Master Classes

Liza Zoe

Evangelos Assimakopoulos

Evangelos & Liza

The superb concerts of Evangelos Assimakopoulos and his wife Liza Zoe in Europe, United States and Canada, have made them one of the most highly regarded duo guitarists in the world today. Not only have the two Greek musicians been acclaimed by many newspapers of repute, including the New York Times, Daily Telegraph, Paris Matin, Chicago Sun, El Sol de Mexico and Los Angeles Times, but they also earned the esteem of the great Andrés Segovia himself, who wrote of them:
“Since Fate cruelly deprived us of Presti-Lagoya, I no longer had the pleasure of listening to any similar duo. But lately, when the talented Greek guitarists Evangelos and Liza played for me, I felt complete satisfaction and enjoyment. I cordially wish Evangelos and Liza to conquer the high esteem of the public as they have conquered mine!”

Evangelos and Liza began their studies of the guitar in 1953 at the National Conservatory of Athens under Dimitris Fampas. After receiving first prizes “with excellence” upon graduating, they shared the first two prizes in 1960 at the International Competition in Naples, Italy. For four consecutive periods they were awarded scholarships to study with the Presti-Lagoya duo in France and with Andrés Segovia in Spain. Shortly after, they became professors at the National Conservatory in Athens.

Since their arrival on the international scene in 1967, Evangelos and Liza have carried out extensive tours all over the world and given hundreds of recitals at some of the most famous concert halls, including Carnegie Recital Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Concertgebouw, Wigmore Hall, Le Théâtre de la Ville, The Lincoln Center and the Herodion. They have also performed for many radio and television stations (BBC, Paris RTVF, Brussels, Madrid, Cologne, Berlin etc.) and taken part in major festivals in, among other places, New York, Boston, Antwerp, Rome, Amsterdam, Mexico and Athens. They usually appear as duo soloists with well known symphony orchestras such as those of Montreal, Michigan, Cincinnati and Birmingham, as well as teaching seminars and holding Master-classes at universities and academies overseas including The Juilliard School, the Royal Academy of Music, the Royal College of Music, UCLA, Stony Brook University and Mannes College of Music.

In Greece the duo has been organizing the famous International Guitar Festival of Patras (www.igfpatras.com) since 1992, an annual four-day event with concerts, Master-classes, lectures, lessons and competitions, which nowadays is one of the longest-running guitar institutions in the same city worldwide.

Both Greek and foreign composers have written pieces and Concertos especially for Evangelos and Liza (Tedesco, Morel, Duarte, Jouvin, Dragatakis, Antoniou, Koukos etc.), at the same time the two musicians have enriched a rather meagre guitar duo repertoire with transcriptions and arrangements for their own. They have produced several records and CDs of works for one or two guitars that are available on the EMI Classics, Philips, EDICI, and Legend classics.

The breadth of their repertoire, their technical skill and rich interpretations, have earned an enthusiastic reception wherever they have performed, resulting to their wholehearted acceptance by the public as one of the “most exciting husband-and-wife virtuoso duos of today’s musicdom!”

Johan Fostier

“The sound is the mirror of the soul”

Important figure of contemporary classical guitarists, Johan Fostier’s sound and interpretative art never goes unremarked! He performs throughout the world as a soloist and chamber musician (Take Four Guitar Quartet, Almaviva Duo, Estrellitas Duo, Belgian guitar duo) and in the most famous concertos for guitar; his tours took him throughout Russia, the United States, Canada, Chile, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, Germany, France, Belgium, Italy, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Denmark, Romania, Moldavia, Morocco, Estonia, Albania, Afghanistan...

His playing stands out thanks to a powerful and generous musical discourse, served firstly by a body-instrument relationship always seeking for increasing harmony and freedom and secondly by a committed, lyrical and infinitely colourful approach in which a deep love for singing prevails. Besides, he enjoys accompanying sopranos and other mezzos, whereas his singing education makes him join the Wappa Tonic vocal quintet and the Kairos Ensemble.

His sovereign technique, deeply connected to music, enabled him to win several prestigious international competitions (among which the Guitar Foundation of America in 2001, Mottola, De Bonis, Tromp Muziek, …).

A university- educated linguist, interested in words, he has also collaborated with several comedians, singers and directors, which diversified and enriched his perception of the stage.

Carried and transfigured by his studies in Brussels (conductor Guy van Waas), Paris (Maestro Alberto Ponce, Ecole Normale) and in Switzerland (Joaquim Freire, Susane Mebes, his stars in guitar!), he perfected his art in the masterclasses of Nigel North and Eduardo Isaac.

He teaches in Bachelor and Master programs in Tilburg (Fontys Hogeschool voor Kunsten AMPA) and is invited throughout the world to give masterclasses.

JF sums up his artistic approach in 3 points:

1. To be

2. To give

3. There's no third…

Gabriel Bianco

Gabriel Bianco is a deeply curious and wide-ranging musician, internationally recognized both as a soloist and as a passionate chamber music performer. Whether playing a modern guitar or a period romantic instrument, his repertoire spans the major works of the guitar literature as well as lesser-known and rarely performed pieces.

Born in Paris in 1988, Gabriel Bianco earned his diplomas in classical guitar in 2008 and in chamber music in 2015. A prizewinner of the Guitar Foundation of America International Competition in 2008, he launched an international solo career that has since taken him to nearly fifty countries. He has performed in prestigious venues including the Théâtre du Châtelet (Paris), the Great Hall of the Tchaikovsky Conservatory (Moscow), Herbst Theatre (San Francisco), the Luis Ángel Arango Auditorium (Bogotá), the Central Conservatory of Music (Beijing), the Musashino Art Center and Yamaha Hall (Tokyo), the Kyiv Philharmonic, the Zurich Opera House, and the Lausanne Opera House. He has also appeared at major festivals such as La Folle Journée de Nantes, the Radio France Montpellier Occitanie Festival, the Cervantino International Festival (Guanajuato, Mexico), and the Granada International Festival of Music and Dance (Spain).

Gabriel Bianco has recorded several albums. His solo recital A Parisian in Paris was released in February 2025 on Naxos, followed by Filmaginaire with the Quatuor Éclisses (Klarthe). A recording with mezzo-soprano Marina Viotti and cellist Léonard Disselhorst is scheduled for release in 2026 on Naïve. He also appears on the debut album of double bassist Marc André, due for release in spring of the same year.

Since 2018, Gabriel Bianco has served as Professor of Classical Guitar at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam. He regularly gives masterclasses at the Royal College of Music in London, the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique de Paris, the Manhattan School of Music in New York, the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, and at the universities of Arizona (Tucson) and Florida (Tallahassee).

Gabriel Bianco plays Savarez strings and is an Altamira Artist.

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