concert model

Dylan Prentner

This is Dylan Prentner. Last March he came to my workshop to pick up his new guitar. The photo was taken by his proud parents who joined him. Dylan is a student of Marcus de Jong at Gitaarschool de Gitarist and doing very well. With his new guitar he already won a couple of prices among which the gitaarschool Nederland talent award as well as the first price in his age category of the Antwerpen Gitaarfestival 2016.

In this video you can hear him play Nalu, with which he won the price for the best performance of the imposed piece by Johannes Möller.

Frank Burks

This is Frank Burks with his ‘new’ guitar. Frank Burks is a sought-after Dutch guitarist, arranger an accompanist. His field is mainly pop and jazz as shown in this video. Frank came to my workshop, looking for a nylon string, acoustic guitar and ended up buying Esther’s former guitar.

Frank Burks is member of the band of Karin Bloemen, a Dutch singer- comedienne. In the audio below he is accompanying her in a song about ‘the empty nest’, children leaving the parental home. One day this will be facing this too. Last month he became father of a beautiful daughter.

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Maarten Oomes

This is Maarten Oomes, a young, Dutch guitarist, who came to my workshop to pick up his new guitar. In the video below you can hear him playing it for the very first time, performing the well known Recuerdos de la Alhambra, by Francisco Tarrega.

Maarten started playing at a young age and soon turned out to be a very talented player. Under supervision of his teacher Jan Penninkhof he won several prizes, among which the first prize of the Prinses Christina Concours and the National Guitar Award.

Maarten Oomes seems to be a real Homo Universalis. In September he will start at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam studying Medicine.

Update August 30, 2017
With the greatest possible reluctance, I have to post the following update:
Due to a terrible occurrence, Maarten Oomes died on August 24, 2017.

Guitar Salon International

This is a new cedar top I made for Guitar Salon International, my dealer in the USA.

Check out their website for the beautiful pictures taken of the instrument and it’s details.

Sanel Redzic

This is Sanel Redzic performing in the documentary ‘An extraordinary life’ made by the Paris Guitar Foundation. Sanel Redzic tells about the coincidence that played an important role in his life, what taking part in competitions meant for him and about his study in Weimar.

Augustin Pesnon, founder of the Paris Guitar Foundation shot the documentary himself as you can see in his vlog.

Classical Guitar Studio Partita

This is guitarist Jongho Park performing the introduction of Sor’s opus 9, better known as the Mozart variations. The video is made by Classical Guitar Studio Partita, run by Minsu Yoo, my dealer in South Korea. Jongho Park is playing a concert guitar with a spruce top which I recently sent to South Korea.

Esther Steenbergen

Watch the video to see the hand of Hennie van der Vegt painting one of his famous blossoms. Esther used the painting for the cover of her latest CD which actually is an EP. It contains two pieces, Sakura, Theme and variations by Yuquijiro Yocoh and Bellefleur by Pieter van der Staak. I think she plays both of them beautifully. You can order the CD at her website. Of course it’s available for download as well.

Guitar Echoes

This is Guitar Echoes, the debut solo CD of Yiannis Giagourtas, a guitarist from Greece, whom I wrote about earlier.

For my debut album I chose to record works from a few of my favorite composers. This selection lit my passion for music, in particular for the classical guitar. I hope these pieces will touch your soul as they have touched mine!

In the video you can listen to a track of Guitar Echoes: Gnossiene nr. 1 by Erik Satie.
Guitar Echoes is for sale at CD Baby.

Aitor Hernández

This is Aitor Hernández a Spanish guitarist, living in Madrid. He sent me an email long time ago, to let me know he bought a guitar of mine at Casa Luthier in Barcelona. Aitor Hernández and I never met but thanks to Google I know he used to form a duo with guitarist Sergio Sleiman. More recently he started a duo with a violinist as well as with his sister, soprano Saioa Hernández. He is playing concerts and is working as a teacher at Escuela de Música Prolat.

In his email he included a link to the video below in which he plays Etude 12 by H. Villa Lobos. It was recorded a while ago. More recent video’s can be found here .

Ricardin Hwang

This is the poster of A melody to remember, a movie based on a true story: During the Korean war a soldier starts a children’s choir, in trying to overcome the loss of his family.

Ricardin Hwang, the South-Korean guitarist I told you about earlier is playing the guitar in the soundtrack.

Ricardin, in South Korea better known as Min Woong Hwang, plays beautifully. Listen to a fragment of the soundtrack. Or watch this video, taken during a concert of Ricardin, last December.