denis azabagic
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“Beautiful sound and unerring musical sense”
Sound Board Magazine, USA


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Internationally acclaimed, Denis Azabagic (Bosnia and Herzegovina) captivates audiences worldwide with his remarkable guitar performances. Renowned for his elegant musical approach and unique ability to connect with audiences on a profound level, Azabagic has received praise from critics around the globe.
 
"Denis Azabagic demonstrated his unbelievable guitar playing skills, sincere love for music, professionalism, and passion..."
—Chicagotribune.com
 
“He is a virtuoso artist of timbres, who masters, as it seems, easily all kind of expressions: from enchanting softness to passion, from deep emotions to enormous joy”
—Kolnische Zeitung, Germany
 
Azabagic's exceptional talent has earned him twenty-four prizes in international competitions, and Mel Bay has published a book based on his valuable experience and insights into the world of competitions.
 
With a discography comprising 15 CDs released by prestigious international labels such as Naxos, Cedille, Opera Tres, Bridge Records, Neos, Acis, and Orobroy, along with two DVDs for the Mel Bay Company, Azabagic's recorded works showcase the depth of his musical prowess. As a guest instrumentalist and soloist, he has graced the stage with renowned orchestras including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Sinfonietta, Tallahassee Symphony Orchestra, Illinois Symphony Orchestra, Sacramento Chamber Orchestra, Madrid Symphony, Traverse Symphony, Monterrey Symphony, L’Orchestre Royal de Chambre de Mons, and many others. His collaborations extend to esteemed chamber ensembles such as the Casals Quartet, Avalon Quartet, Pacifica Quartet, Chicago Chamber Musicians, Civitas Ensemble, and MusicNow.
 
Azabagic's performances have illuminated prestigious venues worldwide, including Chicago’s Symphony Center, the Royal Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow, Radio France in Paris, Aix-en-Provence Festival in France, El Palau de la Musica in Valencia, Spain, Savannah on Stage, Omni Foundation in San Francisco, Ravinia Festival, National Chang Kai Shek Cultural Center in Taiwan, and The National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing, China, as well as the National Art Gallery in Washington, D.C. His live performances have been broadcast on NPR and WFMT radio, and on television in Asia, Europe, and the United States.
 
In addition to his solo repertoire spanning from the Baroque era to the present, Azabagic, as a member of the Cavatina Duo, is committed to innovation evident in their extensive recording projects. From "The Balkan Project" to "Cavatina at the Opera," and "Sephardic Journey" to "Folias and Fantasias" (where they commissioned composer Alan Thomas to reimagine George Telemann's monumental 12 Fantasias for Solo Flute into mesmerizing flute and guitar pieces), each album explores new musical territories, expanding the flute and guitar repertoire in collaboration with renowned composers.
 
Looking ahead to 2025, Cavatina is poised to release the groundbreaking album "River of Fire" in collaboration with the GRAMMY-winning Pacifica Quartet. Featuring commissioned works inspired by Gypsy music by Clarice and Sérgio Assad, Stacey Garrop, and other composers, this album promises to be a significant addition to their discography. Another album featuring the music of Rami Levin on Acis Records was released in the spring of 2024.
 
Highlights of Azabagic's current year include recitals and masterclasses in Europe, the USA, and Asia, a concert tour in Taiwan featuring solo concertos including Rodrigo’s "Fantasía para un Gentilhombre" for Guitar and Orchestra. Additionally in 2025, he will appear at the Chamber series at the University of Georgia,  Big Arts Sanibel and the Chamber Music Annual conference in Houston, with other engagements including appearances at the Oak Ridge Chamber Society ,the Bowlus Chamber Series in KS and  a residency at the St. Louis CGS.
 
Beyond his compelling performing career, Denis Azabagic serves as a teaching associate at the University of Illinois at Chicago and holds the role of artistic director for festivals in the USA and Europe. Notably, he is the artistic director of the Festival Juan Gual Esteve in Spain and the Chicago Guitar Festival. In 2018, Azabagic was appointed Director of Lead Guitar in Chicago, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to establishing free, sustainable classical guitar programs in schools with low arts access. This aligns with his mission to bring classical music to communities often neglected and sidelined.
 
Azabagic is also a founding member of the Fandango Ensemble, an exciting and cosmopolitan ensemble comprising flute, guitar, violin, and cello.

 
Please do not edit without permission.


 
www.azabagic.com
www.cavatinaduo.com
www.fandangoensemble.com

 "Denis Azabagic demonstrated his unbelievable guitar playing skills, sincere love to music, professionalism and passion…"
Chicagotribune.com

“...And once he started playing his guitar he became ageless. One couldn't imagine where the man, the instrument and the music separated, if at all.”
Los Angeles Valley Star, USA
 
“Azabagic played Aranjuez as if he owned it...the duet between guitar and English horn melted every one of the 1200 hearts in the audience.”
The Morning Call, USA
 
“Azabagic shows a particularly balanced combination of perfect technique and mature musicality... Incredible virtuoso music with all kinds of technical difficulties was played perfectly”
Dagblad van het Oosten, Netherlands
 
”He has a dazzling technique and possesses an enormous interpretative sensibility”
Ritmo, Spain
 
“He is a virtuoso artist of timbres, who masters, as it seems, easily all kind of expressions: from enchanting softness to passion, from deep emotions to enormous joy”
Kolnische Zeitung, Germany
 
“The sound was glorious, he is a superb technician. The brilliance of Azabagic’s playing brought an easy grace to the music”
The Herald Times, USA
 
“...Master of sweet tones…...Magician of expression”
Kolnische Zeitung, Germany
 
“As always, Azabagic’s playing is clean smooth, and effortlessly musical.”
American Record Guide
 
“Azabagic was playing with four hands, not just two”
Los Angeles Valley Star, USA
 
“Impeccable technique and lautustic sonority...”
 El Pais, Spain
 
“Denis Azabagic's playing is of the highest caliber.”
MW-Classical music on the web
 
“Expertly played”
American Record Guide
 
“Beautiful sound and unerring musical sense”
Sound Board Magazine, USA
 
“Azabagic’s vivid, imaginative account gathered up every surge and whisper of the musical narrative, giving fresh impact to an old story, and underscoring what a fine piece of music this is. Azabagic’s extraordinary way with the shading of light and color was further evident in Rodrigo’s Invocación y Danza. I still cannot quite believe that such flawless execution is possible on the guitar. But I was there, and I heard it. Amazing! ”
Sound Board Magazine, USA
 
“His playing blends structural awareness with melodic fluency, marvelous tone”
American Record Guide
 
“…recital by Bosnian guitarist (now based in Chicago) Denis Azabagic was certainly the finest guitar recital that I have heard in a lifetime of concert-going, and one of the best concerts of any kind I have heard since writing for CVNC…the notes of the five preludes by Villa-Lobos with which Azabagic opened the program were perfectly clear, and all the detail registered eight rows back. From the outset it was obvious that Azabagic is gifted with a level of technical mastery that is rarely heard on the guitar, with every note precisely articulated. Not only does Azabagic make expressive use of a broad range of dynamics, from fortissimo to visible, but not audible, but the gamut of tone color with which he shapes the music is impressive. Most importantly, all these technical chops (which would put him in the crème de la crème already) are in the service of a keen musical intelligence with taste and soul.”
Tom Moore, CVNC   Online Publications, Inc.
 
 
“It is apparently hard to rattle Denis Azabagic…
In his recital at the Kimbell Art Museum’s Renzo Piano Pavilion on Thursday night, the Bosnian classical guitarist showed that he is not easily intimidated by even the most daunting of scores …All works were performed with technical excellence burnished with a real verve and obvious joy in playing. The standout work of the night was Out of Africa, a charming suite by Atlanta-born composer Alan Thomas. Inspired by the book by Karen Blixen and its film version, the five-movement work displayed a wide range of winning personalities.”
Punch Shaw, special to DFW.com

“If you had the misfortune to miss Thursday’s recital by Bosnian guitarist Denis Azabagic, I suggest you make every effort to hear him play the next time he’s in town.  Azabagic’s stage presence is charming and charismatic, and that charisma comes through in his playing, and combines with technical prowess, musicality, and programming diversity to create one of the best classical guitar performances I’ve ever heard…
Alan Thomas’s Out of Africa, inspired, according to Azabagic’s onstage remarks, by Karen Blixen’s novel and the subsequent film, was utterly transfixing. The five-movement work required both technical facility and musicality, which Azabagic offered in abundance. His technique surpasses the traditional, and includes bold novelty techniques. The piece showcased the full range of the guitar’s, and by extension Azabagic’s, abilities, alternating between moments of fast-paced virtuosity and lyric beauty. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a guitarist with a more sumptuous tone in the lyrical passages.”
J. Robin Coffelt fot Theatre Jones
 
"… music lovers made their snow-covered way to Symphony Hall Saturday evening, seeking and finding warmth in the fiery rasp and passionate rustle of Spanish guitar, superbly played by Springfield Symphony Orchestra guest artist Denis Azabagic.... the featured work was one of the most famous and well-loved pieces in the guitar repertoire, Joaquin Rodrigo's "Concierto de Aranjuez." Azabagic delivered a stunning performance, both technically brilliant and emotionally profound, and was hailed by an immediate standing ovation.
His playing was nimble and clean in the outer Allegros, pearly-toned and vibrant in the melancholy Adagio…Azabagic also played Vivaldi's Concerto in D Major, RV 93, …like the Rodrigo, the Vivaldi offered a soulful slow movement...Throughout the evening, Azabagic consistently exhibited the character and mastery that have earned him accolades as the finest classical guitarist of his generation."
Clifton Noble Jr. | Special to The Republican ,Springfield, MA


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CLASSICAL GUITAR MAGAZINE  (VOL/YEAR: October 2004)
www.classicalguitarmagazine.com

 Interview by COLIN COOPER 

CC: You have written a book about competitions (Mel Bay Inc.), designed to help young guitarists. Can you say something about the main faults which can hold them up?
DA: Many of them have real musical talent, and there seems no reason why they should not win a competition and so give themselves a good start in their career. Well, the reason I wrote that book for Mel Bay was that I was asked so many times about my experiences in the competitions. Now, I think that in order to win a competition one needs to be very well prepared, and that is a complex process. I cannot really pinpoint the main reason that would enable a young guitarist to win. I feel rather that it is a more of a personal question for everyone. Every passing day I feel that to perform a piece of music very well, one must have a solid technique, but also a very good understanding of the music, from the mental and analytical perspective as well as from the artistic/imaginative and inspirational point of view...read more...


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GUITARISSIMO
ww.guitarrisimo.com/

Interview by MICHAEL NEUMANN


Guitarrisimo: What do you like more at this moment, to play solo or with your duo?

Denis Azabagic: This is like asking which one of your two children you like more... There is not one I like more, they are a little different and yet the same. It is the same in the way that I get to play music, no matter in which combination. Playing solo I can perhaps dwell more easily in spheres outside the conscious mind, but with the duo it is really great to play with another person and adapt music and sound as a connection and a bond. There is something really special about that. Also, it is easier to share the pressure of the performance sometimes. It is great, on a personal note, that I get to do this with the person I love....read more...
  • 1st prize at the International Guitar Competition Volos, Greece, 1990
  • 1st prize at the International Guitar Competition “Jacinto e Inocencio Guerrero,”-Madrid, Spain, 1993
  • 1st prize at the International Guitar Festival IGF-Frechen, Germany, 1995
  • 1st prize at the International Guitar Competition “Rene Bartoli”-Aix en Provence, France, 1995 
  • 1st prize, special prize for the best interpretation of the works by F. Tarrega and prize of public at the International Guitar Competition “Francisco Tarrega”-Benicasim, Spain, 1995
  • 1st prize at the International Guitar Competition “Alhambra”- Alcoy, Spain, 1996
  • 1st prize at the International Guitar Competition “Printemps de la Guitarre”- Walcourt, Brussels, Belgium, 1996
  • 1st prize at the Link Music competition- Tilburg, Netherlands, 1997
  • 1st prize at the International Guitar Foundation of America Competition (GFA), Montreal, Canada, 1998
  • 1st prize at the Schadt String Competition-Allentown, PA, USA, 1999
  • 1st prize at the Stotsenberg International Guitar Competition- Malibu, CA, USA, 1999

  • 2nd prize at the International Guitar Competition “ Andres Segovia”-La Herradura, Spain, 1993
  • 2nd prize at the International Guitar Competition “ Andres Segovia”-La Herradura, Spain, 1994
  • 2nd prize at the International Guitar Competition “ Andres Segovia”-La Herradura, Spain, 1995
  • 2nd prize at the International Guitar Competition “ Andres Segovia”-La Herradura, Spain, 1996
  • 2nd prize at the International Guitar Competition “ Alhambra”-Alcoy, Spain, 1994
  • 2nd prize and prize of public at the International Guitar Competition of Tredrez-Locquemeau, France, 1998
  • 2nd prize at the McMahon International Music Competition, Lawton, OK, USA 2000

  • 3rd prize at the International guitar competition “Andrés Segovia”, Palma de Mallorca, Spain, 1993
  • 3rd prize at the International guitar competition “Andrés Segovia”, Palma de Mallorca, Spain, 1995
  • 3rd prize at the International Guitar Competition “Printemps de la Guitarre”- Walcourt, Brussels, Belgium, 1994
  • 3rd prize at the International Guitar Competition in Markneukirchen, Germany, 1997
 
  • 5th prize at the International Guitar Competition “Printemps de la Guitarre”- Walcourt, Brussels, Belgium, 1994
 
  •  Prize of public at the International Guitar Competition “Francisco Tarrega”-Benicasim, Spain, 1993
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  •  Special prize at the ARD competition, Munich, Germany, 1993
Chien Buggle, Ireland
  • 1st prize in the Feis Ceoil Classical Guitar Competition 2016
  • 1st prize in the Classical Guitar Bach competition 2012
  • 1st prize in the Waltons/Epiphone guitar competition 2007
  • Member of the Dublin guitar quartet,
 
Alvaro Miranda, Costa Rica
  • 1st Prize - Online competition of the Latin-American Guitar Festival of Chicago, 2017.
  • 1st Prize - Florida Guitar Foundation Classical Guitar Competition, 2018.
  • 2nd Prize - Classical Minds Guitar Festival and Competition from Houston, 2018.
  • 4th Prize - Classical Minds Guitar Festival and Competition from Houston, 2017.
  • 1st Prize - National Guitar Competition of Costa Rica, 2012.
 
Kacey Ellis, USA
  • 1st Prize in the Wilson Center Guitar Competition.
  • Music Performance Award from UIC
  • Instructor for Lead Guitar.
  • Instructor for MY Piano Study Inc.
  • Music Director for Production One Media
 
You Wang
  • 2013   4th Prize in GFA (Guitar Foundation of America) International Artist Competition
  • 2011   1st Prize in the 2nd Indiana International Guitar Festival and Competition
  • 2011   2nd Prize in Columbus Guitar Competition and Symposium
  • 2010   1st Prize in University of East Carolina International Guitar Competition
  • 2010   3rd Prize in Boston “America, America!” International Guitar Competition
  • 2010   1st Prize in University of Louisville International Guitar Competition
  • 2005   2nd Prize at National Competition for all instruments of “American Society of Musicians” (Chicago)
  • 2001   1st Prize in Chinese Young Artist National Competition for all instruments (China)
  • 2000   2nd Prize in Hong Kong 3rd International Competition (China)
 
  • 2012-2014   classical guitar instructor at UIC (University Of Illinois at Chicago)
  • 2017-Present   Classical Guitar Professor at Yunnan Conservatory of Art in Kunming City, China

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