BCGS CONCERT SERIES 2024

The Bristol Classical Guitar Society is proud to present Cuban guitarist Marco Tamayo. 

Programme:

Prelude, Fugue and Allegro BWV 998  - J.S. Bach (arr. M. Tamayo)

Variaciones op. 45, sobre la Folia de España - M. Giuliani

Valse sentimentale op. 51, no. 6  - P.I. Tchaikovsky (arr. M. Tamayo)
Vals op.8 no. 4 - A. Barrios Mangoré

Cappricci XIII and XVII, originally for violin - N. Paganini (arr. M. Tamayo)

--- Interval ---

Air, 4th movement from the Holberg Suite op. 40 - E. Grieg (arr. M. Tamayo)

Chivo que rompe tambó - Bola de Nieve (Ignacio Jacinto Villa Fernández), arr. M Tamayo

Tarantella - M.C. Tedesco

La Catedral - A. Barrios Mangoré

Bio

Marco Tamayo, a Cuban guitarist with Austrian citizenship, has earned the title “Il Re della Chitarra” (The King of the Guitar) and has maintained an international reputation in all aspects of classical guitar. 

Recently appointed Professor of Classical Guitar at the Universität der Künste Berlin (UDK), Tamayo is a winner of more than 25 major international competitions. Notable among these are the International Guitar Competition Michele Pittaluga in Alessandria, Italy, the Andrés Segovia International Guitar Competition in Spain, the Nikita Koshkin International Guitar Competition in Austria, and the Leo Brouwer International Guitar Competition in Havana, Cuba.

As a renowned soloist, Tamayo regularly collaborates with chamber music ensembles, performing a vast and stylistically diverse repertoire. He also serves as a president of jury panels and organises guitar festivals, having gained considerable experience from a young age. More recently, his interest in composition has led him to create new works for the guitar.

Tamayo began playing guitar at the age of three, was hailed as a prodigy at six, and embarked on his first international tour in Europe at just ten years old, performing in Germany (former DDR) and Bulgaria. 

His extensive teaching career includes professorships at Sydney University in Australia, the Gustav Mahler Privat Universität in Austria, the Mozarteum University of Arts in Salzburg, Austria, and the Academy of Arts in Gdańsk, Poland. Most recently, he was selected from over 400 applicants to join the UDK Berlin faculty, where his class attracts guitarists from around the world, many of whom have become prominent performers.

Tamayo’s influential book, Essential Principles for the Interpretation on the Classical Guitar, has reshaped classical guitar pedagogy globally.

He has served as the Artistic Director of the Michele Pittaluga International Guitar Competition since 1999, the year he won the competition, and he founded the Klagenfurt International Guitar Competition and Festival in Austria, which ran until 2020. Tamayo is also an Honorary Citizen of the cities of Solero and Alessandria, Italy.

Currently, Tamayo performs on a guitar built by American luthier Stephen Connor and is a Savarez artist, using Cantiga Premium-Alliance/Blue strings. He is the Chairman of Marco Tamayo Edition, a publishing house he founded in 2014. In 2024, he launched his latest project, Tamayo’s Masterclasses, an online platform designed to share his knowledge through performances and analyses of famous and foundational guitar works.