Azusa Shimizu

After studies in French literature in Tokyo, Japanese guitarist Azusa Shimizu moved to Europe where she lived from 1984 to 1995.

While in France, she undertook musical studies at National Conservatory in Nice, in La Courneuve and Boulogne-sur-Mer, and in Copenhagen at the Royal Academy.

Azusa is a Laureate artist from the Palme d'or in Italy, and was a participant in the Tokyo International Guitar Competition in 1991.

She is an active recitalist, having made critically acclaimed appearances throughout Japan, as well as in France, Belgium, Denmark and Taiwan.

Carlos Bonell

Carlos Bonell is one of today's most celebrated guitarists. He was born in London of Spanish parents and he studied at the Royal College of Music with John Williams, where he was appointed the youngest ever professor in 1972. He gained prominence in 1981 through his recording for Decca of Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra and Charles Dutoit. It has been repeatedly singled out as the finest version available. At the beginning of his recording career, his 1976 CBS recording with John Williams and Friends received a Grammy nomination. Since that time Carlos has made more than 20 LP and CD recordings.

Since 2006 Carlos has been helping Sir Paul McCartney in notating and recording a concerto for guitar and orchestra, with the composition of the work due to continue into 2011. The work was featured in a June 2007 cover article by The New Yorker magazine.

His career includes TV, Film and CD recordings, worldwide tours, concertos with the major orchestras, and the creation of his own Ensemble. He can be heard on the sound tracks of the Hollywood films City of Angels and The Honest Courtesan and on the BBC TV productions Inspector Morse and The Politician's Wife. He has played at many international Festivals including The City of London, Aldeburgh, Helsinki, Israel, Tanglewood, Sydney, Istanbul, Hong Kong, and New York's Mostly Mozart Festival, and his tours take him as far as Australia, the Far East and South America.

Carlos has formed musical associations with a wide variety of musicians including ex-Beatle Sir Paul McCartney, guitarists John Williams and Paco Peña, violinists Salvatore Accardo and Pinchas Zukerman, and singers Patricia Rozario and Teresa Berganza.

Carlos’ first DVD Classical Guitar Performance, released in 2005 contains a one hour live performance with spoken introductions in English and Spanish by Carlos himself. It has met with universal acclaim. The same year saw the first book about the guitar by Carlos: Guitar - An Easy Guide.

In 2006 Carlos undertook an extended tour of the USA which included Fort Worth, Dallas, Atlanta and Las Vegas, presenting his acclaimed solo programme “Millennium Guitar, the first 1000 years”.

In 2007 he was awarded the prestigious Spanish prize Premio Trujamán for his work for the solo guitar, and in 2008 he presented the third edition of the London International Guitar Festival, of which he is the Artistic Director. Also in 2008 his album release Queen Guitar Rhapsodies of new arrangements of music by the group Queen for solo guitar and symphony orchestra, was widely praised, including by Queen’s Brian May himself.

From 2007 to 2009 Carlos has toured extensively through Europe, North and South America and Asia both as soloist and guest with Symphony Orchestras. In 2010 he returned to Japan for an extended tour.

Carlos is greatly in demand as a teacher. Every year he conducts international teaching courses in Italy, Spain, the UK and Venezuela, as well as masterclasses during many of his concert tours. In Venezuela he was awarded the Cátedra Internacional de Guitarra Carlos Bonell in recognition of his teaching activities there since 2000 which have included workshops and masterclasses throughout the country. The Cátedra receives financial support from numerous organisations and institutions, and is recognized by Universities as a valuable part of student studies.

Following his association with Sir Paul McCartney Carlos released the album Magical Mystery Guitar Tour in 2011. It is dedicated to the music of the Beatles in Carlos’ own arrangements for solo guitar.

www.carlosbonell.com

Concordia Guitar Duo, Martin Byatt, Alex Lewis

Dennis Cooke and Nick Hartley have been performing as the Concordia Guitar Duo for about twenty years now. Both had much previous experience of ensemble playing, notably: Nick with Gilbert Biberian's ‘Omega Players’; and Dennis with Ian Cross, based in Scotland, and giving performances that included television and radio. Recently Nick and Dennis have given more time to their other breadwinning activities but have continued playing at various events in London and the South of England.

Their programmes have always included a mix of standard guitar duo repertoire and their own arrangements, which tend to push at the limits of the combination's possibilities, sometimes even stretching this with requinto and ten-string guitars (giving greater pitch range).

For this concert they play music from Europe and the Americas using two standard guitars. They will tell you a little something about the pieces during the recital.

Martin Byatt is a Scottish guitarist and composer based in London whose playing style draws on many influences.

His background in classical guitar, jazz and rock styles is evident in his compositions, and his arrangements of some of the hits of the 70’s ( Dire Straits, Steely Dan, Allman Bros etc. ) hark back to a mis-spent youth!

In 1995 he wrote and arranged music for Radio 3’s production of Sharman MacDonalds play The Sea Urchins – reminiscences of her father’s obsession with blues and steel guitar playing. Apart from his solo work Martin performs with his Latin-Jazz trio  - Zaramba –  performing Spanish, South American and Latin Jazz music.

 

Alex Lewis recently played guitar for Ruth Ojadi on the BBC documentary 'I swear I can sing', and also recorded with Radio one DJ Reggie Yates. Alex enjoys playing a wide range of styles, including many of his own compositions. He performs regularly at Lauderdale House, Highgate, and has also played in many different settings, including musicals and clubs. He studies with the Head of Guitar Studies at Trinity college, Graham Devine.

Johan Lofving

 

Johan Löfving was born in Sweden in 1989 and started to play the guitar at the age of nine at the local Music School with Lars Eriksson. Three years later he started to study privately with the distinguished Norwegian Guitar Professor Sven Lundestad and between 2005 and 2008 he attended Södra Latin´s Upper Secondary School in Stockholm, were Bo Hansson was his guitar teacher. At Södra Latin he also studied conducting with Jan Risberg. He is currently studying with Gary Ryan at the Royal College of Music in London were he also studies theorbo with Jakob Lindberg. In the autumn of 2010 he studied with Eliot Fisk at the Mozarteum in Salzburg as a part of the Erasmus Exchange Programme.

In October 2011 Johan was awarded the First Prize in the Young Talent Concert at the Uppsala Guitar Festival in Sweden with the following motivation: "Despite of demanding programme he did the best performance. Good control and tone. Mature playing with great expression."

Johan was also awarded the First Prize in the National Swedish Competition for young guitarists in 2006 and one year later he received the Jörgen Rörby Scholarship from the Swedish Guitar and Lute Society. At the Royal College of Music he has been awarded both the Guitar Prize and the Hilda Anderson Dean Prize.  Johan has also participated in numerous masterclasses with guitarists such as Eduardo Fernandez, Zoran Dukic and Paul Galbraith.

Since 2008, he performs regularly with the flautist Yu-Wei Hu under the name Duo Flauguissimo and together they have performed in London venues such as King's Place and V&A Museum as well as in the Cadogan Hall Lunchtime Concert Series. He has also performed in venues such as the Amaryllis Flemming Concert Hall, The Forges and the Pump Room in Bath.

His passion for new music has resulted in several world premieres of both solo and chamber works, notably by the highly acclaimed British composer and guitarist Sam Cave.

Johan plays on a guitar made by the Norwegian Luthier Yngvar Thomassen.

Morgan Szymanski

Described as ‘a player destined for future glories’ (Classical Guitar Magazine) over the last year Morgan Szymanski was selected as ‘one to watch’ by Gramophone Magazine and the BBC Music Magazine, was featured artist on the cover of Classical Guitar Magazine and was a finalist in the ‘2008 Outstanding Young Artist Award’ (MIDEM Classique/IAMA).

Born in Mexico City in 1979, Morgan Szymanski started playing the guitar at the age of six. Early studies at the National Music School (Mexico) and the Edinburgh Music School led to a scholarship to study under Carlos Bonell and Gary Ryan and the Royal College of Music in London, graduating in 2004 with first class honours. During his studies he won all guitar prizes from the RCM as well as scholarships from the Tillett Trust, Countess of Munster Musical Trust, Leverhulme Trust, Wall Trust, FONCA and a scholarship to study at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam. He immediately went on to become the first solo guitarist to be selected by YCAT and was the first guitarist to be awarded a Junior Fellowship at the RCM, where he completed his Masters with distinction.

A top prize-winner at international competitions, in 2002 Morgan won first prize at the National Guitar Competition in Mexico. Abroad, performances as a soloist and with orchestras have taken him concert halls and festivals in Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Bermuda, China, Chile, France, Germany, Guatemala, Holland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Mexico, Macedonia, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, Scotland, U.S.A, Wales and Zimbabwe.

Over the last year Morgan has given recitals at major UK venues and festivals including Wigmore Hall, Cadogan Hall, Bridgwater Hall, Purcell Room, Queen Elizabeth Hall, King’s Place, the Sage Gateshead, Royal Opera House and London International Guitar Festival. In May 2007 he made his debut with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra performing Joaquin Rodrigo’s ‘Concierto de Aranjuez’. He has broadcast live on TV and radio worldwide, highlights including BBC World Service and Radio 3. Abroad he has performed at the Shanghai Oriental Arts Centre, Luxembourg Philharmonie, Vienna Konzerhaus and Mexico’s Palacio de Bellas Artes.

Described as ‘top class in every respect’ (Classical Guitar Magazine, 2005), Morgan’s previous CD ‘The Unicorn in the Garden’, was released in 2005 including works by Iannarelli, Ritter, Ponce and Barrios as well as works especially written for him by Alec Roth. His recordings with His ensemble ‘Machaca’ Mano a Mano and Los Ambulantes on  Sarabande Records have been qualified as ‘a jewel’ by Gramophone Magazine.

Morgan’s interest in chamber music has led to collaborations with artists such as John Williams and Carlos Bonell (guitar), Mark Padmore (tenor), Alison Balsom (trumpet),  Priya Mitchell (violin), Marcelo Nisinman (bandoneon), the Sacconi Quartet, Phuong Nguyen (accordion), Adam Walker (flute) and Clara Mouriz (mezzo-soprano) amongst others.

He has appeared as a soloist with the Royal Philharmonic Ocrhestra, Hallé, Orchestra of the Swan, Southbank Sinfonia, the Welsh Chamber Orchestra, Scottish Sinfonia, the Cervantes Choir and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields.

For more details please visit www.morganszymanski.co.uk and www.sarabanderecords.com