Guitar maker Amsterdam
This is Nina Fourie Gouws. On her way to the Volterra Project of Antigoni Goni she stopped by in Amsterdam because she asked me to give her spruce top guitar a French polish touch up. She also has a cedar top on which she recently recorded a Bach Prelude.
This is David González playing Homenaje a Toulouse- Lautrec by Spanish composer Eduardo Sainz de la Maza. The recording is made in Guitarras de Luthier, a guitar shop in Madrid. I think he plays it beautifully.
This is Tarik Residbegovic. I wrote about him earlier. I met him and his parents at the Sarajevo Guitar Festival. When I got home I received a message from his father
Tarik played at the competition in Omis, Croatia, last weekend and took a second prize in his category. He also had a very successful masterclass with a respectful professor Xhevdet Sahatxhija from Zagreb.
It’s always nice to keep track of the players of my instruments.
These are guitarist Marc Sambola and actrice/singer Mariona Castillo. They work together on a regular base. Sota el Pit is a song from their second show, called Nus. More songs can be found at Bandcamp.
This is Viktor Nadj, playing Prelude BVW 996 by J.S. Bach. Viktor was born in 1999 and started to play the guitar at the age of seven. He completed Elementary Music School in Belgrade, in the class of professor Nenad Petrovic and is now studying with Aleksandar Hadzi Djordjevic at the Vatroslav Lisinski Music School in Belgrade. Despite his young age Viktor won 18 first prizes in music competitions. When you listen to his version of Bach’s Prelude, you understand why.
This is Benjamin Verdery. Happy with his new Barri.
He writes about it on his blog.
These are Kuang Junhong and Xu Bao. Just like last year they dropped by after having visited the Iserlohn Festival. They came to the workshop to select the back and sides for a new guitar. Kuang Junhong tried a guitar I just finished and again he surprised me with his beautiful and mature playing.
This is Nina Fourie Gouws. I wrote about her earlier. Ten years ago she came all the way from South Africa to Amsterdam to pick up her new spruce guitar and last month she visited me again, this time to pick up a brand new cedar one . You can tell she is very happy with it. September 7, she will play her first concert on it. The ones who won’t be able to attend can listen to her beautiful interpretation of the first part of Koyunbaba by Carlo Domeniconi.
I got this pleasant surprise from Cécile Cardinot, member of the Duo Bensa-Cardinot. She sent it to me, together with Récital, a beautiful CD of the duo. Cécile is multi-talented. She plays the guitar, she sings and she draws.
This is Eric Vaarzon Morel, a great flamenco guitarist. He writes music, opera’s even, teaches at the conservatory of Amsterdam and always has a busy schedule with concerts and performances. Our friendship goes way back and last week he dropped by to demonstrate my 2A flamenco model. His rasgueado’s are so fast, the camera could hardly record them.
