Sixty years ago, on Friday 12 June 1964, Julian Bream premièred the Nocturnal after John Dowland for Guitar, Op. 70 by Benjamin Britten at the seventeenth Aldeburgh Festival in the Jubilee Hall, in the seaside town of Aldeburgh on the Suffolk coast. This DOREMI release includes Julian Bream’s BBC Studio recording of Britten’s Nocturnal from October 1964. His RCA Victor recording of the Nocturnal on 20th Century Guitar was not released until 1967. Benjamin Britten completed the Nocturnal after John Dowland for Guitar, Op. 70, which was dedicated to Julian Bream, in November 1963, be ..read more

Vicente Amigo Memoria de los Sentidos  at Sadler’s Wells Theatre Wednesday 5 June 2024 Vicente Amigo’s performance in the Flamenco Festival London at Sadler’s Wells was a reminder of his consistently high level of artistry, making him the great Maestro that we continue to admire, both as a composer and as a guitarist. Amigo was completely in his creative zone throughout this superb performance, using all the facilities of his phenomenal technique to express his inspired musical ideas, played with magnificent timbres and colours, contrasted with powerfully fast but expressiv ..read more

MARCIN Dragon in HarmonyFeaturing Tim Henson of Polyphia Today, the guitarist Marcin released his single Classical Dragon – a preview to his  forthcoming debut album Dragon in Harmony, which will be released on Friday 13 September 2024 on Sony Music Masterworks. The single Classical Dragon features Tim Henson of Polyphia in duo with Marcin. The official video release is available on YouTube: The Dragon in Harmony album was produced alongside Dan Book and also features a range of covers of music by Justin Timberlake, Sade and Nirvana with Mozart, Debussy, and Miles Davis/Bill E ..read more

I, Spie A play by Clare Norburn an imagined story of JOHN DOWLAND, combining his life as a court musician and composer with his grisly dealings with the Elizabethan espionage underworld Directed by Nicholas Renton, the actors and musicians in Clare Norburn’s play I, Spie, will perform the music of John Dowland and his contemporaries, alongside Elizabethan tavern, street and courtly masque music, in 13 performances throughout the United Kingdom, beginning in Richmond on Sunday 9 June through to Liverpool on 23 June 2024; see below for full details. The drama in I, Spie unfolds from a letter wh ..read more

        Vicente Amigo Photo ©Juan Perez Fajardo The 19th annual Flamenco Festival London begins at Sadler’s Wells on Tuesday 4 June 2024 with Rocío Molina presenting Al Fondo Riela (It Glimmers in the Depths) – an intimate and powerfully expressive creation by one of the leading flamenco dancers and choreographers of the younger generation, accompanied by two flamenco guitarists: Eduardo Trassierra and Yerai Cortés. Al Fondo Riela is the second and central part of a trilogy – Trilogía sobre la guitarra – that Rocío Molina has created to explore the guitar as an essen ..read more

Mercury Living Presence Los Romeros Box Set – 10 CDs On 8 March 2024, Pepe Romero celebrated his 80th birthday! and he continues to tour the world performing solo, in the Los Romeros quartet and as a soloist with orchestra, as well as teaching masterclasses. On 3 September 2023, Pepe Romero premièred David Leisner’s guitar concerto, Wayfaring at the Hamptons Festival of Music. In my recent interview with Pepe Romero, to coincide with his 80th birthday (Gendai Guitar magazine, March 2024), we talked about his career from his very first concert on a guitar with gut strings, to the family move f ..read more

Gilbert Biberian with the Omega Players on the South Bank, London Gilbert Biberian A Memorial Concert in Celebration of his 80th Birthday  Saturday 24 February 2024 St Andrew’s Church, Montpellier Street, Cheltenham GL50 1SP, 7pm The Programme features music composed or arranged by Gilbert Biberian Oración, On Harmonics, Romance, March no. 1 and no. 2, Midsummer’s Day, Arie Antiche, Pavane, Pearl, Four Waltzes November Leaves, December Frosts, October Sunsets, Bitter – Sweet, The Sephardic Songs Paxaro D’Hermozura, La Rosa Enflorece, Ven Querida, Ven amada, Durme, Durme, Six H ..read more

Online Concerts From 2022 Saturday 16 July 2022: Baltimore, MD: JULIAN BREAM: RECORDED LIVE CONCERT: 17 October 1967. Peabody Conservatory, first aired on ‘Music in Maryland’, WBJC classical radio, with host Jonathan Palevsky. Listen. Saturday 3 September 2022: London: THE GRIGORYAN BROTHERS: THIS IS US: A MUSICAL REFLECTION OF AUSTRALIA. Elgar Room, Royal Albert Hall, 1pm. Details. Blog >>>>>——————–<<<<<< Still Available from 2021 Saturday 30 January 2021: London: GEORGE TARLTON. Kings Place, 6pm. Stream. Sunday 31 January 2021: Drongen, Be ..read more

There are an impressive number of radio programmes throughout the world dedicated to the classical and flamenco guitar, some exclusively focusing on classical guitar, and some include the guitar. These offer an opportunity to listen not only to newly released recordings but also some very special historic recordings. They often include live interviews with the guitarists and sometimes with composers. Sebastián Domínguez: De Segovia a Yupanqui I start with one of the oldest programmes from Buenos Aires: Sebastián Domínguez and Fabio Caputo established the weekly programme De Segovia ..read more

Writing about the classical guitar has been an important part of my working life for decades – for Classical Guitar magazine, and 30 years on, still continuing with the monthly Gendai Guitar. In this blog, I want to share my excitement at meeting up with Lance Bosman, an inspiring music writer from a pre-Internet time, where music print journalism was an important and essential part of our lives and our conversations. Lance Bosman is someone whose work I read and learned a lot from in my student days in the 1980s, when I would eagerly await the publication of each monthly issue of Guitar Inte ..read more