Manuel Barrueco
(pronounced Mah-noo-éhl Bah-roo-éh-koh) is a Classical music guitarist. He was born on 1952 in Santiago de Cuba, on Cuba's southeastern shore. He has toured in the U.S., Europe and Japan, and serves on the faculty of Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, Maryland.
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Biography
Manuel Barrueco began playing the guitar at the age of eight, and he attended the
Esteban Salas Conservatory in his native
Santiago de Cuba. He emigrated with his family to the United States in 1967, later completing his advanced studies at the
Peabody Institute in
Baltimore, where he was granted a scholarship.
At the age of 22 he became the first classical guitarist to receive the
Concert Artist Guild Award in 1974, attesting to the fact that before him, guitar music hadn't been universally accepted in classical music.
His first recordings aroused incredulous amazement about his skills and musical interpretation. Ever since, Barrueco has toured extensively, appearing in some of the world's most important musical centers, including
New York,
Los Angeles,
Chicago,
London,
Munich,
Madrid,
Barcelona,
Milan,
Rome,
Copenhagen,
Athens,
Seoul,
Taipei,
Singapore,
Hong Kong, and
Japan.
Manuel Barrueco has made well over a dozen recordings for
EMI. This included the 2006 album,
¡Cuba!
, was called
"an extraordinary musical achievement"
by the San Francisco Chronicle, while his recording of
Joaquín Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez with conductor/tenor
Plácido Domingo and the
Philharmonia Orchestra, was mentioned as the best recording of that piece in Classic CD Magazine. His
Nylon & Steel
, is a collection of duos with guitar greats:
Al Di Meola,
Steve Morse (Deep Purple), and
Andy Summers (The Police), further demonstrating Barrueco's outstanding versatility and imaginative programming. In the spring of 2006,
Concierto Barroco
was released by EMI in Europe and
Koch International in the United States, containing world premiere recordings of new works for guitar and orchestra by
Roberto Sierra and
Arvo Pärt, as well as two guitar concertos by
Antonio Vivaldi.
In addition to performing works by the aforementioned composers, Barrueco's commitment to contemporary music and to the expansion of the guitar repertoire has led him to collaborations with distinguished composers such as
Toru Takemitsu,
Steven Stucky, and
Michael Daugherty.
His performances have been broadcast by television stations such as
NHK in Japan,
Bayerischer Rundfunk in
Germany, and
RTVE in Spain. In the United States, he has been featured in a
Lexus car commercial, on
CBS Sunday Morning
, A&E's
Breakfast with the Arts
, and
Mister Rogers' Neighborhood
. A one-hour documentary portrait,
Manuel Barrueco: A Gift and a Life
,
[1] was produced in 2006. It includes several performances and interviews, in one of which he reminisces over his childhood years in Cuba, and pledges never to return until the present
communist regime has come to an end.
Teaching
Manuel Barrueco recommends practicing with a metronome.
[2] [3]
References
- Manuel Barrueco: A Gift and a Life
- Manuel Barrueco Shares Insights with Well-Attended Masterclass
- Title Unavailable