Born in London, England, Nigel North has been playing the lute for over 50 years, since the age of 15. Teaching and playing have gone hand in hand and he has been Professor of Lute at the Historical Performance Institute (formerly Early Music Institute), Indiana University, Bloomington (USA) 1999 -2024. Spring 2024 is his last semester. From July 2024 will live back in Europe, in Gent, Belgium.

Previous positions include The Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London (1976–1996), Hochschule der Künste, Berlin (1993– 1999) and the Royal Conservatory, Den Haag, (2006–2009). 

Initially inspired at the age of seven by the early 60’s instrumental pop group The Shadows, Nigel North studied classical music through the violin and guitar and eventually discovered his real path in life, the lute. Nigel is basically self-taught on the lute and was inspired by Michael Schäffer, Gustav Leonhardt and the Jazz duo, Tuck and Patti. The music of Bach has always been his first love in music, especially after a dream at age 12 in which Bach handed him a lute. 

After hearing one of Nigel’s Bach recitals in London, Julian Bream recalled in 2002  “I remember going to a remarkable recital, one which I wish I had the ability to give: it was one of Nigel North’s Bach recitals, and I was bowled over by how masterful and how musical it was. A real musical experience, something you don’t always get from guitar and lute players and which, in general, is pretty rare.”

Nigel North wrote Continuo playing on the Lute, Archlute and Theorbo (Faber, 1986 and Indiana University Press). More recently in 2024, Le Luth Dore (Paris) published Bach on the Lute, volumes 1 and 2. Transcriptions for baroque lute of BWV 1001-1006, 1007-1012 and the complete works for lute, BWV 999- 1006a.

Recordings include a four CD boxed set Bach on the Lute (Linn Records), four CDs of the lute music of John Dowland (Naxos), four CDs of music by Sylvius Weiss (BGS) and 2 CDs of music by Francesco da Milano (BGS). Most recently for “Deux-Elles”  a double CD of Bach’s Complete works for lute and other new transcriptions (April 2023). 

PAVEL STEIDL has long been considered an icon of the instrument. His interpretations of classical-romantic music are unique and inimitably intense. After concerts in all parts of the world and within the most important festivals, he has long since achieved a rank among the best in his field. In 1982 he won one of the most important competitions of that time - Radio France in Paris and currently teaches at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague.

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, 19th century guitar - Laura Savigni, fortepiano

Composed of two sisters, Duo Savigni has been dedicated to studying 19th-century repertoire on original instruments since 2011. They each started their musical training at a young age and pursued their musical studies as a duo chamber ensemble and solo performers.

Laura graduated in piano from the "Arrigo Boito" Conservatory in Parma; she continued her studies at the "G. Puccini" of Gallarate (VA) under the guidance of Maestro Alberto Miodini. In 2016, she obtained her fortepiano master's degree with honours at the Musikhochschule in Stuttgart with Maestra Stefania Neonato. Enrica graduated in classical guitar with high honours at the "Arrigo Boito" Conservatory in Parma under the guidance of Maestro Walter Pezzali. She graduated in 2014 in Clarinet with Maestro Roberto Saltini. Between 2011 and 2014, she specialized in repertoire and performance practice of 19th-century guitar at the "Claudio Abbado Civic School of Music" in Milan under the guidance of the Maccari-Pugliese Duo. In 2021, she obtained a Master in Early Music from the Koninklijk Conservatorium in Brussels.

Duo Savigni specialised as a chamber music ensemble at the Accademia Internazionale di Duino in Trieste under the guidance of Trio di Parma between 2008-2010. Their first CD, "Duo Savigni: Giuliani, Moscheles & Mertz", was released in 2019 under the "Movimento Classical" label. It was published in digital format in the January issue of "Amadeus" Magazine, together with an interview. In 2020, they debuted their second album, "Für Beethoven: Music for Guitar and Fortepiano Inspired by Ludwig van Beethoven", released by MP Editions.

Laura and Enrica perform both as a duo and as soloists throughout Italy, as well as in Germany, Switzerland, Spain and the United Kingdom. They regularly actively participate in conferences and seminars on 19th-century repertoire and historical performance practice. Laura teaches piano and piano history and technology at Conservatorio di Musica "Vecchi-Tonelli" in Modena (Italy).

Enrica is a guitar tutor at Maynooth University (Ireland) and a PhD researcher at the TU Dublin Conservatoire.

www.duosavigni.it

Acoustic guitar, voice, charisma - that's all it takes to distinguish yourself from the uniformity of the "Germany is looking for a superstar" era. The senses are touched by a strangely unique blend of hypnotic bass lines and rhythmic taps, melancholic melodies and euphoric harmonies. Michael "Kosho" Koschorreck reveals his love for music. A sonic experience for friends of acoustic guitar music and timeless songs, unpretentious, carefree and actually priceless.

Kosho was born in Germany in 1962 and formed his first band "Phoenix" with friends at the age of 14. Since then, he has played in many other bands of various styles and has had a successful solo career. 

Over the past 30 years Kosho has contributed to some 150 recordings and film soundtracks and has been a permanent member of the Söhne Mannheims for more than 11 years, with whom he has won numerous awards, including "ECHO" and "COMET" for successful albums and outstanding live performances.

In addition to his well-known activities with the Söhne Mannheims, he has also performed with selected popular formations, for example in the duo "Classic meets soul" with Munich-based concert guitar virtuoso Augustin Wiedemann, as vocalist and electric guitarist of the indie jazz band Cobody, as accompanist for Brazilian singer-songwriter Zélie Fonseca and in formation with the new electro-jazz project of Heidelberg keyboardist Jo Bartmes.

He teaches at the Pop Academy Mannheim and since 2016 at the Vorarlberg State Conservatory. He leads workshops and courses, among other things he has been a member of the German Music Council's Popcamp lecturing team since 2005, and has also led workshops at the Bandfactory Hannover, a guitar seminar in Altheim (Austria) and masterclasses in Giessen, Hilden, Remscheid and Mikulov (Czech Republic).

Italian composer, interpreter, painter and performer, born in 1977, he began his artistic training graduating in classical guitar, owing his musical education to Maestro Stefano Viola and Maestro Paolo Pegoraro. From a very early stage of his career, he showed a strong inclination towards composition. In 2000, following the arise of a neurological disease called focal dystonia he was forced to stop performing. Fortunately, between 2002 and 2003, after 14 months of a motor rehabilitation programme at the “Institute of Physiology and Medicine of Art” in Terrassa (BCN), he fully recovers and to this day he continues to collaborate with this institute.

In the years of inactivity as a concert performer, he begins to study composition as autodidact, which he supports with graphic and pictorial research. Starting from Kandinsky's theories and Klee's writings, he created a phono-chromatic system, based on the relationship between sound and color. From this moment he develops and focuses his artistic activity on Synesthesia, through the creation of multimedia works in which music and color and movement can coexist in harmonic symbiosis.

In 2010, together with painter Max Ciogli, he cofounded the synesthetic synthesis art movement SINE whose main objective is the investigation of the relationship between sound, color and movement. In 2012 they published its artistic manifesto. With the founding of the SINE group, their research also finds application in the therapeutic field. In fact, through the "State Institute for the Deaf" in Rome, the group's artistic experiences have made it possible to create a system that enables deaf people to relate to musical experience.

In 2011 he won the International Competition GRAFIMUSE, for musicians who work in the field of synaesthesia with the creation of a visual work of art that could be “played musically” with the painting: Musica seriale in fa#. Another award follows in 2022, “Premio Valori d’impresa” for the synaesthetic work of Video Art “La tela di penelope”.

His compositions have been published by: Chanterelle Verlag Edition, VP Music Media, Berben, EMEC – Editorial de Musica Española Contemporanea, Sinfonica, Ava Musical Edition, Lineadaria Edizioni.

in memoriam

Guitar Ensemble of the České Budějovice Conservatory

Artistic direction by Klára Ferenczi

Conductor: Klára Ferenczi

The guitar ensemble started its activity at the České Budějovice Conservatory under the direction of Vilma Manová and conductor František Lukáš in 2018. In relatively short time, the students have studied unconventional guitar repertoire from the Renaissance to contemporary music and have given numerous concerts.

In 2021, the ensemble performed a concert at the South Bohemian Guitar Festival in Nové Hrady, successfully represented at the Guitar Across Genres Festival with a concert at the Municipal Library in Prague and at the International Guitar Festival in Brno. In 2022 the ensemble recorded its first CD and performed in Brandenburg at the Brandenburg Guitar Days. The ensemble's notable achievements include 1st prize in the GIOVANI IN CRESCENDO Italy 2022 competition and a concert at the Tóny Dobré Vody Festival in České Budějovice in 2023.

Graduate of the Conservatory in České Budějovice in the class of Vilma Manová and the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Vienna in the class of Alexander Swete, classical guitar. She regularly attends methodical guitar courses with leading Czech and foreign teachers. She is co-organiser and head of the orchestra section of the International South Bohemian Guitar Festival Nové Hrady. She actively performs in the chamber duo DuoDam. In 2013, she founded a guitar ensemble at the ZUŠ Český Krumlov, which won 1st place in the national competition Hradecké Guitarreando in Hradec Králové in 2019. In 2020, it became a laureate of the national competition Concerto Bohemia, in 2022 the absolute winner of the regional competition show Zlivská kytara, in 2023 it placed in the gold medal zone of the national competition show of chamber ensembles in Svitavy. She teaches at the František Pišinger ZUŠ Trhové Sviny and the ZUŠ Český Krumlov. She has been teaching at the Conservatory in České Budějovice since 2022 and is the artistic director and conductor of the Guitar Ensemble of the Conservatory in České Budějovice.

• physiotherapist, TCM practitioner, craniosacral therapy

• practice since 2009 (“Chinese Mission” - Malostranské náměstí 14, 118 00 Prague 1)

Education:

• 2nd Faculty of Medicine – General Medicine; Physiotherapy and Balneology

• 1st School of Traditional Chinese Medicine

• 2014 Internship in China (Taiyuan)

• Upledger Institute of Craniosacral Therapy

Offer of therapy:

Physiotherapy, acupuncture, phytotherapy, Qigong, dietetics, ear and abdominal acupuncture, craniosacral therapy, somato-emotional release

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

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.

ttps://www.alexandertechniquecentrevienna.com/