Master Series: Ana Vidovic

Natural talent for the classical guitar

Interview by Fernando Bartolomé for MGE. Córdoba Guitar Festival. 2013

Ana Vidovic. Cordoba Guitar Festival

Ana Vidovic is one of the most important guitar players in the world with an extraordinary technique, sensibility and musicality. She’s been doing public concerts since the age of 7 and playing internationally since 11. Despite her young age she’s a veteran in the guitar world with a brilliant career full of concerts, programs, collaborations and prizes. Albert Augustine International Competition in Bath, England, the Fernando Sor competition in Rome, Italy, or the Francisco Tarrega competition in Benicasim, Spain, are a few examples of her importance in the guitar scene.

My first time listening her was a few years ago. I remember her interpretation of the Walton’ Five Bagatelles and the Bach' 4th Suite. I was impressed by her interpretation and technique and since that moment I’ve tracked her. We talked the day after her first appearence in the Cordoba Guitar Festival in Spain about music, guitar, child prodigies, teachers and repertoire. I have to thank her for her kindness and extreme politeness with me and also for dedicate her natural talent for the classical guitar.

Is it your first time in Spain?

No, I was in Barcelona many years ago. But this is my first time in Córdoba, in the Guitar Festival, and I was very excited because, you know, this is a very prestigious festival and I’m very glad to be invited and I had a wonderful time. I’ve been here since Wednesday and the concert went well, with a wonderful audience, very attentive, very quiet, listening very carefully… I was teaching classes for two days so I’ve got to hear a lot of students, which is nice too, and a good opportunity because I’ve never taken a class in Spain, so it was a great week.

Sometimes the audience here in Spain is a little bit noisy.

Really? I was impressed with the level of the audience. Maybe there were a lot of guitarists, but I had a nice welcome.

Which repertoire did you play?

I played Turina, Sonata Op.61, Sor “Variations”, Granada, Asturias, “Recuerdos de la Alhambra”… I wanted to include a lot of Spanish music. Those are some of my favorite pieces. Then I played Bach, Prelude, Fugue and Allegro, Barrios and Tedesco.

There is a book by Dorothy Delay, a reputed violin teacher, called Teaching Genius in which she talks about child prodigies. She says that we can’t talk about exploiting a child but instead of driving them to what they are good to.

Yes, there is a fine line between exploiting and encouraging talents.

All the people around talents--parents, family, teachers--want the most of you. They want you to give everything. How can we find a balance between pushing towards a goal and respecting the fact that we are working with kids?

Well, I think it’s very hard for everybody involved, for the parents, for the teachers and for the child. In general, parents, when they realize they have a talented child, want to give him or her everything. They want to develop the talent of their child, and sometimes it may happen that they give them too much, and that’s not good for the child. It can be overpowering. Sometimes the child grows up resentful and starts not liking the music or whatever it was.

And also, I think it’s the teacher’s role to guide the parents and the child. It is his responsibility.  It’s very important to have a good teacher. In my case I had a wonderful teacher, supportive, very kind and gentle, and he understood the issue. I was fortunate because he was my guide from when I was very young until I was 18. So in that way I was very fortunate to have that kind of environment. I think it is possible to have a healthy environment.

But I think it is very difficult because “child prodigy” is a complex term.

Maybe it’s an easy way of talking about that sort of thing?

Right. I mean, when one is born with a certain amount of talent, it could be anything, music, sports or whatever it was--but that’s not enough. That was something that was, maybe, given, an ability. But ability needs to be developed, and there’s a long road of development from the beginning to the fully grown musician, artists or whatever.

Dorothy Leeds talks about the people who see a “child prodigy” or talented child, and thinks about the pressure their parents and environment  exert on him. But her experience tells her that, in many cases, the kids aren’t pressed that much, and usually they do what they do because they really like it and have fun with it.

The first thing is the love and passion for whatever the child is doing, in this case music. When somebody is very young and everybody is admiring him and saying “Oh my God, this is something special”, it can be a little bit overwhelming sometimes. I won’t say damaging but just overwhelming because a child can grow up and never really develop his or her full talent. So I think it’s good to be level-headed if you want to keep developing the talent. This is the key.

It’s the teacher’s role to do that and to challenge the child. But they have to love it and like what they’re doing because if they don’t, once they grow up they’ll stop.

What are your childhood memories? Do you have nice childhood memories? Maybe it was very hard because of the war in your country…

I have very nice memories of my family because everybody is a musician. My brother is a guitarist, my other brother is a pianist, my father is a guitarist… so there was a lot of music in our house. I always remember I loved the sound of the guitar; always listening to my brother practice… and that’s why I play, because of my brother. So it was a nice time.

Later on there was some trouble with the politics, we had a war, and it not was a good time. It was very difficult to focus on the music, but our parents were so good because they kept us focused on the music, and they didn’t let us think about the war. It was really nice to have something that interested us.  We went to music school regularly and we never stopped.

Of course there were difficult times, like my teenage years, when I just wanted to go out, be with my friends, but I just didn’t get time and I had to stay at home and practice. So, that was difficult sometimes. I didn’t always want to stay practicing over and over. But it’s the way it was. It’s the way I was brought and I’m grateful today that I had my family supporting me, because if I hadn’t had that I probably wouldn’t have stuck with it for so many years, with my music, so I’m very lucky.

I saw in your last video, Mel Bay’s video, a piece by the acoustic guitar player and composer Pierre Bensusan called “Altiplanos”. He is an incredible musician who mixes in his music pop, folk, jazz, classical music… in a very interesting way. What can you tell us about Pierre?

He’s a wonderful artist.

Do you know him?

I met Pierre many years ago in Europe and I heard him play and I was so impressed with his playing and composing abilities. And I thought “I’ve got to get to know this music”, because I get very inspired by other musicians, not just classical musicians but  all the other styles like jazz, blues… and then I talked to him, and he doesn’t compose in standard tuning.  So, “Altiplanos” was the only piece he ever wrote in standard tuning so I had no choice but to play it.  All the other songs are in a different tuning.

You don’t like changing the tuning…

I don’t know how to… I would have to change everything. I wasn’t ready to do that. He said “I wrote this piece in standard tuning and I’ll give it to you”. I loved it from the very first moment I played it. It’s a really beautiful piece so I wish he could write more… in standard tuning.

Has he heard your recording of his piece?

Yes. Through the process of learning he was very helpful with advice and he said he liked the interpretation. I hope so! But it was something different I wanted to do, some kind of different style of music. I admired him and I just wanted to have something different in the repertoire.

One of the things you say in interviews is that you want to expand your repertoire. What musical works would you like to incorporate to your programs?

I like things like this, by new composers. I mean, if I can do more on that, if I can find pieces from different composers…

Are you preparing some of this type of music now?

I’m always working on something. Now I love jazz and blues and I’ve always wanted to do something that maybe combines classical and jazz and blues … Maybe do a duo with different artists. I’ve been playing classical for a lot of years. So I’m really interested in expanding and doing something different, but this is for the future. I really have to work hard because it’s a different kind of project.

Do you know Martin Taylor?

Yes I do.

He is like a classical musician, with an amazing and polished technique but in the world of jazz.

There are many great artists that are able to combine all those styles. I really admire everyone that’s able to combine all the different kinds of styles. I’d like to do something like that in the future.

Maybe it is a must for the classical artist to start introducing all those things in concert repertoire and combine it with the classical one. These are hard times for people to come to classical music concerts and maybe this is a way of attracting different people and introducing them to this world. There are really good composers that could fit well in the concerts and we can’t keep ignoring this music and not looking ahead.

Absolutely, you’re right. It’s always important to look ahead and plan for the future.  Maybe it’d nice to combine both. We have great works written for guitar from Segovia’s time and that are still fabulous. Together with those we could do something that was in a slightly different direction. So it’s possible to combine both, have the traditional guitar but also lead it along new paths.

Once I read you said that if you weren’t a guitarist maybe you’d be a psychologist.

Maybe. That’s true.

So let’s talk about the psychological side of music. How do you prepare the moments just before the concert? Do you have some rituals?

I usually arrive at the hall 2 hours before the concert; then I have a rehearsal on stage; then we work on the sound, lights, etc. and it gives me a chance to get familiar with the hall. I usually play for an hour; sometimes I’ll play though the hall because it relaxes me to get to know the hall; then I’ll go back to the dressing room and just relax for another hour or so. I really don’t do anything special. No ritual… I eat bananas but I just try to concentrate and try to get into a peaceful frame of mind, just prepare for the concert; then, for 10 or 15 minutes before the concert, I just keep playing again because I like to be warmed up before its time to go.

When you are playing, what happens in your mind?

I try to let go. I think the first initial contact with the audience is the hardest. Maybe slowly throughout the concert everybody relaxes and it’s much more relaxing. But I try to really not think too much because all the work has been done in the practice room so right now I just have to let go and play the music and express my feelings though it. And then, hopefully connect with the audience throughout the concert which is a wonderful feeling, if that happens.

 Maybe it’s happened to you that you are playing, focusing on the music, and then some thoughts come flying into your mind. How do you react?

Sometimes yes. I try to go back. Sometimes it happens that my mind strays somewhere else and that’s dangerous and I have to get back into the music. Actually, it happens in a flash, and I try to really relax my mind and just let the music speak. It’s really hard to put into words what happens. It’s just the energy going through the guitar and trying to convey it to the audience. It’s just playing music and enjoying it.

Do you like to visualize the music?

I do a lot of work without the guitar because if I’m travelling sometimes I don’t have time to practice. I have to think and do the work without the guitar. So visualization is really good to practice. You have to do everything in your head.

It’s a very hard way to practice.

Yes, it’s hard to do it for a long time, so I maybe do it for an hour and then I rest. But it’s a really good exercise because it really makes you focus on the music.

Let’s talk about recordings. You have recorded about 6 or 7 CDs…

I think 6, but there are also some DVDs.

Is there any difference in the preparation for the concerts and the preparation for the recordings? Is recording harder perhaps?

It’s different. Both are difficult in their own ways. I feel more comfortable with performing. That’s something that I love to do because there is contact with the audience.

In which way is performance different?

It shouldn’t be different. It should be the same, ideally.

But when recording there is the pressure to do things as perfectly as possible, the recording engineer is looking at his watch…

Personally, I would prefer to have live recordings because everything is the way it is, very natural. I prefer it to repeating the same thing time and time again, over-recording… The energy is also different. In the studio sometimes the energy may be lost, like you said, with recording engineer s, the pressure of time, etc. But both take a lot of preparation. Actually, it’s the same type of preparation.

Has it happened to you to, in a recording session, that you stumble in a particular place several times and when you have to record again you begin to think, “Oh no, here we are. It’s coming again…”? How do you handle this situation?

It happens sometimes. Your head’s telling you “It’s coming, it’s coming” and in the same spot! It’s happened to me a couple of times and it’s very upsetting, but I think it’s our mind playing with us. When you have a clear and positive mind and you aren’t worried about mistakes, it’s much better. Maybe there’s a chance of making a mistake and I think there’s a lot of this in our mind.

You’ve had 3 main teachers throughout your career: Manuel Barrueco, Istvan Romer and your brother, Viktor. What did each one of them mean for you? What did you learn with them?

Many things. I really was very fortunate to have these 3 teachers at 3 different stages. Viktor, my brother, was the reason why I started playing because he was practicing and I was always listening and I wanted to do the same thing. And then Viktor taught me to read music, the basics of the guitar, how to move my hands, how to hold the guitar. He was the first motivator and the first person who introduced me to the guitar.

Later, with Istvan I was studying for 12 years, and I think this was the most important time in my life, because to teach somebody from very young to 18 is very difficult. And he was an amazing teacher. He talked to me about technique, musicality, how to relax on stage… everything. So that was a very important part of my life.

Then I came to Baltimore, to stay with Barrueco. That was a wonderful 4 years working with him in different things.

But when you came to Barrueco you already had 3 or 4 recordings and had won a lot of prizes. A high reputation. What did you learn from Barrueco?

It was a different stage in my career.  I wanted to learn more about musicality, about sound, about dynamics, relaxation techniques… I wanted to challenge myself to do more, and he was very helpful.  It was 3 different stages. But I also worked with other musicians: cellists, violinists… but it is true that those 3 people were the most important.

What do you think are the main features a teacher has to have for a kid?

It’s a good question. A lot of knowledge, of course that comes first; a lot of experience teaching young children because that’s a different type of teaching, completely different from teaching adults; you need sensibility and a lot of patience to teach young children; also sensitivity, compassion,  to just be understanding and gentle because there are some teachers who are very tough. All those things, but knowledge comes first.

And maybe be funny with them. Because they are little kids and what they want is to have fun all day and play.

Yeah. I think is possible to make it fun because children should enjoy it. That way they’ll learn better. If the teacher makes it fun it’s great, but there’s a serious side and also a fun side. I think it’s possible to combine both sides.

Some decades ago a lot of teachers were too tough and there was nothing you could do about it: “If you don’t like my classes you can go”. And they didn’t care at all about introducing some strategies to get kids interested.

But I think now there are still tough teachers… But it’s extremely important to find a good teacher, and parents have to decide and find the right teacher.

I know you’ve played a lot of guitar with orchestra works but I don’t know much about your activities in chamber music.

I’ve done it occasionally but not very often because I don’t get much chance to play with other people because of my schedule.  I did play with my brother a lot and when I studied at Peabody I played with a lot of musicians (flute, oboe…). But now I don’t have enough time. That’s my wish—maybe  one day I could do more chamber music because it’s important to make collaborations with other people.

What does ensemble playing mean for a musician’s  musical education?

It’s extremely important because it teaches you to work with other musicians, to learn how to listen. One of the most important lessons here is the listening lesson because you are not alone, you have other people with you, and you have to work together and so it’s important to listen to them, follow what they’re doing. You just learn a lot about music. For example, I love to play with cellists because the cello is such a very beautiful instrument producing such a nice sound and I’ve always wanted to imitate what that instrument can do and what the guitar can’t do. So it’s a learning experience.

What are you projects for the future?

I want to just keep performing, travelling and, as I said at the beginning, try to reach more people and introduce the guitar to a wider audience, because classical guitar is popular but it could be even more popular among young people, and one of the ways to achieve that may be to collaborate with other people, in jazz, blues… like I said before

Curso Internacional de Guitarra Ex Corde 2014

Avelina Vidal: Profesora del curso

El  “Curso Internacional de Guitarra Ex Corde” nace con la idea de crear un espacio musical diferente  donde abordar el estudio de la guitarra y su repertorio desde un punto de vista analítico, técnico e interpretativo distinto.
Para ello se plantean distintas materias que procuran abarcar todas las perspectivas  pedagógicas en lo que al estudio del instrumento se refiere. De esa manera, todos los alumnos cursarán las asignaturas detalladas a continuación:
-Clases individuales
-Música de cámara
-Técnica de estudio
-Técnica instrumental
-Orquesta
-Improvisación
-Análisis del repertorio

Molina de Aragón, Guadalajara 6-13 julio. 

 a 13 de julio de 2014

MASTER SERIES: Manuel Barrueco 2013 (Ie)

By Fernando Bartolomé Zofío. Julio 2013. Córdoba (España).

Edited and revised by Karen Nelson


This is one of the most interesting interviews I've had the opportunity to do for Modern Guitar Ensemble. I’m glad to talk with one of the great masters of the classical guitar of our times and do it without restrictions. Manuel Barrueco has opinions about everything and everyone, and he is always sincere and open.

In this interview, conducted during the Cordoba Guitar Festival, we looked back at his career and the teachers he has had through it. We talked about people who, directly or indirectly, positively or negatively, marked and conditioned him in some way -- people like Leo Brouwer, Toru Takemitsu , Alicia de Larrocha , Aaron Shearer, John Duarte and many others. And, as I said, in some cases he has followed in the footsteps of some of these teachers and in other cases he has learned from them to avoid doing what they did radically. Barrueco has a memory of everyone and hides neither praise nor criticism.

We spent a long time talking about musical issues but without forgetting some of life’s other important issues:  meetings with Segovia; Barrueco’s getaway from Cuba; the life of an immigrant in the United States, and many other topics. I have to thank Manuel Barrueco again for his kindness toward me, considering that he had to break off a meeting with Manolo Sanlúcar where they were collaborating on the "Medea" album, in which the Cuban guitarist plays a work of the Flamenco composer for guitar and orchestra.

In this interview I would like to take a tour through the teachers you've found, or have sought, throughout your career. There are famous people who I wish you would tell us about, and the influence they have had on you throughout all these years of music, and also there are people who are not well known and who perhaps deserve oblivion, people like Rey de la Torre and others. But let's go back to your beginnings in Cuba. Who was your first teacher?

The first teacher I actually had came from the popular music tradition. It was the type of Mexican music trios, Los tres reyes, Los panchos, and this kind of thing. His name was Mondéjar and besides playing in a trio he was a barber.  We already know the tradition about guitar and barbers, and he was teaching in Santiago de Cuba. As my dad told me, when talking to him about me, he said I seemed to show talent with the guitar.  He was looking for a teacher to teach me the basics, music theory and such things, so I found a teacher named Guillermo Dufurneau. He was a very elegant gentleman, black, very nice, and he taught me to read music. I was about nine years old.

I remember there was a guitarist in La Havana called Elias Barreiro, and he wanted me to play for him. I went and played for him. He advised me that the Local Conservatory, which had a guitar department, could be a good place for me to study.  And there was Manuel Puig, and I think of him as my first teacher, although he really was not, but maybe because the time I spent with him from age 10 or 11 until I left Cuba at age 14, I think so. Moreover, my relationship with him and his wife was very close; it was as if they were my parents. Sometimes I was tormented because I did not know who I loved more, my parents or them. They were very sweet and welcoming people.

Was your father a musician? Did he have any musical influence on you?

He was an amateur in the sense that he liked the music but he didn’t play any instrument or even cared to buy records. In Cuba the music is everywhere – I am talking about the time I lived there, and when there was a party everyone pretended to be a singer. My father was one of them. In that sense he was a music amateur, but I do not remember him buying me a disc or something similar.

In your career a turning point occurs at the time you met Leo Brouwer.  That was like a self awakening for you, although he wasn’t your teacher. You knew he played Bach's Chaconne when he was 12, and you didn’t want to achieve less.  So it pushes you to do the same before the age of 12.  Regarding this, I can think of two issues in your learning. On the one hand it’s good to have high expectations and progress, being ambitious, having an important person as a reference, an idol, but otherwise the top advice of many educators is "don’t play above your possibilities." I don’t know how you'd play around that time but the Chaconne at age 12 seems to be a task as fascinating as hypothetical.

Well, maybe when I said that I meant I could play the notes of the Chaconne, not that I could play it well. Although to be honest I have no idea how I played it. Musically I'm sure I played it horribly but technically I could not remember.

But the simple idea of daring to do that is very eloquent... 

Sure, yeah. It indicates something. What happened with Leo was that there was a TV show in Cuba named “Viernes de gala” and there were music recitals. One Friday there was a recital by a young Cuban man returning from study in the U.S. to play, and that was Leo. Something that is interesting is that I think Leo studied at Juilliard for a while and then at Hartford University, Connecticut, and I know of students who have known Leo Brouwer had books out of the library {this isn’t clear to me – whose books?  Brower’s?}. Anyway, I do not know the exact moment when he returned to Cuba and it would be interesting to know when he was awarded a scholarship. *

* (In the book “Leo Brouwer. Caminos de la creación”  Victoria Eli Rodriguez Marta Rodríguez Cuervo assure that he received a scholarship in 1959 and returned to Cuba in late 1960 when he was appointed Professor of Harmony, Counterpoint and Composition in the Conservatory of Havana . pp 27, 31)

I said I saw him on television and for me, for a guajirito from Santiago de Cuba on the other side of La Havana, I was blown away. For us, and by that time we can say that person was a semi eccentric man in the sense of the way he talked, dressed ... Everything caught my attention.

And also in the way he played.

Yes, but at that time I had no frame of reference. After the Revolution, which later became a Dictatorship, people stopped going to play there. Before Castro had passed Segovia and others. We knew local players like Elias Barreiro, Leo Brouwer and Jesus Ortega, but I couldn’t compare them with other foreign guitarists because no one played there. So I couldn’t see him as a different guitarist. It was what it was. When the Conservatory students traveled to play for him I was very impressed by him and then I heard the comment said about me: "Beware the ugly one with the big head."  Since then, whenever he came to Santiago de Cuba I tried to be around him, watching and following him everywhere. I was about 12 or 13 and he was 27.

We met at Manuel Puig’s home. We played first and then Brouwer, Barreiro, Ortega or whoever was there. For me everything he said was like the bible. In that sense it greatly influenced me. Once he appeared in Santiago de Cuba dressed all in black.  Imagine dressing that way! It was like watching someone from Mars. Childish things.

Leo Brouwer

Eventually these are things that motivate one to choose and work in one specific direction.

I remember several striking moments about him. The following year he gave another class at the Conservatory and played Pieza sin título. For a boy like me at the time, this music was like something from another planet and it must have meant something to me.

There was another time, in a choir concert, the Orfeón Santiago, where Leo was sitting alone and I decided to sit next to him. Me and Leo alone. Once in a while I tried to talk to him but he made a gesture to keep listening to music. It was very important for me, as it would be for a child nowadays to be next to Messi, for example.

Again, I remember another detail about Leo. In one of the meetings with the other teachers he was not going to go, and she called me to tell me that. Figure that one out!

Ultimately, the biggest influence he had on us was to insist on being above all musicians, not just guitarists. As I recall, he was young and it was his right to speak as a young man, and probably now his opinion is different, or maybe not.  I remember asking him about the most famous guitarists of the time and none of them was a musician for him. Perhaps because of this way of thinking, I grew up with a certain lack of respect for other guitarists.

So, for Brouwer, among musicians there wasn’t any guitarist who meant anything to him.

Segovia was a guitarist; Bream was a lutenist; Williams was a guitarist... They weren’t musicians to him. It’s true it was the opinion of a young man, but it influenced me. I also thought that way for a while. The point is that at that time he had a great influence on me as a young man who I admired.

When I went to study with the teacher Aaron Shearer, I did not know who he was.  He asked me who I liked as a guitarist, and I told him anyone. And he loved my answer. It wasn’t a forced attitude, it really was what I felt at that time, probably influenced by Leo, but it was as I felt at the time.

And then you went to the U.S. at 14 years of age.

I was almost 15. I went in September and in December I turned 15.

Did you go with some musician’s recommendation? Did Leo inlfuence you in some way?

No, no. We went as a political exiles. At that time there were certain people in Cuba, in the world of music, they wanted to take me to Havana to study. Even when Barreiro had gone, they told me about playing concerts, but at that time we were ready to go away. When we left, my family did not want me to contact anyone. Neither Leo nor anyone else, for fear of being held there. I left Cuba without saying goodbye to anyone. I think any of them would have told me to leave the country. At that time in school we were taught that if your father was not a Communist he was not your father, and if you were against the government you were a worm.

Then there were the “actos de repudio" in which people who want to leave the country should be stoned ... Things of an uncivilized world. But this was the reality. And I experienced it directly with family and friends. The “actos de repudio" campaign was promoted by the government and I know a person who was found in an acto de repudio against a friend of his. It sounds easy but imagine being in that situation. That's not even civilized. It is embarrassing to be Cuban and know that this has happened. One gets angry at the time. After many years without returning, they see what has happened to people; my parents are dead and I could not return, and it is an individual matter. It's not political.

So no one in Cuba that was for the Government said anything about the possibility of going to the United States. They even wouldn’t dream of saying anything like that.
So it was a personal and non political thing.

So, it was really a great getaway.

That's what was happening at the time. Cubans began to leave and realize that in Miami, only in Miami there are more than one million Cubans. It is a high percentage that have gone there. So we went in exile, which means that you go with the clothes you are wearing, leaving it all ... And we got to Miami.

And there you met a teacher named Juan Antonio Mercadal.

Yes. There we knew him as Juan Mercadal .

Juan Mercadal

How did you contact him?  Because I imagine that, given your personal situation, the last thing you would like to do was worry about playing the guitar... but perhaps that served you as a safety valve. How were those times?

I could not get even one guitar. We got nothing. Then Manuel Puig told me to go to see a lady who had been his master {I’m not sure what that means}, Fela González she was called.  I am told that she housed Segovia when he was there, and in a small apartment in Miami she received me. And what happened, and I'm not bragging about anything but it was what happened, is that she received me kissing my feet! She was very expressive and that was what she did . Then she had a party in a nice house, where there were several people. I do not remember if at that time Juan Mercadal was there, but among them was an Ecuadorian guitarist who lent me a guitar and he got me some scores.  Because we had no money at all. Nothing. We just arrived with debts that my dad had, because of the getaway he lost his job too.

Anyway, Juan Mercadal was famous in Cuba and he started giving me lessons. He never charged me a dime for anything. He picked up and took me home.  He was a very effusive person. The last time I saw him was at the airport in Madrid, where he played a concert. I have one of his albums and I think it would be worth listening to. He had a problem: he played without nails. But he was a very "macho" guitarist. You had to see him when he played the first string apoyando the third ... and so was his personality, very strong.

It looks like the profile of a flamenco guitarist.

No, no. He said he had to, to play the guitar to be heard, because he also played chamber music.  But the sound was without the nail. If you listen to the recording, there is a musicality and phrasing that there wasn’t at that time. And I think it is the objective what I'm saying.

He had a personal way of playing. His playing wasn't based on the guitar but on the music. He said the guitarists had to develop a way of singing a musical phrase, like a trumpet or clarinet players did.

Did he give you classes regularly?

Yes.

What did you work on with him? What repertoire?

He loved the Sagreras studies, and we also worked on the Coste studies. But I don’t  know if we spent 8 or 9 months in Miami. Apparently he talked to my dad and told him that if I was in a place like New York I would be known as one of the best guitarists in the world. I was 15 then. So off we went.

I can’t remember how it was the contact with Rey de la Torre was made. I know my mom had a childhood friend who had a relationship with Rey and Julian Orbón, and the idea was to study with them. But Orbón, a great Spanish composer who lived in Cuba for a long time, told me I was too inexpert, "too simple," and he didn’t accept me as a student. With Rey himself I took some classes, and all I can say about Rey de la Torre is that in America, for a time, he was one of the most famous guitarists. According to legend, which may not be true, Miguel Llobet went to America and brought with him Rey de la Torre to study with him. The fact is that there was a relationship with Llobet and his way of playing that said he was a very fine person.

It may be that what happened there was what happened in Europe with Llobet. He was a great guitarist, arranger, and composer, and today is highly regarded, from all the opinions I hear from people who have heard the recordings or chronicles of his time. But maybe he wasn’t famous enough for the great figure of Segovia...

When I was in Cuba, the influence of the Spanish guitar in Cuba was very strong there. Things that we studied were the methods of Pascual Roch , Emilio Pujol. I don’t know if Llobet went to Cuba but at that time all these people were legends there. What I have heard thousands of times is that Rey de la Torre studied with Llobet.  Rey was a different person from Juan Mercadal. Juan was more folksy while Rey was more in the world of art, the guitar, and possibly he had less interest in me. He was more into his world. I did not take many lessons with him.

What did you learn from Rey de la Torre?

At that time I lived close to New York and caught a bus to get there. I don’t remember many lessons. I remember more or less an unoccupied apartment, shared with a painter, a bird in a cage... I guess he had a more bohemian lifestyle. What I remember is that he was very cautious about muting the strings. He had a lot of different ways to mute the strings. What you will notice about him, I'm talking years later, he was ahead of his time because if you see the things he did, they are fine things. He played very good works of Julian Orbón, such as the Prelude and Toccata.

He also made ​​a few recordings.

He recorded some of the Sor works; Sarabanda lejana, by Rodrigo; I’m not sure if he recorded a Sonata by Ardévol -- I don’t know much about him but I do know this work well because I recorded it and I can say he was a good composer.  I think the first guitarist that recorded it was Leo.  I also remember that he recorded the Variaciones sobre un tema de Milán, by Joaquin Nin- Culmell.

Rey was more distant. I also remember he charged something for the lessons, he said that it was as a matter of discipline. I, so young at the time, couldn’t believe I was taking classes with these people. He left Cuba soon and he was a legend there.

In Cuba, after the Revolution when it became communist, there was nothing in the stores or the music shops, and in any case all had been nationalized by the government. Then you couldn’t buy an album, but a friend gave me a disc of Segovia playing Albeniz and Granados, and now I think, maybe, it influenced what I did after. It was a Long Play, with Albéniz and Granados on one side and on the other Torroba , Llobet Catalan Songs, Danza Mora by deTárrega. And the album itself impressed me a lot and for me it is a classic. And I say this because the other day talking to someone I realized that the first disk Leo made in Cuba, with the Abreu Sonata, Elogio de la Danza, Villalobos Estudio 7, Ponce Sonata Meridional, Carlos Fariñas Preludio... All of this I recorded later on, but I recorded it unconsciously. And there must be a connection to all of this. On one of the trips Leo made to Santiago, as I recall, in the house of the master Manuel Puig, he said us something like he wouldn’t write for the guitar because he won’t make  history writing for the guitar. At this time he was already involved in the issue of concrete music, random music. But there he played his last composition, Elogio de la danza, which was awesome for all of us .

Anyway, Rey went to California and for a while I was not studying with anyone. I was quite alone, and even stopped playing too.