Search - Tuomo Tirronen :: La Guitarra: Spanish Music for Guitar by Llobet, Pujol, Sor, Tarrega & Torroba

There was a time when the guitar was unmistakably linked to Spain. The most important guitar works were written by Spanish composers such as Gaspar Sanz and Luis Milan. While working at the Royal Spanish Court, the Italian baroque composer Domenico Scarlatti most certainly heard the sounds of these baroque guitar composers and imitated themin his famous cembalo sonatas. Nowadays, the guitar is found in genres of all kinds, all over the world. The remarkable renaissance of the guitar is relatively new, though, and many people still picture bull-fighting and castanets when they hear its and with good reason. It was in Spain that the guitar had its cradle and there that it developed into the instrument we know today as the classical guitar. Normally, the Spanish guitar is closely associated with southern Spain more precisely Andalucia where, among the gypsies, flamenco music came about. However, the guitar in Spain is more widespread than commonly thought. Some of the most influential people who shaped the history of the classical guitar were not from southern Spain, but from the north-east, more precisely the region of Catalonia. Finnish guitarist Tuomo Topias Tirronen started playing guitar at the age of eight, studying with Karri Elo. He studied classical guitar in Finland at the Turku Music Conservatory under Marianne Gardberg, and then in Turku Music Academy until graduating in 2002 as a music pedagogue. Tirronen also studied in Sweden at the Malmö Musikhögskola with Göran Söllscher and Gunnar Spjuth, and later attended Musikhochschule Lucerne in Switzerland where in 2006 he received the highest marks from Frank Bungartens. Tirronen, who has a keen interest in playing Renaissance lute and Persian lute among other stringed instruments, has given concerts in Germany, Italy, Sweden and Switzerland and actively in his native Finland. An active chamber musician, Mr. Tirronen performs in the flute and guitar duo Duo Arkipelag with flutist Visa Turunen, in the guitar duo Tirronen & Buck with Christian Buck, and in the German alternative music group Melkbook with Alex Goretzki and Christian Buck. Tirronen also performs with Topias Tiheäsalo in T&T2, a chamber group focused on free improvisation. He has given the premiere performances of Antti Haapalainen's Kivettynyt Metsä for solo guitar and Satakieli for flute and guitar, as well as Aki Lappalainen´s Suite for Guitar and Elf for flute and guitar. Tuomo Tirronen has participated in master classes given by Eduardo Fernandez, Stephen Stubbs and Jorgen Bjorslev, and himself teaches at the Music Institute Arkipelag and at Vakka-Suomi Music Institute and has served as President of the Turku Guitar Society since 2003.