruments, from warm and tender to powerful and percussive. Their original compositions are sometimes extremely gentle and sometimes highly energetic, but always full of playfulness and emotional intensity.

https://www.soenkemeinen.com

Born in 1990, François-Xavier Dangremont makes his grand guitar debut at the age of 10 at the Mans Conservatory under Brigitte Palisson’s direction with whom he successfully obtains his DEM (Diploma of Musical Studies). Following up his specialised class with Tania Chagnot in l'Hay-les-Roses, he joins Judicael Perroy’s class at the French higher study “pôle d’enseignement” of Lille (ESMD). He thus graduates in 2017 with bachelors in both musicology and performing arts (DNSPM), as well as a General Academic Studies Degree in pedagogy (DE).

Actively seeking self-development as a performer, he both takes part and is a laureate in numerous international contests; namely, 1st prize for Kutná Hora competition (Czech Republic, 2019), 1st prize for “the concours international de Carry-le-Rouet” (France, 2017), 1st place for the international concert of Coria (Spain, 2018), 2nd prize for the international contest of Amarante (Portugal, 2018), 2nd prize for the international contest of Vienna (Austria, 2018), 3rd place in the Koblenz international contest (Germany, 2018). He also played in numerous places, among others in Stuttgart, Bonn, Coria, Vienna, Sarajevo, London, Paris.

Inspired as much by the great works of the repertoire as by the search for forgotten pieces, François-Xavier Dangremont performs early music such as Francesco da Milano, to Dionisio Aguado through to the twentieth-century composers such as Eduardo López-Chavarri and Sergio Assad in his concerts. In 2020, he began teaching at the Conservatoire de Grenoble and also organises a guitar workshop at the Carlton Hotel in Lille, with Raphaël Feuillâtre and Antoine Fougeray.

Josué Gutiérrez lives in Pordenone, where he teaches classical guitar and chamber music. For many years, he has been involved with the Segovia Guitar Academy in the diffusion of the classical guitar as a tool for the artistic and human development of children through the discovery of their own expressive dimension.

He works as a concert performer, teacher, jury member and artistic director. He has held numerous concerts, conferences, seminars and masterclasses in Mexico, Austria, Croatia, Italy, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Spain and Switzerland. In 2012 the Mexican TV show "Chiapanecos en el mundo" dedicated an episode to his artistic career.

He was a member of the Nahual Trio, founded in 2002, with which he has sustained an intense concert activity in Mexico and Europe. Among the numerous awards obtained by the trio stand out the 12 first prizes won in important national and international chamber competitions, the Medal of the President of the Senate of the Italian Republic, awarded by the International Chamber Music Competition "Gaetano Zinetti" of Verona and the Diploma of Merit of the Chigiana Academy of Siena conferred by Oscar Ghiglia to the Best Student of the course.

The Italian composer Marco De Biasi has dedicated many chamber and solo works to this formation and its members, including his Concert for Three Guitars and Orchestra, which premiered in 2008.

The CD "Trio Nahual", released in 2010, obtained great success with the critics and public support. The musicologist Ermanno Brignolo, in a review published by the Italian magazine "SeiCorde", wrote:
"... The three guitarists know, like few others in history, to create a true trio, combining their strong personalities in an ensemble compact, homogeneous, giving the impression that the sound is coming from a single instrument."

Josué Gutiérrez was born in 1978 in Mexico. After starting the study of the guitar in his country, he moved to Italy in order to continue his musical training with Paolo Pegoraro and Stefano Viola at the "Francisco Tárrega" Academy in Pordenone and the Conservatories of Castelfranco Veneto and Udine.

He obtained a diploma in guitar with maximum marks and a specialist degree with maximum marks and highest honors. His thesis "Johann Sebastian Bach: Ciaccona" was published by the musicological magazine “Il Fronimo” of Milan and by Farandola Editrice di Pordenone.
Among the several masterclasses he attended during his training, those held by Stefano Grondona, Pavel Steidl and Oscar Ghiglia stand out.

He also attended early music seminars held by harpsichordists Ilario Gregoletto, Robert Hill and Richard Lluby, and studied Viola da gamba with Daniele Cernutto. In addition to this, he specialized with Alessandra Costaperaria in pedagogy and music teaching.

Apart from his great love of music, his interests range in fields such as reading, photography, writing, drawing and Buddhism.
He plays a guitar made by luthier Marco Bortolozzo. 

Prof. Thomas Offermann counts today as one of the most internationally regarded guitar pedagogues in Europe and further afield. As soloist, with orchestra and as member of the internationally acclaimed Duo Sonare, one of the outstanding guitar duos of recent times, he has toured in over forty countries worldwide and participated at the most prestigious Guitar Festivals. Numerous Radio and Television broadcasts, together with 8 internationally appraised CD recordings provide a worthy documentation of the quality of his work.

Through his work with Duo Sonare, Thomas Offermann opened new ground for the classical guitar repertoire with the adaption of music by such figures as Chick Corea, Frank Zappa and Mike Oldfield. Chick Corea himself praised these interpretations for „so much feeling and beauty“.

As Professor he currently teaches an International Master class at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Rostock; he is Artistic Director of the International Guitar Academy Berlin. His experienced and sensitive manner of teaching the guitar have won him great renown both at home and abroad. He is at present engaged in the publication of the „Integrative Guitar Technique“ which has already been featured at prestigious institutions, guitar festivals and universities across the world, winning acclaim from both participants and peers alike.

In recent years Thomas Offermann has also been active as a conductor of guitar orchestras presenting works by Steve Reich, Roland Dyens, Carlo Domeniconi, Benjamin Verdery, Leo Brouwer and others; Carlo Domeniconi and Benjamin Verdery wrote works for larger Guitar Ensembles for him.

Danielle Ribouillault wrote on his teaching in Les Cahiers de la Guitare:
“As I entered the class, he was explaining how to use the notes to revive a phrase, and then you can hear how the phrase flourishes and starts to live. He guides the student towards a generous Rubato that lets the melody vibrate. He, who had played with such a musicality and mastery, knows how to transmit his live-giving esprit… A lot of students attended his class: clearly because something special happens with him during his passionate transmission of music, something essential and more intense than otherwise.”

Since 2010 Thomas Offermann is the D’Addario’s European Classical Guitar Representative.

http://www.thomasoffermann.com

Martin Schwarz studied guitar at the Academy of Music in Vienna with Walter Würdinger and Luciano Contini. He took part in masterclasses with Hubert Käppel, Oscar Ghiglia, Alvaro Pierri and many others. His most influential teacher was David Russell.

As a soloist and chamber musician, he has been performing in Austria, Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Russia, Italy and Greece.

CD releases with works by Stefan Soewandi were published in 1997 and 1999 „Echoing Silence“ and „Dewa“ (Kreuzberg Records Berlin).

He is a founding member of the guitar quartet „Guitar4mation“. With this ensemble, Martin Schwarz has been touring since 1993. CD releases: 1996 „From a Hidden Street“ (Polski Nagrania Edition), 2006 „pulse.sound.joy.heart.“, 2010 „Sonada del Alma“, 2014 „Trans4mation“ (all with Gramola, Vienna).

An important part of his artistic work is arranging and composing music for guitar (from solo pieces to orchestra arrangements).

He has been teaching for many years in various music schools in Austria. In 2012, he started to teach the guitar ensemble at the University of Music in Vienna. In 2015, he was appointed professor for guitar at the Anton Bruckner University in Linz, Austria.

Petr Saidl studied at the Conservatory of Pardubice with Stanislav Juřica and at the Hochschule Franz Liszt in Weimar with prof. Roland Zimmer, prof. Jürgen Rost and prof. Monika Rost. He undertook master classes with e.g. Gordon Crosskey, John W. Duarte, Hubert Käppel, Costas Cotsiolis, Wolfgang Lendle a.o.

He was awarded prizes in numerous national and international guitar competitions. In 1990 he was placed on the premium document of the Czech Musical Fund. Since 1993 he has taught at the Conservatory of Pardubice, since 2007 he has been the head of the guitar department there. Since 2016 he has taught also at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. His students are prizewinners of prestigious national and international competitions (208 prizes, among them 78 first prizes). He cooperates with music publishing houses, he is regularly invited to take the chair of various guitar competition juries and he lectures at guitar festival courses, conservatories and music universities. In 2010 he became part of the D’Addario family.

He has given concerts across Europe, both as a soloist and as a player in various chamber ensembles, often with violist Milan Řehák, violinist Bohuslav Matoušek or as a member of guitar quartet „Guitar4mation“. He has made various TV and radio recordings for ORF, ARD, BR1, Czech Television and Czech Radio. He has released two solo CDs, then one CD with violist Milan Řehák and three with guitar quartet “Guitar4mation”.

He has been the director of the project „Guitar Kutná Hora“, which organizes “The International Guitar Biennial in Kutná Hora”, the festival “Guitar Night” and awards a prize “The Young Guitarist of the Year”.

Stanislav Juřica has been teaching at the Conservatory in Pardubice since its foundation in 1978 until 2018. During this time he worked with a number of important guitar soloists and teachers, such as P. Saidl, K. Fleischlinger, M. Hromek, J. Macek, L. Fišer, M. Šír, R. Coufal, A. Hronová, T. Honěk, M. Svoboda, I. Sedláčková ad. Since 2010 he has also been teaching at the Art School in Přelouč. He has been working for more than thirty years as an accredited lecturer in the further education of art school teachers.

Together with Martin Mysliveček and Olga Dvorská, they founded and led for twenty years the International Guitar Festival with master classes in Mikulov, which is still one of the top guitar events in Europe.

His publishing activities in the field of instructive guitar literature and transcriptions of Renaissance and Baroque guitar and lute-type music are also active. It is worth mentioning, for example: From Czech lute tablatures and From Czech guitar tablatures (Panton), Renaissance Lute, John Dowland, Silvius Leopold Weiss (H Music Publishing), Renaissance lute fantasies I and II, Bach Partita I BWV1002 (Opus Print), Bach Suite BWW 996 and 998, Jelínek Suite A major (Bärenreiter Praha), Jiří Vojtěch Kalivoda A selection from a work for a baroque lute (In Cordis, z.s.).

His method of teaching children Fast and Fun Lessons 1-5 and Easy Guitar Compositions 1-4 (Notovna.cz Prague) also aroused a great response.

Prof. Jens Wagner completed his studies with Karl Scheit, one of the great pedagogues of modern guitar playing. Important impulses and high sensitivity he received through intensive study of the old music. As a soloist and together with the Duo Sonare he has toured in more than 40 countries and played on major festivals.

As an arranger he has enriched the guitar repertoire with works also from rock and pop music e.g. Mike Oldfield’s „Tubular Bells“, a milestone in the history of music, or guitar virtuoso John McLaughlin's compositions. You can find in his programs contrasting connections of different music styles performed on the 19th century guitar and the modern Spanish guitar.

As an experienced guitarist and lutenist Jens Wagner has a profound knowledge he passes on to his students. He is professor at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hamburg and at the University of the Arts Bremen.

His professional articles about „posture and movement theory“ and „filing technique for guitarists“ have been published in several magazines. Jens Wagner guitar arrangements of works by Telemann and Haydn have been published by Heinrichshofen and Trekel.

12 highly acclaimed CD recordings document his artistic work.

https://jenswagner.com

With a duo repertoire ranging from emotional soundscapes to intoxicating rhythmical pieces, violinist Bjarke Falgren and guitarist Sönke Meinen re-shaped the sound of a violin and guitar duo. In their compositions the two virtuosos blend folk influences with classical music, fingerstyle guitar and a pinch of jazz.

Their highly acclaimed duo debut album got nominated twice for the Danish Music Awards 2019: In the categories „World Music Album of the Year“ and „Composer of the Year“.

Denmark-based Bjarke Falgren tours all around the world and writes and produces music for film and theatre. As well as in the duo with Sönke Meinen, Falgren is also currently active as a solo artist and as a member of various band constellations, e. g. Hot N Spicy, World On A String or the Bjarke Falgren & Paolo Russo Duo. Jazz violin legend Svend Asmussen has enthusiastically designated him as his successor stating: “Bjarke Falgren is the hardest swingin´ fiddler I have heard since Stuff Smith.”

German guitarist Sönke Meinen also performs solo and together with jazz guitarist Philipp Wiechert. He has won numerous prizes, and in 2016 he collected awards at two of the largest international guitar competitions: the well-respected „Guitar Masters“ (first prize) and the European Guitar Award (sponsoring prize). The Australian guitar wizard Tommy Emmanuel introduced Sönke Meinen to his audience as „one of the most creative guitarists in the scene today“.

Falgren and Meinen coax a wide range of different timbres out of their instruments, from warm and tender to powerful and percussive. Their original compositions are sometimes extremely gentle and sometimes highly energetic, but always full of playfulness and emotional intensity.

Maroje Brčić was born in Dubrovnik, Croatia, where he lives today. He began studying the guitar at the age of seven, his first teacher being his father, Stefanin Brčić. He finished secondary music school in the class of István Römer, and he graduated from the Music Academy of the University of Zagreb in the class of Darko Petrinjak. He teaches the guitar at the Arts Academy of the University of Split, often serves on judging panels at competitions, and holds professional lectures and seminars. His pupils and students have won close to one hundred first prizes at national and international competitions.

Brčić has performed on concert stages for almost thirty years as a soloist, as a member of various chamber ensembles, and as a soloist with orchestral accompaniment (the Croatian Radio-Television Orchestra, the Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra, the Varaždin Chamber Orchestra, the Zagreb Soloists, the Mostar Chamber Orchestra, the Sarajevo Philharmonic, the Temisoara Filharmonic, the Orchestra of the Macedonian National Opera, and the Gnessin Virtuosos of Moscow). He has performed abroad in Europe, Asia, and North America. He has encouraged numerous composers to write for the guitar, including Željko Brkanović, Nikša Njirić, Ivo Josipović, Berislav Šipuš, Philip Bracanin, Goran Listeš, Anđelko Klobučar, and Zoran Juranić.

He has received the Rector’s Prize of the University of Zagreb, the Milko Trnin Award (with the Dubrovnik guitar trio) and is a two-time winner of the Orlando Prize (in 2009 with Zoran Dukić and in 2017 with a guitar quartet consisting of Zoran Dukić, Petrit Çeku, Tvrtko Sarić, and Maroje Brčić). He has published a book discussing themes in the field of interpretation and guitar playing technique and he has recorded six CDs for record labels in Croatia and Austria.

Tvrtko Sarić was born in Gospić, Croatia. His musical education began in Rijeka, where he studied for three years in the class of Nikola Jedrlinić, after which he finished secondary music school in Zagreb in the class of István Römer. He then studied at the Music Academy of the University of Zagreb, graduating in the class of Darko Petrinjak. At the Ino Mirković Music Academy in Lovran, he completed a one-year specialization course with Goran Listeš.

He has had concerts in Slovenia, Austria, Italy, Germany, Poland, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mexico, and the United States. As a soloist, he has performed with the Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra, the Zagreb Soloists, the Celje String Orchestra, the Varaždin Chamber Orchestra, almost all string quartets in Croatia, and as a member of the Cantus Ensemble for the promotion of contemporary music. From 2010 to 2015 he was a member of the renaissance ensemble Minstrel, in which he played the lute. Since 2016, he has performed in Kvartet gitara (with Zoran Dukić, Petrit Çeku, and Maroje Brčić). With this quartet, he received the Orlando Award at the 68th Dubrovnik Summer Festival in 2017. He records for record labels in Croatia and Slovenia.

He is a recipient of the Porin Award for best classical music album (performing on Berislav Šipuš’s, Zajedno [Together], Cantus, 2018). He is the founder and artistic director of several concert series in the area of Gospić and Lika-Senj County. He is a senior lecturer in the Department of Education at the University of Zadar’s Gospić campus and also teaches at the music school in Črnomelj. In 2012, he founded the Degenija Choir. In 2017 was awarded the Rector’s Prize of the University of Zadar for “outstanding achievements in artistic work and direction of the Choir.”

Michael Parkinson was born in Yorkshire, England in 1952. He began learning to play the bassoon at the age of 12, and at 16 was selected for the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain. He went on to study the bassoon at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, where he had his first Alexander Technique lessons. On completing his musical studies in 1973 he joined the Orchestra of the English National Ballet, with whom he played for 12 years. During this time he enrolled in a 3-year training program to become an Alexander Technique Teacher. He qualified in 1979 and taught the AT in London alongside his musical career.

In 1985 Michael moved to Vienna to teach the AT at Dramatisches Zentrum Wien. From 1991-1996 he was a guest professor for the Alexander Technique at the University for Music and Performing Arts in Graz. In 1996 he established the Alexander Technique Teacher Training Centre in Vienna. In recent years he has given many AT workshops throughout the Czech Republic: in Prague, Brno, Olomouc, Kromeriz and Jesenik. He has been teaching at the GFM since 2004.

Michael is still actively engaged in the music world; giving AT lessons to many musicians, and also playing the bassoon with a variety of orchestras and chamber ensembles in Vienna.

ttps://www.alexandertechniquecentrevienna.com/