Carlos Barbosa-Lima & Johannes Tonio Kreusch
Biography Carlos Barbosa-Lima & Johannes Tonio Kreusch
Carlos Barbosa Lima
For over four decades, Carlos Barbosa-Lima has been regarded as one of the most creative and versatile acoustic guitarists on the world stage. Born in São Paulo, Brazil, Mr. Barbosa-Lima began studying the guitar at the age of seven and made his concert debut five years later in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. He began his recording career while still in his teens, continuing to appear regularly in concert and on Brazilian television.
Mr. Barbosa-Lima studied with the legendary Andrés Segovia. Since his U.S. debut in 1967, he has enjoyed a global concert career marked by numerous distinguished recordings. His legendary albums of the 1980's and 90's on the Concord label - which include collaborations with guitarists Laurindo Almeida, Charlie Byrd, and Sharon Isbin - have been highly sought after by guitar aficionados and Latin / Jazz / Classical music lovers alike. He has also performed as a guest soloist with many of the world's great orchestras and has been the featured performer at several prestigious music festivals.
In 2008 Carlos Barbosa-Lima celebrated his 50th recording Merengue on the world's premiere recital stage, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall accompanied by his duo partner guitarist Larry Del Casale. Maestro Barbosa-Lima made another visit to Carnegie Hall with Mr. Del Casale in 2010.
The breadth of his repertoire and his unique ability to integrate diverse musical styles- from Classical and contemporary to Brazilian and jazz- are strong features of his work. From Scarlatti and Debussy to Gershwin, Jobim and Lecuona- Carlos Barbosa-Lima delivers highly inspired, satisfying performances that have catapulted him onto the world stage. Many important composers have written music for him, and he has premiered such landmark works as Alberto Ginastera's Sonata, opus 47.
Carlos' three recent CD releases for the ZOHO label FRENESI (2004), SIBONEY (2004) and CARIOCA (2006) have been widely acclaimed as some of the most original and virtuosic acoustic guitar releases in recent memory, easily crossing the boundaries between Latin jazz, South American folk styles and classical concert music for the guitar. In each of the three recordings, Carlos invited internationally renowned jazz bassists to “sit in” with him, including John Benitez (Frenesi)
Barbosa-Lima's imaginative concert programs have broken down the worn-out dichotomy between popular and classical music thus single handedly redefining the role of the classical guitar for the 21st century.
Johannes Tonio Kreusch
one of the “most creative classical guitarists of the present” (Acoustic Guitar Magazine), studied at the Salzburg Mozarteum and at the Juilliard School of Musicin New York . Since his solo debut at the Carnegie Recital Hall in 1996, concert tours as a soloist and chamber musician have taken him to many cities in Europe, the USA, the Far East and Latin America. His intensive collaboration with composers of our time resulted in numerous new works for the guitar.
Johannes Tonio Kreusch regularly collaborates with renowned musicians from the fields of classical music and improvised music, such as Markus Stockhausen, Giora Feidman, Cornelius Claudio Kreusch or guitar colleagues such as Andy York, Carlos Barbosa-Lima, Máximo Diego Pujol or Badi Assad. The Carnegie Hall concert debut with metropolitan opera tenor Anthony Dean Griffey called the New York Times a “revelation.” With the violinist Doris Orsan, he has been a successful chamber music duo for many years.
Johannes Tonio Kreusch has produced numerous well-received CDs and radio recordings. His recordings include not only the standard repertoire (from the lute music of Johann Sebastian Bach to the Villa-Lobos Etudes) but also world-first recordings of contemporary music and his own compositions. The French music newspaper Classica-Répertoire awarded his CD recording of the Villa-Lobos Etudes the “10 de Répertoire” prize and called it “a new reference recording since the legendary recordings of Narciso Yepes and Julian Bream”.
In addition to his concert activities, Johannes Tonio Kreusch gives seminars and master classes at home and abroad. He is the author of numerous guitar-educational publications and artistic director of the International Guitar Festivals in Hersbruck and Wertingen.
Together with Cornelius Claudio Kreusch he leads the music festival “Look into the Future” for the city of Burghausen and founded the concert series “Ottobrunner Konzerte” near Munich in 2008. For their successful work as artistic director of this series, they received the Tassilo Culture Prize of the Süddeutsche Zeitung in 2012.
