Award-winning lutenist and romantic-guitarist Peter Croton is an active performer and recording artist as soloist and accompanist. In the press he has been called a “lyric poet of the lute” and has been praised for his “breath-taking virtuosity” and “astonishing range of tone colors and dynamics”. His compositions for voice & lute have been described as “challenging and refined... highly suited for inclusion in today's concert repertoire”. 

His newest books,  A METHOD FOR THE BAROQUE LUTE BASED ON HISTORICAL SOURCES &  A METHOD FOR THE RENAISSANCE LUTE, WITH A SUPPLEMENT FOR THE ARCHLUTE are now available from Le Luth Dorè.

Born in the USA, Peter Croton lives in Switzerland where he teaches lute, romantic guitar, and continuo at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, as well as lute, historical performance practice and guitar continuo at the Conservatories of Basel and Bern. His musical activities, however, are not limited to early music. In addition to playing cello, at six he began performing as folk guitarist and singer. At twelve he began classical guitar lessons with Leon Atkinson, and later played guitar in various jazz ensembles. Starting in 1979 he studied lute and classical guitar with Dr. Loris Chobanian (Oberlin Conservatory of Music) and lute with Eugen Dombois and Hopkinson Smith (Schola Cantorum Basiliensis). 

He won first prize at the Erwin Bodky Competition for Early Music in Cambridge MA (1984) and has also won prizes at other international competitions. He has recorded numerous CDs and appeared on television and radio as soloist and chamber musician. Peter’s regular duo partners have included the singers Derek Lee Ragin and Theresia Bothe,  as well as the Egyptian oud-player Nehad El Sayed, and he has appeared at many international festivals.

His instruction manual Figured Bass on the Classical Guitar: a practical approach based on historical principles was published by Amadeus Verlag (2005). Six of his compositions for lute and voice were published by the German Lute Society (1999), and his four new settings of texts by William Shakespeare for lute and voice by Tree Edition, 2009. His book PERFORMING BAROQUE MUSIC ON THE LUTE & THEORBO: a practical handbook based on historical sources was published in 2016 on Amazon/Createspace; Hopkinson Smith has praised its “wealth of information and insight”. His book PERFORMING BAROQUE MUSIC ON THE CLASSICAL GUITAR: a practical handbook based on historical sources was published in 2015, likewise on Amazon/Createspace; David Russell calls it a “fabulous book – it will be a great help and inspiration to many guitarists”.    

Peter is President of the German Lute Society (Deutsche Lautengesellschaft), and is the initiator & artistic director of BASELPLUCKS - Festival for lute & guitar. 

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.

Enrica Savigni is an Italian multi-instrumentalist with a diverse range of musical experiences, currently focused on the study of instruments and repertoire from the Classical-Romantic period.

Her interest in historical instruments began in 2011, when she participated in the 19th-century guitar masterclass at Milan’s Civica Scuola di Musica “Claudio Abbado” with Duo Maccari-Pugliese, and she graduated in 2013. She obtained a Master of Arts in Music Performance from the Koninklijk Conservatorium in Brussels in 2021, studying in the Early Music department with Maestro Xavier Díaz Latorre. Prior to that, she studied classical guitar and clarinet at the Conservatorio “A. Boito” in Parma, graduating in 2010 and 2014, respectively.

Enrica is an active performer, engaged in both solo and chamber music projects. She regularly collaborates in a duo with fortepianist Laura Savigni, performing original 19th-century repertoire for guitar and piano on period instruments. Their discography includes the following releases: Giuliani–Moscheles–Mertz, Movimento Classical (2019, released by the Italian music magazine Amadeus); Für Beethoven: Music for Fortepiano and Guitar Inspired by Ludwig van Beethoven, MP Editions (2020); Unruhe: New Transcriptions for Guitar and Piano (2024)

As an Artistic Director, she is involved in various initiatives aimed at empowering the guitar community and creating opportunities for young artists to connect and develop their artistic voice. These include the TouchTheSound Project — a collaboration with Marco Ramelli and Gabriele Lodi focused on performance practice, ancient instruments, and historical repertoire – and the Residenze Erranti project, a program of artistic residencies created in partnership with Giacomo Susani and Marco Ramelli.

She regularly gives masterclasses and participates in conferences, including the Perform_Live Festival in Dublin, Congresso Guitarrístico de Braga (Portugal), the Society for Musicology in Ireland’s Annual Plenary Conference, and the Mikulov Guitar Festival.

Enrica is currently a DMus researcher at TU Dublin Conservatoire, a freelance performer and guitar tutor at Maynooth University (Ireland).

Marco is a lecturer at TU Dublin Conservatoire, approaching music with curiosity and a spirit of research.

As a guitarist, his interests range from contemporary music to historical performance on period instruments. He investigates the relationship between instrument and interpretation, particularly by developing projects aimed at enhancing tactile sensitivity. He has performed internationally appearing in important venues as a soloist and chamber musician. 

He has recorded several albums, including the guitar music of Roberto Gerhard and Federico Mompou, as well as transcriptions of Mompou’s piano music, realized in collaboration with James Beneteau. In 2025, he will release the first album in the A Tempo Rubato series with Enrica Savigni, featuring Romantic repertoire as part of a research project on time perception and rhythmic nuance.

His research interests span performance practice, music cognition, and organology, with a recent focus on trauma, disability, and their impact on creativity. In 2022, he contributed The Influence of the Spanish Civil War on Roberto Gerhard’s Guitar Music to Roberto Gerhard: Re-appraising a Musical Visionary (Oxford University Press). His latest research examines the contributions of blind musicians to the evolution of the guitar.

As a composer, Marco gained international recognition by winning the World Guitar Composition Competition in Serbia. His works are performed worldwide by leading soloists, including Sean Shibe, Andrea Dieci, Lorenzo Micheli, and Andrea De Vitis. Collaboration is central to his artistic path, leading to numerous premieres of works dedicated to him.

Believing in the role of community in musical creativity, he has been involved in the creation of artistic initiatives such as Festival Corde d’Autunno and Residenze Erranti, fostering a young research-oriented guitar community. This same vision drives TouchTheSound, a project exploring historical instruments as a source of knowledge, co-founded with Gabriele Lodi and Enrica Savigni. He also organizes research symposia, including the Dublin Guitar Symposium, and serves on the steering committee of the Festival of Music Performance Research (Dublin) and TU Dublin Research Symposium. In 2018, he was awarded the Chitarra d’Oro for promotion by the Scientific Committee of the International Guitar Conference Michele Pittaluga.

Marco holds a doctorate in performing arts from the University of St Andrews and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, focusing on performer-composer collaboration. He obtained his guitar diploma as an external candidate at the Conservatorio di Musica Giuseppe Verdi in Milan and later earned two postgraduate diplomas one in guitar and one in chamber music from the Conservatorio di Musica Luca Marenzio. He completed a Master’s in Performance (APEL) with distinction at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, studying guitar with Alan Neave and composition with Rory Boyle. He began studying guitar with Andrea Dieci and attended masterclasses including Pavel Steidl, and Oscar Ghiglia.

He completed a postgraduate course in organology at the University of Edinburgh and he has collaborated with many luthiers. Additionally, he holds a degree in Computer Science with a focus on mathematical methods for computing, interested in researching Petri nets and neural networks.

Marco uses a historic guitar purchased with the support of Music Network’s Music Capital Scheme, funded by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media. Music Network is funded by The Arts Council.

Born into a music-loving family, Gaëlle Solal discovered the classical guitar at age five and began studying at the Marseille Conservatoire the following year. As a little girl she wrote in a notebook, “When I grow up, I want to be a dancer and musician.” Some dreams do indeed come true.

Solal entered the Paris Conservatoire at age 16 and graduated three years later with a Premier Prix honours degree and a desire to keep learning. Fun-loving, ambitious, and keen not to let any new challenge pass her by, she took part in international competitions while studying for her master’s degree at the Hochschule für Musik in Cologne. In 1998, Solal became the first Frenchwoman to win the City of Alessandria Competition, one of the world’s leading classical guitar competitions. She also won prizes in 12 other national and international competitions and was awarded grants and scholarships by numerous foundations.

In the early 2000s, Solal moved to Andalusia to begin a teaching career, obtaining professorships at the conservatories of Córdoba and Seville while continuing her own studies through masterclasses around the world. After ten years in the Astor Duo, she resumed her solo performing career in 2006 and won second prize in the Guitar Foundation of America’s International Concert Artist Competition. Solal went on to perform at prestigious venues in more than forty countries as a recitalist, chamber musician, and soloist with orchestra.

A devotee of freedom rather than dogma, Solal moves seamlessly from Bach to the Beatles, from contemporary music to Baroque, and from formal performances to comic acts with partner Boris Gaquere in the Crazy Nails duo.

A committed and supportive professional, Solal campaigns for the presence and visibility of women in the guitar world via the Guitar’elles organization, which she founded. Solal has lived in Brussels since 2011. She plays on Savarez strings and with a Rondine guitar by Walter Verreydt and Martina Gozzini.  

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”.

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

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.

https://www.alexandertechniquecentrevienna.com/