models

VŨ HIỂN Emotion Guitars Vietnam

This is VŨ HIỂN performing Maria, a well known gavotte by Francisco Tarrega.

VŨ HIỂN is a guitarist from Vietnam and owner of Emotion Guitars, a guitar shop in Hanoi where since last year, my guitars can be found.

Vu Hien was born in 1983 and started playing the guitar at an early age but it was not before his twenties that he became a real guitar enthousiast. Nowadays Vu Hien is a central figure in the Vietnamese guitar scene. He is well known as a performer, teacher and arranger/ composer. He is also active as an organizer of concerts, festivals and competitions and the owner of Emotion Guitars.

Emotion Guitars Website | YouTube | Facebook

Ju young Cheong is a versatile guitarist

This Ju young Cheong , a composer / guitarist from South Korea. The still above was taken from a YouTube Video of which he sent me the link in a DM on Instagram. As you can see, Ju young Cheong has a collection of guitars among which one of mine.

In the video, which can be watched below, he accompanies vocalist Dami Lee, performing Like Someone in Love, the jazz standard written by Jimmy Van Heusen and Johnny Burke.

Damie Lee and Ju young Cheong work together on a regular base. They call their cooperation The Jazz Guitar & Vocal Duo Project. New songs are uploaded to the YouTube channel of Damie Lee, who, besides being a great singer, is also a professional composer and pianist.

Ju young Cheong has a Masters degree in jazz guitar. He studied with Frank Möbus at the Hochschule für Musik Franz List in Weimar. I read on his website that he also studied in Rotterdam with the late Paul Hock. In 2017 Ju young Cheong started working on his PhD at Sungkyunkwan University Korea in the Department of Interdisciplinary Program in Studies of Arts in order to become a Doctor of Philosophy.

Visit Ju Young Cheong | Dami Lee |

Ju Young Cheong plays a 2A Model | Dit bericht in het Nederlands

Kristina Miljenovic had a busy Summer

This is Kristina Miljenovic (2006), a young guitarist from the beautiful Kotor in Montenegro. Kristina started playing the guitar at the age of seven and turned out to be very talented. She gave her first solo concert at the age of thirteen and despite her young age, the list of masterclasses she followed and festivals she attended to, seems countless. She has appeared several times on television and her biography contains more than twenty prizes, medals and certificates including prizes at international guitar festivals in Austria, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, Romania, Italy, Macedonia and Montenegro.

In the video above Kristina plays Misionera by Jorge Morel.

This Summer she went to the Summer School with the unpronouncable name PrSt in Eco zone Zlaća, in Bosnia and Herzegovina. There she followed classes with of Predrag Stanković, Boris Tešić and Sanel Redzic (photo). After that she went to the Guitar Art Summer Fest in Herceg Novi, in Montenegro where she had a masterclass with Hubert Kappel among others.

She recorded some video’s and also gave a number of concerts, including one in the former studio of the famous Bosnian artist ismet Mujezinovic, which now serves as a cultural center. In the video above, Kristina plays the soundtrack of Wild Mountain Thyme, a 2020 film directed by John Patrick Shanley.

Kristina Miljenovic and Sanel Redzic both play a Concert Model.

KRISTINA INSTAGRAM | SUMMER SCHOOL PRST | GUITAR ART SUMMER FEST

Cim Frode plays Purple Ash and Prelude nr 3 by Villa Lobos for Siccas Guitars

cim frode playing otto vowinkel at siccas guitar

This is Cim Frode, a guitarist from Sweden who lives and works in Germany. Cim plays both classical and jazz and has recorded multiple solo albums, with music ranging from fingerstyle, classical, Celtic music and jazz.

The still above comes from a video from Siccas Guitars, a guitar shop in Karlsruhe, located in the south of Germany and founded by the brothers Manuel and Mirco.

Siccas Guitars is very active on social media. It has several YouTube channels, including ToneBank, with video’s in which Cim Frode playing guitars available at Siccas.

In almost every video Cim Frode plays the same, two pieces : his own Purple Ash and the third Prelude by Heitor Villa Lobos. Like this prospective buyers can easily compare the instruments, for instance my 2A, 3A and Concert Model.

SICCAS GUITARS | CIM FRODE

Madrid Guitar Duo at Partita, a guitar shop in Seoul, South Korea

These are Roberto Garcia and Pablo Gonzalez, two guitarists from Madrid, Spain. They both studied at the Madrid Conservatory and continued their studies in Maastricht, The Netherlands, with Carlo Marchione, where they obtained their Masters. During their studies they occasionally started playing together and over time they grew into a serious guitar duo. In 2017 they toured through Asia where they gave a concert in Seoul, organized by Partita, my South Korean dealer. He recorded the video below in which they perform on two of my guitars. Model 2A.

In the video they play ‘Vals’ by Radamas Gnattali, from the suite Retratos. They recorded the entire suite on SUITES, the first CD of the Madrid Guitar Duo, with music by Piazzolla, Brouwer, Kleynjans and indeed, Radamas Gnattali.

MADRID GUITAR DUO
PARTITA | REAL CONSERVATORIO SUPERIOR DE MUSICA DE MADRID | CONSERVATORIUM MAASTRICHT | CARLO MARCHIONE

IN HET NEDERLANDS

Pieter Nanne now feels what he is playing

Loosing both parents, getting divorced and becoming a grandfather in a period of four years has had a great impact on Dutch gitarist, teacher and organizer Pieter Nanne. “But now, when I play a note, I feel it.”

After fifty years of playing the guitar, “my physique is declining, but the intensity of my playing has increased,” so he tells in an interview in Dutch news paper NHD.

Most of his professional life he spent with what he now describes as “making things possible for others”, teaching and organizing concerts. During the silence of the lock down, he concentrated on his own music. This resulted in a new cd: Gentle Guitar.

Pieter Nanne plays an eight-string concert guitar with spruce top.

Website Pieter Nanne | Interview website NH Dagblad

Frits Nierstrasz actually was a guitarist

Frits Nierstrasz in the workshop of Otto Vowinkel

Frits Nierstrasz in my workshop

Back in 2016 I got a phone call from Mister Nierstrasz who wanted to buy a concert guitar. I told him about my waiting list. Would I, in his case, be so kind to make an exception, he asked. Mister Nierstrasz happened to be 90 years old.

Frits Nierstrasz (1926-2021) was an international authority in the housing field. But according to his son, he was actually a guitarist. Frits Nierstrasz bought his first guitar at the age of 14. Many lessons and endless studying followed and eventually he even started performing. This he would do for the rest of his life.

As a student at the Netherlands School of Economics, now the Erasmus University Rotterdam, he travelled to Spain to learn the language. There he spent most of his time in flamenco bars in Burgos, Barcelona, Madrid…

Mr. and Mrs. Nierstrasz in Burgos, Spain.

Last month I got a sad message from his son, who is now selling his fathers guitar. Normally I don’t promote occasions, not even if they were made by me. But again I make exception:

For sale: a beautiful instrument with a spruce top and Amazonas rosewood back and sides. It’s in good shape, since Mr Nierstrasz has always taken great care of it.

If you’re interested it’s best to contact me.

Arne Willems performs Marius Bajog

This is Arne Willems, a classical guitarist from Wuppertal, Germany. The picture above was taken back in 2017 when he visited my workshop to collect his guitar. The picture can be found on his instagram account. Every now and then, Arne drops by for lunch, combining his holidays at the Dutch coast with a social visit. Last month he sent me two YouTube videos in which he premieres the work of his friend, composer Marius Bajog. I herewith forward them. Arne plays a cedar top concert model.

Almudena Rubio (voice) and Isabelle Laudenbach (guitar)

These are Almudena Rubio (voice) and Isabelle Laudenbach (guitar) during their concert at the Embassy of Spain in Den Haag (The Netherlands).

Singer and art historian Almudena Rubio works at the International Institute of Social History (IISG) in Amsterdam, researching the Cajas de Amsterdam, photo archives from two Jewish immigrant photographers, Margaret Michaelis and Kati Horna, who put their camera at the service of the social revolution during the Spanish Civil War.

Together with Isabelle Laudenbach, a French flamenco guitarist, living in Barcelona, Almudena Rubio performs on a regular base.

Rubio started singing at a later age and much of her repertoire is related to her research: music by singer-songwriter Chicho Sánchez Ferlosio, Latin American folklore, songs by Chavela Vargas and music-set poetry by Rosalía de Castro, García Lorca and Agustin Garcia Calvo.

The hauntingly beautiful and passionate voice of Madrid singer Almudena Rubio immediately transports you back to the 1920s and 1930s, to the zarzuelas of Madrid, the milongas of Buenos Aires and the agit-prop cabarets of pre-war Berlin and France.
Stuart Christie

Every year , with the arrival of Sint Nicholas in the Netherlands , the Spanish Embassy organizes a concert at the Paleiskerk in The Hague. Due to Covid-19, this years concert took place at the Embassy itself. The entire concert, including the ambassador’s introduction, can be seen on YouTube.

links: Almudena Rubio | Isabella Laudenbach | IISH | Spaanse Ambassade den Haag | Sinterklaas explained

Isabella Laudenbach plays a concert model flamenco guitar

Boi Akih livestream at the Concertgemaal

These are guitarist/composer Niels Brouwer and vocalist Monica Akihary, the core of ensemble BOI AKIH.

BOI AKIH has a unique, striking sound based on musical traditions from the Moluccas (Melanesia/Oceania), Sunda and Bali, Dutch (European) jazz and improvised music, classical Indian music and traditional African music.

Singer Monica writes and sings in her father’s native language, regarded as moribund by the scientific world. Since 1998 Brouwer and Akihary have been working with Dutch and Australian linguists who study Haruku. With their help and support, Boi Akih not only keeps the tradition alive, but also employs the language in its most authentic form: poetic self-expression.

This video was recorded at the Concertgemaal, a former pumping station which was turned in to a cultural spot and concert venue. During the lock down it offered live streams for their audience.

Niels Brouwer plays a seven string, cutaway, Model 2A.