Classical Guitar Interview #1 – Alvaro Henrique
It’s a great pleasure to bring to you the Classical Guitars blog first pro interview with classical guitar mastermind Alvaro Henrique, Alvaro is taking the Brazilian musical scene by storm with his outstanding skills as a classical guitarist, and truly a legend in the making.
Before we start the interview we thought it only right you get to see just how good Alvaro is, this video does all the talking for us….
Presenting Alvaro Henrique
We asked Alvaro what made him pick up the Classical Guitar in the first place:-
I had some musical training on childhood, I loved listening to music, and as a teen I wanted to play an instrument. As I was also very shy, some of my father’s coworkers suggested him to put me on acoustic guitar lessons. However, my idea of guitar playing was just strumming chords and singing along, which is something I did not want to do at all. For about six months I was constantly changing the subject when my father talked on having guitar lessons.
Then a friend of mine, Gustavo Vasconcelos, hosted an older cousin who played this thing I have never heard about called the “classical guitar”. One day I went to his house to make some school work, and I heard his cousin playing a few pieces (I remember “Sounds of Bells” was one of them). This was a true revelation for me, as I had no idea that a guitar could do that. This was something I really would like doing, and this very same day I told my father I wanted to have classical guitar lessons.
Fortunately, there was a very good teacher, Zilmar Gustavo, working on a good nearby music school, and his great lessons motivated me to study more and more the classical guitar. I owe my commitment to the guitar to those people, specially to my first teacher. He is a fantastic fellow, and he knew just right how to deal with me on those always problematic teenager years. I remember I always felt that the day I had guitar lessons was the happiest day of the week.
Next we asked Alvaro 6 questions:-
1) What was the best lesson you were ever taught on the Classical Guitar?.
As a human being, it was being able to share with others ideas, feelings, moods, and great music.
As a performer, it was that music comes from body, mind, and voice, never from fingers. Therefore, one must practice much more one’s body (heart and ears included), mind and voice than the fingers. It is possible and not so difficult as it seems. We just have the false idea that this is not practicing. Of course, fingers must be worked out daily, but we should not focus only in fingers, even on very early stages of learning.
2) Growing up who and what kind of music influenced you the most?.
It took me quite a long path to go to the classical guitar, although it was the first instrument I played, as before I had musicality lessons and had a lot of fun with musical instruments. So, lots of things I enjoy listening to don’t influence me directly when I’m on stage. But here and there it may appear. For example, the clarity and the beauty of tone one finds in Abba’s recordings are superb. One can write down, with no doubt at all, each word they sing. To how many singers, be it pop or classic, can one say that? I try to “speak” the notes I play in that level of clarity.
The concerts of the National Theater Orchestra, in Brasilia, are always with free entrance. Meanwhile, when I was young the local classical guitar scenario was in decay. So, I grew up listening more to orchestras, piano and choirs than classical guitar, and I believe my playing is much more influenced by conductors I admired back then, such as David Junker and Carlos Moreno, than by classical guitarists themselves.
On the classical guitar field, it is impossible hearing the Assad Brothers and not being influenced at all. Fabio Zanon is also a marvelous player, and they are the top guitarists I have more often seen live, so they are a huge reference for me. Other great guitarists that play popular music with a classical guitar approach, such as Marco Pereira, Paulo Bellinati and Marcus Tardelli, also have influenced me a lot. Recently, I had the chance to hear Ana Vidovic, and this was amazing. I believe she has everything to own the crown of the Queen of the Classical Guitar.
On the past months I have been working with Franz Halasz and his pianist wife, Debora Halasz. This was just fantastic for me. For many years I have grew up with this “orchestral” approach and this “guitarist” approach in some sort of conflict, and listening to Franz Halasz playing in a way that is classical guitar, but not so different from how orchestras and pianists play, helped me tie those loose ends together.
I haven’t commented much about musicians I could only hear by recordings because I get a much stronger impact and influence on live performances. Of course, all the big names like Bream, Williams, Barrueco, Russel, give amazing food for thought, but my heart always felt music more intensively on a concert hall. The only guitarist that gave my a huge impression by recordings was Kazuhito Yamashita. Some of his albums are quite poor, but the good ones are indescribable. I hope I can hear him live on the near future.
3) What would be your best advice for someone thinking about picking up a Classical Guitar to learn?.
No matter what you want with the classical guitar, always be among the best. Try to have the best guitar teacher, to listen to the best guitarists (preferably live), to go to the best festivals, to have the best instrument, to work with the best edition of that composition, to play with the best strings, to have conversations with the best guitarists around, and so on. One always have more fun when the results are better and demand less hard-work.
4) What Guitar do you own and treasure the most?.
I use a Jorge Raphael Millenium guitar. In fact, I own two guitars like that, and I’m waiting for a third one to come. Jorge Raphael is a guitar maker from Minas Gerais, Brazil, influenced by Thomas Humphrey. He makes Millennium-like guitars for some years, with the allowance of Humphrey himself. On my opinion, Jorge is building guitars better than his role-model, and is near to build what I would consider a perfect guitar. Sergio and Odair Assad also have instruments made by him.
By the way, because of the currency change, Brazilian guitars are incredibly cheap for US and Europeans. I think you should at least know what is going on here, as one may find in Brazil the guitar of one’s dreams for almost half the price one thought it would cost. Some guitarmakers like Jorge Raphael, Samuel Carvalho, Sergio Barbosa, Eduardo Brito and Lineu Bravo are worthy having a look at. The guitar making scenario in Brazil has improved a lot on the past five years or so, and the old ideas about Brazilian guitars do not apply to those new guitar makers.
5) If you were not a Classical guitarist, what do you think you would be doing?;).
I don’t know for sure. I would be a complete different person if the classical guitar was gone of my life. A diplomat, a scientist, a historian, a businessman, a journalist… I love traveling, talking to new people, having some flexibility on schedule, reading, and culture in general. Any profession that could give me that would cross my mind.
6) How do you establish yourself and get your name out there as a pro Classical Guitarist?.
There are many ways to do it, and depends a lot of one’s personality to find the best. I believe the work of a performer only finishes when the sounds s/he produced reaches the ears of someone else. So, I ask as much people as possible to listen to what I have played or attend my next concert. Of course, I include in this group people that can help spread my work further, like journalists, music and guitar enthusiasts, music producers, concert organizers, fellow musicians, and so on.
Competitions may save a lot of this work, and I have been awarded in some. However, the costs and the amount of work necessary to make a competition (specially for Brazilians) are pretty much the same of making a recording. A good recording always gives something back, and a competition is risky.
Anyway, the classical music business is a person-to-person business. If one wants to get known, s/he must go on the street or use the web to meet people and say “hey” to everyone.
More About Alvaro Henrique
We want to use this part of this post to give you a way to find out much more about Alvaro, and also download performances and view more amazing videos online.
Here is a great way to find out much more about Alvaro -> BIO
For a Free download of a concert in Switzerland honoring Heitor Villa-Lobos – Click Here
We also ask you to spread the word about Alvaro Henrique, feel free to Twitter or email links to this post or share with as many people you can, we greatly appreciate it, and we also appreciate Alvaro for taking the time out of a very busy schedule to give us our first pro interview!.
Thanks Alvaro!!.
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