MONTENEGRIN GUITAR DUO was formed in 2005 by two prominent Montenegrin guitarists Goran Krivokapić and Danijel Cerović. Their repertoire includes the transcriptions of renaissance and baroque music and original compositions dating from 19th century, with a special emphasis on the contemporary music originally written for two guitars. This duo has successfully performed in Montenegro (where they had a premier of the Madrigal concert with the Montenegrin Symphony Orchestra), on important festivals such as A tempo and Kotor Art, as well as in Germany, Spain (Granada Festival Musica Y Danza), Poland, Luxembourg, Croatia, Serbia, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, B&H, Albania and Belgium. The duo has been frequently invited to the prestigious international events, recitals, master-classes, competitions. In 2015 Naxos Records is publishing the first of two CDs of Bach's English Suites transcribed and performed by Montenegrin Guitar Duo, making a world premiere of this unique project on two guitars.

 

GUILLEM PEREZ QUER was a disciple of J. F. Garrido. He completed his studies at the Barcelona Conservatori del Liceu, earning Extraordinary Awards. He received scholarships for the Centre International de la Musique d'Annecy (France) where he studied with the Uruguayan guitarist Óscar Cáceres. He attended masterclasses with Leo Brouwer (Havana, Cuba), Betho Davezac (Sablé, France) and Eli Kassner (Canada). He continued his guitar studies with the great Argentinian guitarist and disciple of M. Llobet, Maria Luisa Anido, who thought of him as one of her best students. Notable among his many prizes are the Manuel de Falla for Interpretation (Madrid) and the XXV International Competition Maria Canals (Barcelona). As a composer, he studied with Carles Guinovart and Lluís Vergés. Several of his compositions and arrangements have been recorded and performed abroad. With the Canadian guitarist Danielle Kassner, he formed the Kassner & Quer Guitar Duo, which has performed throughout Spain, Europe and North America and recorded several CDs for President Records Ltd. (London). He currently teaches at the Conservatori Superior del Liceu in Barcelona (Spain). He also gives masterclasses, recitals, and participates as member of jury for many competitions (Mexico, Costa Rica, Canada, Italy, France, UK, Colombia, Chile, China…).

 

ROVSHAN MAMEDKULIEV (Baku, 1986) started showing his musical talent at a very early age. In 2004 he was accepted to the very prestigious the Nizhny Novgorod Conservatoire where he studied with nationally recognized guitarist Aleksey Petropavlovsky. He completed his studies with Honors in 2009 and was invited to teach at Nizhny Novgorod Conservatoire. From 2014 Rovshan Mamedkuliev is a professor of the classical guitar department in the Maimonides State Classical Academy (Moscow). Since 1999 Rovshan has won more than 20 awards in national and international guitar competitions, including: First Prize and Special Prize for the best interpretation of the compositions of Leo Brouwer on the 10th International Guitar Competition Hommage à Leo Brouwer (Antony, France, 2009), First Prize, Prize of Public and Special Prize for the best interpretation of the compositions of Heitor Villa-Lobos on the 1st International Guitar Competition Heitor Villa-Lobos (Salamanca, Spain, 2011), First Prize, Prize of Public and Special prize for the best interpretation of the compositions of Francisco Tárrega on the 41th International Guitar Competition Francisco Tárrega (Benicasim, Spain, 2014). In 2012 Rovshan won one of the most prestigious guitar competitions in the world - XXX Guitar Foundation of America International Concert Artist Competition (Charleston, SC, USA). Rovshan Mamedkuliev has performed throughout the world: Moscow, Los Angeles, Toronto, Brasilia, Paris, Madrid, Berlin, Vilnius, Sarajevo, Chisinau, Baku, Minsk. In 2012, he gave a solo concert in New York's Carnegie Hall and concertized performing in numerous cities throughout Germany and Spain. In the 2013-2014 concert season after winning GFA's International Concert Artist Competition, Rovshan gave a Solo concert tour (51 concert) and master-classes throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico and Brazil. As a soloist Rovshan has performed with a wide variety of ensembles and orchestras including: l'Ensemble orchestral de Valencia (Spain), Orchestre du Conservatoire National de Musique Superiur de Paris (France), Azerbaijani State Chamber Orchestra named after Kara Karaev, Nizhny Novgorod Philharmonic Symphonic Orchestra, State Symphony Orchestra of the Udmurt Republic. Rovshan also recorded several CDs: his first professional CD Con Anima (Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, 2011), a Guitar Recital CD at the Laureate Series on the prestigious label Naxos (Toronto, Canada, 2012), a Solo CD Semi-Awake, Semi-Dream on the Contrastes Records (Sevilla, Spain, 2015).

 

EAST-WEST STRING PROJECT and its founders, Alen Garagić and Denis Omerović, won numerous important international prizes, and definitely belong to the narrow circle of some of the best guitarists of their generation. Through collaboration with some of the best international artists such as Zubin Mehta, Kent Nagano, Ariel Zuckermann, Irena Preda and many others, they performed in some of the most important concert halls: Palau de la Música Catalana Barcelona, KKL Luzern, Nationaltheater München, Alte Oper Frankfurt, Gewandhaus Leipzig, Sejong Center for the Performing Arts Seoul. Some of the critics described their art as "virtuosity with plenty of sentiments" (Süddeutsche Zeitung) or as "deep musicality and sensibility of the interpretation" (Vivir Spain). Through their program Departure, East-West Strings Project wants to create musical and spiritual bridge between East and West, which at the same time shows all the faces of classical guitar and in the deepest possible way explores their true spiritual background. Therefore, the fact that the program is separated into two parts, where in the first ensemble performs some of the masterpieces of classical repertoire, and in the second they perform their own arrangements of Balkan music with the elements of flamenco, fado and jazz, is only contradictory at first sight. For East-West String Project, this program is an unavoidable consequence of their artistic development.