Stefano Grondona La Guitarra Callada, Complete Works For Guitar (2017)

John Duarte (1919-2004) was educated at the Manchester University Faculty of Technology. He worked as a professional chemist until 1969, then abandoned chemistry in favor of full-time dedication to music, after having been persuaded by Len Williams, father of John Williams. His only formal musical education consisted in jazz guitar lessons with Terence "Terry" Usher, the rest he learned by self-instruction. He also worked professionally as a player of the trumpet and

Billy Arcila, raised in Medellín, Colombia, has lived in the United States for over 40 years, where he teaches and performs as one of California’s foremost guitarists. This album, the first to be made of Arcila’s music, contains works ranging across his entire compositional life, from his first published work to the most recent. Interspersed with the music of other admired composers which exploit nationalist elements, such as the bambuco and pasillo rhythms, Arcila’s autobiographical guitar music embraces the nostalgic, the verdant and the vibrant.

Born in 1660 into a family of peasant farmers, Johann Joseph Fux died in 1741 as Kapellmeister at the Habsburg court in Vienna, a prestigious post that he had held for almost 30 years: an extraordinary rise in fortune and testament to both considerable gifts as a musician and, self-evidently, an inclination towards hard work and self-improvement.