As a winner of 2013 Guitar Foundation of America Competition and more than 20 other prestigious contests around the globe, Russian guitarist Anton Baranov has established himself as one of the leading guitarists of today.
His performances in a number of distinguished halls such as Carnegie Hall in New York, Mariinsky Concert Hall in St. Petersburg, Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow, Centenario Hall in Beijing have been described by musical critics as “pure magic” (Cleveland Classical), and “manages to paint beautiful sound pictures of rich depth and color with his guitar.” (The Guitar). Besides his concert activity Anton Baranov gives master-classes at McGill University in Montreal, South Vietnam Conservatory in Ho Chi Minh City, Estonian Academy Of Music And Theatre in Tallinn and other institutions.
Baranov’s recordings include one album for Naxos Classical and a CD for Contrastes Records. Naxos release of Latin American Guitar Sonatas received American Classical Records Guide award as one of the best albums of 2014. His Contrastes Records album consists of Spanish guitar music and it’s on the market since August 2014. The most recent recording ‘White Nights serenades’ released in August of 2019 by ‘Fleur de son classics’ and distributed worldwide by Naxos of America.
Anton Baranov was born in 1984 and started playing guitar at the age of ten. He completed his musical education at the oldest and most famous Russian school of music, the Saint-Petersburg State Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory in 2010 and currently teaches at Mussorgsky music college.
Mr. Baranov has been a D’ Addario artist since 2013 and plays Max Cuker guitar.
Admired by audiences for his world class virtuosity, Raphaël Feuillâtre brings fresh, inspired interpretations to the classical guitar. Born in 1996, Raphaël Feuillâtre began classical guitar lessons at the age of nine with Hacène Addadi at Cholet Conservatory. In 2012, he entered Michel Grizard’s class at the Conservatory of Nantes and, three years later, he was accepted to Paris National Superior Conservatory of Music and Dance (CNSMDP) into the class of Roland Dyens where he obtained his Bachelor of Performing Arts degree in 2017 with highest honors. Raphaël completed his Master’s in Classical Guitar Performance with Tristan Manoukian in 2019, again with highest honors. Raphaël is also mentored by internationally renowned guitarist and pedagogue Judicaël Perroy, who played a very important role in his artistic development.
As a result of his 2018 win of classical guitar’s most prestigious competition, Guitar Foundation of America (GFA), Raphaël completed the recording of his second opus for the Naxos Label in 2019 (Barrios, Granados, Llobet, Rachmaninoff, Rameau, Ramirez, Scriabin, Villa-Lobos). He was a featured soloist at the 2019 GFA conference in Miami, and has embarked on his North American tour, which will last from September 2019 through April 2020. He will present solo concerts, conduct masterclasses and outreach activities in over 50 cities across the United States and Canada.
Prior to winning the 2018 GFA, Raphaël Feuillâtre participated in various other international guitar competitions, obtaining several major awards. In 2017, he won 1st prize in the International Guitar Competition Jose Tomas – Villa Petrer (Spain), which awarded him the opportunity to record his first album with JSM Guitar Records in 2018 (Bach, Granados, Tansman, Assad, Dyens). In 2015, Raphaël won 1st prize in the Concours & Festival de guitare de Fontenay sous Bois (France). He is also a laureate of the Festival International de Guitarra Ciudad de Coria in Coria (Spain) (2nd prize, 2014); Festival Internacional de Musica da Primavera de Viseu in Viseu (Portugal) (3rd prize, 2016); and the International Guitar Festival of Kutna Hora (Czech Republic) (3rd prize, 2017).
Raphaël Feuillâtre has appeared at several other classical guitar festivals and venues across the world, including the International Guitar Festival, Budapest ( Hungary) ; Festival of Guitar, Ciutat d’Elx (Spain) ; Guitar Art Festival, Subotica (Serbia) ; Guitarras del Mundo Festival (Argentina) where he toured across the country performing concerts; Changsha International Guitar Festival, Changsha (China) ; a seven-concert tour across Brazil (Brazil) as well as festivals and venues in Denmark, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Holland, and Montenegro. In France, he has been invited to perform chamber music at the Folle Journée de Nantes Festival, and the concerto d’Aranjuez on a five concert tour with the Orchestral Ensemble of Pau (France) . He has held residencies at 6 Cordes au Fil de l’Allier Festival and Guitare en France, and, as a soloist, he performed in the Paris International Guitar Festival, Sul Tasto Festival, Festival de Baume-les-Messieurs and Guitars in Picardy Festival.
Raphael is an endorsee of Savarez guitar strings, one of the world’s leading string manufacturers (founded in 1770).
Raphaël divides his time between performing and teaching. He is regularly invited to give masterclasses during his numerous engagements and holds a permanent teaching position at the Music School of Villeneuve-la-Garenne in Paris region.
Andrea De Vitis is one of those interprets who conquer audience and jury thanks to the high definition sharpness of his way of playing, to the extraordinary control of dynamics and agogic and to the clarity with which he asserts his thought, whilst also translating the thought of the Author. (Il Fronimo, 2016).
Andrea De Vitis (Rome, 1985) is acclaimed for the “infinitely varied color palette he creates” (American Record Guide), the “absolute control over the details of the performance” (Silesia prezentuje) and for his “mature interpretations” (Musica) with “profound musicality” (Guitart).
His intense concert activity has led to invitations to perform as a soloist in prestigious concert halls (including Liszt Academy in Budapest, Grand Theatre in Shanghai, Krakow Academy of Music, The Sheen Theatre in New York, Bucarest Academy of Music) and all the rest of the world (Europe, USA, Mexico, China, Russia). His recitals have been acclaimed by the press and dubbed as “spectacular concert” (Cultura Elche, Spain). Andrea frequently plays with orchestras: recent highlights include Aukso Kameralna (Poland), Anima Musicae (Hungary), Saint Petersburg State Orchestra (Russia), Orchestra del Conservatorio Santa Cecilia and Orchestra Internazionale di Roma.
De Vitis is in high demand to teach masterclasses in prestigious festivals, academies and conservatoires (Maastricht Conservatorium, California State University – Fullerton, Copenhagen Royal Academy, Staatliche Hochschule fur Musik und Darstellende Kunst Stuttgart, TU University Dublin, Krakow Academy of Music, Koblenz guitar, Amsterdam Conservatoire, Festival and Italian Conservatoires) or hold lectures on classical guitar repertoire (lecture on Alexandre Tansman’s music for TU University Dublin, Bologna Conservatoire, University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna and lecture on Homenaje à Debussy by Manuel de Falla together with musicologist Frédéric Zigante).
De Vitis is an active recording artist and all his albums received excellent rave reviews in international magazines (including Soundboard, Amadeus, Gendai Guitar, Suonare News, Fronimo, Melomano). Andrea won the Golden guitar award prize “for the best album” in 2016 and 2019 at the prestigious International Guitar Convention of Milan and Alessandria.
In 2019 Naxos Records released his double CD “Alexandre Tansman complete works for guitar”, which includes the world premiere of newly discovered pieces and urtext versions of the other published compositions. Andrea De Vitis was the first to perform “3 dances in modo polonico” by Alexandre Tansman and to compare all his published works with the original manuscripts.“ De Vitis carefully reinstates the composer’s original, even the movements considered by Segovia unsuitable for guitar. The result is sublime. His respect for the text of the music continues in his interpretation (American Record Guide), “touching interpretations” (Amadeus, Italy), “a landmark recording” (SeiCorde, Italy), “refined expressivity” (Melomano, Spain), “important achievement for classical guitar world (Gendai Guitar, Japan). He also released 2 albums for DotGuitar label: Colloquio with Andrés Segovia (A conversation with Andrés Segovia, 2015), which includes music by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Andrés Segovia, Angelo Gilardino; Ponce and Villa-Lobos (2020), which includes the famous Suite Populaire Brésilienne in its original version (1928).
De Vitis has won more than 40prizes in various international competitions, including Guitar Masters (Poland), Forum Gitarre Wien (Austria), Iserlohn International Guitar Competition
(Germany), Certamen“Julian Arcas” de Almerìa (Spain), Budapest International Guitar Competition (Hungary), Gargnano, Gorizia, Pittaluga (Italy) and Guitar Foundation of America (USA); he also received 3 “golden guitar awards” at the International Guitar Convenction in Milan and Alessandria and a special artistic medal from Senate of Italian Republic.
Andrea De Vitis is a D’Addario Artist since 2015.
Simone Vallerotonda
Born in Rome in 1983, he started studying the classical guitar. At age 18, deeply in love with early music, he bought a lute without any idea on how to play it. Then he had lute tuition from Andrea Damiani at the “Santa Cecilia” Conservatory in Rome, where he graduated with the highest marks. He subsequently obtained a Master’s Degree in theorbo and Baroque Guitar at the “Staatliche Hochschule für Musik” in Trossingen (Germany) under the guidance of Rolf Lislevand, also with the highest marks. Once again with full honours, he graduated in Philosophy at the “Tor Vergata” University of Rome, submitting a PhD dissertation about the relationships between 18th-century music and the French Philosophes. In 2011, he ranked first in the soloists’ class of the International Lute Competition “Maurizio Pratola”, also obtaining the highest prize in the chamber music section from REMA (Réseau Européen de Musique Ancienne). He appeared at outstanding theatres and concert venues in the Italia, Europe, USA, Australia, South America, Far East and He is a regular guest at the most prestigious Festivals. He has recorded for major radio and television broadcasters such as RAI, ABC, BBC, Mezzo, France Musique, Radio4, Art, Polskie Radio, Kulturradio, RSI, Radio Classica, Vatican Radio, as well as for the labels Naïve, Sony, Erato, EMI, Decca, Amadeus, Brilliant, Aparté, E Lucevan Le Stelle Records, Arcana Outhere Music. In addition to his soloist’s activity, he takes part as a continuo player in various ensembles including: Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, L’Arpeggiata, Les Ambassadeurs, Imaginarium Ensemble, Mare Nostrum, Il Pomo d’Oro. He teaches Lute at the “Antonio Scontrino” Conservatory of Music in Trapani (IT). In 2014 he founded “I Bassifondi”, his own proprietary ensemble offering a 17th-18th century repertoire for guitar, theorbo and lute with continuo. Their debut album “Alfabeto falso” was nominated in the ICMA 2018 (International Classical Music Award) among the best baroque instrumental records.
Pablo Menéndez was born in 1992 in Asturias, Spain. Since he was very young, music captivated him and he started playing guitar at the age of 10. Some years later he moved to San Sebastian, where he studied his Bachelor with the prestigious guitarist Marco Socías, finishing with the highest qualifications.
Since 2014, he studies with the great Maestro Carlo Marchione in the Conservatory of Maastricht (Netherlands), where he gets his Master degree, being awarded “cum laude” in 2016. Afterwards, he continues studying with Zoran Dukic, Pablo Márquez, Paolo Pegoraro, Lorenzo Micheli, Judicael Perroy, Antonio Duro and Francisco Bernier, in the context of Sevilla’s Guitar Master Degree.
Beside his academic formation, he enrolls plenty of courses and masterclasses to complete his musical evolution, as well as complementary formation on contemporary music, new musical languages and improvisation.
He also studies orchestral conducting under the guidance of Maestros Miguel Romea and Andrés Salado.
He has been awarded in several national and international music competitions, such as Concurso Internacional “Juan Crisóstomo de Arriaga” in Bilbao (Spain), Twents Gitaaar Festival (Enschede, Netherlands) or Gevelsberg Guitar Competition (Germany).
As a soloist, Pablo has given concerts all over Spain, Germany, Netherlands and Italy during the last few years. He also has an intense chamber music labour, which took him to record a CD together with the tenor Joaquín Pixán and the pianist Mario Bernardo, in which they recorded Spanish music from the XIX Century. Moreover, he worked as an orchestral player as well, being a member of the Spanish Young National Orchestra during the season 2014/15.
Nowadays, Pablo combines his concert activity with his pedagogical labour as professor at the Higher Conservatory of Córdoba (Spain).
Margarita Escarpa trained at the “Real Conservatorio Superior de Madrid”. She studied with Valentín Bielsa, Demetrio Ballesteros, Gerardo Arriaga, Miguel Ángel Girollet and David Russell, and was subjected to the influence of some of the best modern performers. She completed her academic education graduating with the Extraordinary Prize, and a short time later received her Bachelor degree in Mathematics from the “Universidad Autónoma de Madrid”.
She has been awarded two national and eight international prizes including first prize at the 20th Solo Guitar Competition organized by the Guitar Foundation of America. The combination of these prizes and her talent has provided her with the opportunity to regularly participate in some of the most important music festivals in Europe, Asia and America. Specialist critics and audiences enthusiastically acclaim her artistic sensitivity and her technical competence, both guided by her extensive musical training.
As a soloist, Margarita has recorded compact discs for RTVE, Ópera Tres, Naxos, GHA Records and Maricam Studio.
She presently teaches at the Vigo Conservatory in Spain, where she continues perfecting her technique with her pupils.
Margarita plays with a George Lowden ‘s guitar (North Ireland) and with a Matthias Dammann’s guitar (Germany), and uses D’Addario strings.