ALVARO PIERRI - Guitar

Alvaro Pierri is internationally acclaimed as a leading personality in the world of the guitar. Press reviews around the world praise “his masterly thought-out interpretations”... “the breathtaking phrasing”...and “the unmatched musical colour spectrum that he creates on the guitar” . Alvaro Pierri was born in Montevideo, Uruguay, into a family of musicians. He received his early musical education from his mother, Ada Estades, on the piano and his aunt, Olga Pierri, on the guitar. Later he studied with Abel Carlevaro, the composer Guido Santorsola and also at the Uruguayan National Institute of Musicology.

From the age of 11 he was already winning prizes in international guitar competitions, including 1st Prize in the International Guitar Competition in Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1st Prize in the International Guitar Competition in Porto Alegre, Brazil, and the Gold Medal at the 18th International Competition by France Musique/Radio France in Paris.

Pierri’s debut in the USA took place in New York and received outstanding reviews: … “Mr. Pierri revealed an artistic maturity not commonly encountered” … “compared to artists as Segovia, Bream, Williams” … “brilliant, sensitive, versatile, breathtaking” (New York Times & Continental Reviews). In 1983 he made his debut in Germany with the string soloists of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, and he subsequently appeared on numerous radio and television programmes in Germany, Austria, Spain, France, Denmark, Canada, Korea and Japan.

As a musician popular with both the public and the critics, Pierri is a regular guest at the major concert houses of Europe, North and South America, and Asia. Contemporary composers such as Leo Brouwer, Guido Santorsola, Jacques Hétu, Astor Piazzolla, Abel Carlevaro, Carlo Domeniconi and Terry Riley have written major works for Alvaro Pierri and in each case he has premiered them brilliantly. His manifest love of chamber music has resulted in collaborations with major musical figures including Astor Piazzolla, Hatto Beyerle, Frank Peter Zimmermann, Ernö Sebestien, Regis Pasquier, Philippe Müller, Leo Brouwer, Alcides Lanza, Terry Riley, Tracy Silverman, Maureen Forrester, Eduardo Fernandez, the Cherubini Quartet and the Turtle Island String Quartet, and he has also worked with conductors such as Pinchas Steinberg, Charles Dutoit, Wojciech Rajski, Mario Bernardi and Yannick Nezet-Séguin.

Alvaro Pierri’s CDs have been released by Metropole-Polydor (France), Blue Angel-2001 (Germany), Milan Records (Canada), Analekta (Canada), Amplitude (Canada), Madacy (Canada), HOMA (Japan) and The Alpha Omega Sound (Hong Kong). His discography includes solo recordings, chamber music, guitar concerts and electro-acoustic music. Several of his CDs have been honoured with prices and nominations and he has already received twice the coveted Canadian FELIX award for the best classical CD of the year. Recently “Pioneer Classics Japan” brought out a DVD featuring Spanish and South American guitar music, and “Deutsche Grammophon” re-issued a DVD of Astor Piazzolla’s Double Concerto with Alvaro Pierri performing in duo with Astor Piazzolla.

Alvaro Pierri is also an internationally acclaimed teacher. Many of his students have won major international guitar competitions. He was professor at the University of Santa Maria in Brazil and subsequently ran a guitar class at McGill University and the UQAM (Academy of Music) in Montreal. In 2002 he was appointed professor at the famous Academy of music in Vienna (today University of Music and Performing Arts).

Pierri gives master classes at major music festivals such as the New York Manhattan Masters, GFA Guitar Foundation of America, Québec FIG, the SIG Séminaire International de Guitare in Paris and Bordeaux, in Barcelona, at the Mozarteum Summer Academy in Salzburg, the Wiener Meisterkurse, the Villa Musica in Mainz, and also in Tokyo, Osaka, Seoul and at The Joy of Music Festival in Hong Kong. In recognition of his outstanding artistic talent and career and his permanent enriching contribution to the culture, in 2008, Alvaro Pierri was awarded the honorary citizenship of his hometown Montevideo.

The Alpha Omega Sound, the recording label of The Chopin Society of Hong Kong Ltd., has released Alvaro Pierri’s first of a series of recordings he is planning to record under this label. The CD has been entirely recorded by Mr. Pierri at Abbey Road Studios in London.

With the present CD, Alvaro Pierri is embarking on a long term project with The Alpha Omega Sound, to record a comprehensive series of sonatas specifically composed for guitar and spanning the 19th to the 21st centuries. The collection, which will not necessarily be issued in chronological order of the compositions, will not contain transcriptions or shorter pieces but will focus exclusively on the superb body of music specifically composed and developed in a sonata form for the guitar.

阿爾瓦羅 • 皮耶里 - 結他大師

結他界公認的世界大師級演奏家。其演奏廣為樂評人推崇，獲得美譽如：「令人屏息的抑揚頓挫……」﹑「造詣精湛﹑傾情演繹……」和「用結他譜出無以倫比的音樂色彩……」。

生於烏拉圭蒙特維多的音樂世家。皮耶里的早期音樂啟蒙教育包括母親艾黛·伊絲達傳授鋼琴和姨母歐拉·皮耶里教授結他，及後於烏拉圭國立音樂學院師從著名結他教育家亞貝爾·卡雷巴洛和作曲家基多·山杜梭拉深造。

11歲已在國際結他大賽嶄露初芒，獲得獎項包括有：「阿根廷布宜諾斯艾利斯國際結他大賽」一等獎﹑「巴西阿雷格里港國際結他大賽」一等獎 ﹑於巴黎舉行的「第十八屆法國國際結他大賽」金獎。

皮耶里首次於紐約登台亮相便獲好評如潮：「皮耶里在藝術方面的嫻熟非常罕見……」﹑「可與塞戈維亞﹑布林姆和威廉斯等藝術大師相媲美……」﹑「輝煌的﹑敏感的﹑多才多藝的﹑令人屏息嘆為嘆止的……」(紐約時報和大西洋評論等媒體這樣評價他的演出)。1983年，做為弦樂獨奏家與柏林愛樂管弦樂團合作於德國首演，其後，他成為德國﹑澳洲﹑西班牙﹑法國﹑丹麥﹑加拿大﹑韓國和日本等地電台和電視節目的常客。

作為廣受公眾和評論家鍾愛的音樂家，皮耶里的演出足跡遍及歐洲﹑北美﹑南美和亞洲各大音樂廳。當代作曲家如萊奧·布勞威爾﹑基多·山杜梭拉､埃迪､ 阿斯托爾·皮亞佐拉､亞貝爾·卡雷巴洛﹑多明尼康尼和特里·賴利都曾專程為他創作樂曲，這些樂曲在皮耶里手下大放光彩。

鐘愛室內樂。與他合作過的著名音樂家和樂團包括有：阿斯托爾·皮亞佐拉､哈托·巴耶勒､ 法蘭克·彼得·齊瑪曼､塞巴斯蒂安､ 雷吉斯·巴斯基耶､菲利曾·穆勒､萊奧·布勞威爾､藍撒､特里·賴利､崔西·席佛曼﹑莫蓮·弗雷斯特､費南德滋﹑凱魯比尼弦樂四重奏､龜島弦樂四重奏，他亦曾和著名指揮家如：祖克曼､斯坦伯格､迪圖瓦､拉耶斯基､貝納迪和雅尼克合作表演。 皮耶里的唱片曾獲世界各大品牌如法國寶麗多﹑德國藍天使-2001﹑加拿大米蘭唱片﹑加拿大Analekta﹑加拿大Amplitude﹑加拿大Madacy﹑日本HOMA和香港The Alpha Omega Sound 發行。他的唱片曲目包括有結他獨奏､室樂､結他音樂會和電聲音樂。他已有數張唱片獲提名及獎項，如他兩次榮獲加拿大Felix年度最佳古典音樂CD獎。他的最新DVD 「日本先鋒古典」涵蓋了西班牙和南美的結他音樂，而德國留聲機重新發行了一張他和阿斯托爾·皮亞佐拉以二重奏方式表演的協奏曲DVD。

皮耶里同時亦是蜚聲國際的結他教授。許多他所教授的學生皆獲得重大國際比賽獎項。他曾於巴西聖瑪麗亞大學任職教授，其後於麥吉爾大學和魁北克大學蒙特利爾分校（音樂學院）開設結他班。2002年，他被著名的維也納音樂學院（現已改名為維也納音樂和表演藝術大學）聘為教授。

皮耶里亦在全球各大音樂節教授大師班，包括紐約曼哈頓､美國GFA結他基金會､魁北克FIG､巴黎和波爾多SIG國際神學院､巴塞隆拿､薩爾茨堡莫扎特暑期音樂學校､維也納音樂節､德國美因茲音樂節､東京､大阪､首爾等地的音樂節和香港美樂聚音樂節。

2008年，為表彰皮耶里傑出藝術天賦､輝煌音樂生涯和對文化所作出的巨大貢獻，其家鄉蒙特維多向他頒發「榮譽市民」稱號。

香港蕭邦社旗下錄音公司The Alpha Omega Sound已發行了皮耶里系列演奏作品，這些唱片全部由皮耶里在倫敦愛彼路錄音室錄製完成。

此外，皮耶里亦和The Alpha Omega Sound唱片公司有長期合作項目，計劃錄製由十九世紀跨越至廿一世紀期間，專為結他創作的奏鳴曲。這項收藏式特別CD錄音計劃，不會按作曲時間先後排序，不包含樂章簡介，不縮短樂章，但會非常專注於結他奏鳴曲的發展史和音樂精華。