models

Robin Scherpen with For the Unseen at Het Concertgebouw

This is Robin Scherpen, a Dutch guitarist with a truly remarkable program.

Due to an eye condition, he was no longer able to read sheet music. Following a daring yet successful eye operation, he was forced to spend a long time in a dark room. There he began composing, purely by intuition. It resulted in an album “For The Unseen” and a series of concerts, one of which will take place on December 16 at Het Concertgebouw.

“Music is a language. It doesn’t necessarily need to be understood to be effective… A score is nothing more than a tool to make music visible.” – Robin Scherpen

Concert tickets | Website Robin Scherpen | Photo Robin Scherpen © Lumenlineas

Robin plays a concert model

A message from Claudia

This is Claudia Donat, a Swedish amateur guitarist. She sent me an email.
With her permission quoted in its entirety underneath.

“Dear Mr Vowinkel
I wanted to write to you for a long time but I did not dare. Because I am a simple amateur, learning the guitar in my little cottage. I started my journey with a simple guitar but I was near to give up. Then I probably did one of the craziest things I have ever done: I bought one of your wonderful guitars in 2018. Since then I am so in love with her! What a sound! What a feeling she gives back! This, your guitar, opened a whole new world to me.
But still: I am kind of embarrassed to say, “I have a Vowinkel concert guitar”. …. I am just an amateur, training and playing all for myself. The poor guitar will never see a big concert hall. So why have such a wonderful concert guitar? Sometimes I feel it was to grab for the clouds that I bought her. But, dear Mr. Vowinkel: she is deeply loved and cared for. She now “lives” in Sweden at the west coast. I see the sea and the fjord when I play and it’s like a drug to play this guitar.
In this summer I participated the Swedish Guitar and Lute festival, had a wonderful time with great teachers and I did something I never did before because I am too scared: I played in front of an audience of 50 people!
And we did it! My guitar and me!!
Afterwards I got a lot of comments and many of them were about my guitar! What sound! What magical sound! And yes, I just agree.

So with this mail, dear Mr. Vowinkel, I want to thank you for this brilliant instrument! She is my big love. Unfortunately for her, she ended up with me, simple and just amateur, but I really love her. And she will stay in Sweden!

With big hugs from me
Claudia
I enclose some pictures. Some of them with wonderful Emma Rush who was the master teacher at this festival.”

I hope Claudia and her great love will stay together forever!

Claudia plays a concert model with a spruce top.

Volker Reichl hopes for many more coffees

This is a video of Volker Reichl, a guitarist from Germany, performing L’ ultimo caffè, by the Italian composer Simone Iannarelli (Rome, 1970). I couldn’t find much information about Volker, except that he usually performs in a duo with a violinst named Petr Sakine.

His video and performance are dedicated to Sara, to whom he writes the following note:

Meaning ‘I hope we will have many more cafes together.’

Well, I hope it worked out well.

In this video Volker plays a concert model built in 2019 with a cedar top.

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.