![Manuel Barrueco au salle Bourgie](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/91/Manuel_Barrueco_au_salle_Bourgie.jpg)
Manuel Barrueco (born December 16, 1952) is a Cuban classical guitarist. During three decades of concert performances he has performed and recorded across the United States and has been involved in many successful collaborations. In addition, he teaches at the
Peabody Institute
The Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University is a private conservatory and preparatory school in Baltimore, Maryland. It was founded in 1857 and opened in 1866 by merchant/financier and philanthropist George Peabody (1795–1869) ...
in
Baltimore
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...
,
Maryland
Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...
.
Career
![Manuel Barrueco](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8a/Manuel_Barrueco.jpg)
Barrueco was born in Cuba on December 16, 1952. Manuel Barrueco began playing the guitar at the age of eight, and he attended the Esteban Salas Conservatory in his native Cuba. He immigrated with his family to the United States in 1967 as political refugees. His first recordings aroused excitement 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 City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
,
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
,
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
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,
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
,
Munich
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...
,
Madrid
Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...
,
Barcelona
Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...
,
Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
,
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
,
Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...
,
Athens
Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...
,
South Korea
South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...
,
Taipei
Taipei (), officially Taipei City, is the capital and a special municipality of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Located in Northern Taiwan, Taipei City is an enclave of the municipality of New Taipei City that sits about southwest of the n ...
,
Singapore
Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...
,
Hong Kong
Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...
, and
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
.
Barrueco has made well over a dozen recordings for
EMI
EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At the time of its break-up in 201 ...
, including his 2006 album, ''¡Cuba!'', which was called "an extraordinary musical achievement" by the
San Francisco Chronicle
The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. de ...
, while his recording of
Joaquín Rodrigo's ''
Concierto de Aranjuez
The ''Concierto de Aranjuez'' (, "Aranjuez Concerto") is a classical guitar concerto by the Spanish composer Joaquín Rodrigo. Written in 1939, it is by far Rodrigo's best-known work, and its success established his reputation as one of the mos ...
'' with conductor/tenor
Plácido Domingo
José Plácido Domingo Embil (born 21 January 1941) is a Spanish opera singer, conductor, and arts administrator. He has recorded over a hundred complete operas and is well known for his versatility, regularly performing in Italian, French, ...
and the
Philharmonia Orchestra
The Philharmonia Orchestra is a British orchestra based in London. It was founded in 1945 by Walter Legge, a classical music record producer for EMI. Among the conductors who worked with the orchestra in its early years were Richard Strauss, W ...
, 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
Albert Laurence Di Meola (born July 22, 1954) is an American guitarist. Known for his works in jazz fusion and world music, he began his career as a guitarist of the group Return to Forever in 1974. Between the 1970s and 1980s, albums such as ' ...
,
Steve Morse
Steve J. Morse (born July 28, 1954) is an American guitarist, best known as the founder of the Dixie Dregs and as the lead guitarist of Deep Purple from 1994 to 2022. Morse has also enjoyed a successful solo career and was briefly a member of ...
(
Deep Purple
Deep Purple are an English rock band formed in London in 1968. They are considered to be among the pioneers of heavy metal music, heavy metal and modern hard rock music, but their musical style has changed over the course of its existence. Ori ...
), and
Andy Summers
Andrew James Summers (born 31 December 1942), is an English guitarist who was a member of the rock band The Police. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a band member in 2003. Summers has recorded solo albums, collaborated w ...
(
The Police
The Police were an English rock band formed in London in 1977. For most of their history the line-up consisted of primary songwriter Sting (lead vocals, bass guitar), Andy Summers (guitar) and Stewart Copeland (drums, percussion). 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
Koch Entertainment was an American record label and a distributor of film, television, and music. It was purchased by Canadian entertainment company Entertainment One in 2005.
History First years
The company began in 1975 as part of Koch Intern ...
in the United States, containing world premiere recordings of new works for guitar and orchestra by
Roberto Sierra
Roberto Sierra (born 9 October 1953) is a Puerto Rican composer of contemporary classical music.
Life
Sierra was born in Vega Baja, Puerto Rico. He studied composition in Europe, notably with György Ligeti in Hamburg (1979–1982), Germany. Af ...
and
Arvo Pärt
Arvo Pärt (; born 11 September 1935) is an Estonian composer of contemporary classical music. Since the late 1970s, Pärt has worked in a minimalist style that employs tintinnabuli, a compositional technique he invented. Pärt's music is in pa ...
, as well as two guitar concertos by
Antonio Vivaldi
Antonio Lucio Vivaldi (4 March 1678 – 28 July 1741) was an Italian composer, virtuoso violinist and impresario of Baroque music. Regarded as one of the greatest Baroque composers, Vivaldi's influence during his lifetime was widespread a ...
.
In 2007 Manuel Barrueco received a Grammy nomination for the "Best Instrumental Soloist Performance" for his "Solo Piazzolla", which was the first recording to be released on the exclusive Manuel Barrueco Collection on
Tonar Music. ''Tango Sensations'' and ''Sounds of the Americas'' came out subsequently in collaboration with the Cuarteto Latinoamericano, the latter received a Latin Grammy Award for "Inca Dances" by Gabriela Lena Frank for "Best Classical Contemporary Composition." "Guitar Duos" was released in 2009 and includes the most breathtaking guitar duos from the Spanish and Latin-American repertoire. In 2010 he released a solo recording, "Tárrega!", which includes works and arrangements of the Spanish composer
Francisco Tárrega
Francisco de Asís Tárrega Eixea (21 November 185215 December 1909) was a Spanish composer and classical guitarist of the late Romantic period. He is known for such pieces as Capricho Árabe and ''Recuerdos de la Alhambra''. He is often called ...
and which received a Latin Grammy nomination for "Best Classical Album." His latest release ''Chaconne–A Baroque Recital'' came out in 2012.
In October 2013 he released ''Medea'', which includes Barrueco's arrangement of the ballet by flamenco guitarist/composer
Manolo Sanlúcar
Manolo Sanlúcar (born Manuel Muñoz Alcón, 24 November 1943 – 27 August 2022) was a Spanish flamenco composer and guitarist. He was considered one of the most important Spanish composers of recent times, and together with Paco de Lucía, T ...
recorded with the Tenerife Symphony Orchestra and Víctor Pablo Pérez conducting, and in May 2014 he released ''China West'', a recording of guitar trios in collaboration with his protégés, the Beijing Guitar Duo (
Su Meng
Su Meng (; born 1988) is a classical guitarist. She was born in Qingdao, Shandong. She started studying classical guitar in 1997 under the tuition of Chen Zhi of the Central Conservatory of Music. In 2006 she was under full scholarship of Manu ...
&
Wang Yameng
Wang Yameng (; born 1981 in Qingdao, Shandong) is a Chinese classical guitarist. She has studied with Chen Zhi.
She has also performed in a quartet formation, Four Angels, with Su Meng, Li Jie and Chen Shanshan
Chen Shanshan (; born November ...
).
Barrueco's commitment to contemporary music and to the expansion of the guitar repertoire has led him to collaborations with many distinguished composers such as Steven Stucky, Michael Daugherty, Roberto Sierra, Arvo Pärt, Jonathan Leshnoff, Gabriela Lena Frank, Dmitri Yanov-Yanovsky, and Toru Takemitsu, whose last orchestral work Spectral Canticle was a double concerto written specifically for Manuel Barrueco and violinist Frank Peter Zimmerman.
His performances have been broadcast by television stations such as
NHK
, also known as NHK, is a Japanese public broadcaster. NHK, which has always been known by this romanized initialism in Japanese, is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee.
NHK operates two terrestr ...
in Japan,
Bayerischer Rundfunk
Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR; "Bavarian Broadcasting") is a public-service radio and television broadcaster, based in Munich, capital city of the Free State of Bavaria in Germany. BR is a member organization of the ARD consortium of public broadcas ...
in
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
, and
RTVE
The Corporación de Radio y Televisión Española, S.A. (; ), known as Radiotelevisión Española or RTVE, is the state-owned public corporation that assumed in 2007 the indirect management of the Spanish public radio and television service know ...
in Spain. In the United States, he has been featured in a
Lexus
is the luxury vehicle division of the Japanese automaker Toyota. The Lexus brand is marketed in more than 90 countries and territories worldwide and is Japan's largest-selling make of premium cars. It has ranked among the 10 largest Japanese ...
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'', 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
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
regime has come to an end.
Awards
In 1974, at the age of 22, he became the first classical guitarist to receive the
Concert Artists Guild The Concert Artists Guild is an American musical institution, based in New York City and established in 1951. It is dedicated to discovering and nurturing musical talent, and helping musicians start careers. It provides scholarships and grants, and ...
Award.
In 2012 Barrueco was named a Fontanals Fellow of
United States Artists
United States Artists (USA) is a national arts funding organization based in Chicago. USA is dedicated to supporting living artists and cultural practitioners across the United States by granting unrestricted awards.
Mission
The organization' ...
.
See also
*
Classical guitar in Cuba
References
External links
Official HomepageRecord company TonarSome photos of LP covers(Oviatt Library Digital Collections)
Interviewwith UrbanGuitar.com
with Paul Magnussen for ''Guitar'' magazine (Apr 1983)
with Greg Szeto for Aural States (Dec 2007
alt.In Session: Manuel BarruecoForum GFA "Guitar Foundation of America"
by David Reynolds
*https://peabody.jhu.edu/faculty/manuel-barrueco/
{{DEFAULTSORT:Barrueco, Manuel
1952 births
Cuban classical guitarists
Cuban male guitarists
Johns Hopkins University faculty
MNRK Music Group artists
Living people
Peabody Institute faculty