Prof. FRANK KOONCE (USA)

Guitarist Frank Koonce is acclaimed as a performer, teacher, and writer. His creative work includes an authoritative guitar edition of Bach's solo lute works and the world-premiere recording in English of Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco's "Platero and I" for narrator and guitar. Mr. Koonce has directed the guitar program at Arizona State University since 1978.

Frank Koonce is internationally acclaimed as a performer, teacher, and writer. He holds degrees from the North Carolina School of the Arts and from Southern Methodist University, studying first with Jesús Silva and then with Robert Guthrie. In 1974-75, he was a Fulbright Scholar and performer in Italy where he studied with Sergio Notaro and Alirio Diaz.

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JAMES CRABB (Ecosse)

James Crabb was born in Dundee, Scotland in 1967 and started playing the accordion at the age of four. He studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen with classical accordion pioneer Mogens Ellegaard from 1985-92. He was 2nd Prize Winner of the Gaudeamus Interpreters competition, 1989 in Holland, and was awarded the Carl Nielsen Music Prize, Denmark in 1991. During his studies he received scholarships from The Countess of Munster Musical Trust, Martin Musical Scholarship Fund, Tillett Trust and Sir James Caird Trust. He gave over 150 performances for the Live Music Now series.

James Crabb's acclaimed London debut in the Park Lane Group series at the Purcell Room in 1992 catapulted him to the international concert platform. Since then, he has performed worldwide, pioneering the classical accordion. He has appeared at festivals including Edinburgh, the London Proms, Belfast, Lucerne, Sydney Millennium, Cheltenham, Aldeburgh, Kuhmo, Brisbane Biennale, ISCM World Music Days and the Gulbenkian Foundation's Nordic Days.

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RAPHAELLA SMITS (Belgique)

Raphaella Smits was born on the 1st of February 1957. She grew up in an artistic family. Her father René Smits is a sculptor and an amateur violinist. Her mother Carolien Van Giel was a teacher in the Waldorf kindergarden and an amateur pianist. Her brother Johan Smits was a professional violinist.

During her childhood, Raphaella enjoyed singing in a choir and participated in several productions in the Royal Flemish Opera of Antwerp. At the Waldorf school she learned to play the whole family of the recorders (the vertical flutes soprano, alto, tenor and bass).

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JOHAN FOSTIER
A figure of the young generation of classical guitarists, Johan Fostier holds four international contests first prizes (among which the prestigious Guitar Foundation of America Contest 2001) and won many others.
He has already recorded two solo CDS, two with the Take Four Guitar Quartet and, more recently, one with Belgian soprano Evelyne Bohen (Almaviva Duo). He also performs with French guitarist Delphine Bertrand, flautist Sandrine Desmet and with cellist Stijn Kuppens ( duo and string quintet).
He performed as a soloist with the National Orchestra of Belgium, the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra (in the prestigious Tchaikovski Hall), the Orchestre Philharmonique de Liège, Chamber Orchestra Kremlin, the Kaliningrad Philharmonic Orchestra, the Royal Chamber Orchestra of Wallonia, the Orchestre du Conservatoire de Bruxelles, Prima la Musica, The Brabant Orchestra, the Neubrandenburg Philharmonic orchestra, and gave recitals throughout Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands (among others at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam), in France, in Italy, in Russia and gave a tour of 40 concerts through the United States and Canada.
He also took part in radio broadcasts in Belgium, in the United States and in Canada.
He created "Platero y yo"(Jiménez, Castelnuovo-Tedesco) together with comedian Vincent Dujardin in Belgium and also the "Plaisir des Sens" show with comedian Catherine Lambrecht.
He is regularly called upon to play the Romancero Gitano for choir and guitar by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco.

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GEORGE VASSILEV

www.georgevassilev.com