CAMISASSA Claudio

Born in Argentina in 1957, Claudio Camisassa began learning the guitar and his country's folk music when he was eight. Two years later, he was admitted to the conservatory of Córdoba and then to the conservatory of Buenos Aires from which he graduated in 1981. He was then granted the Grand Prize of the City of Buenos Aires and awarded First Prize in guitar, harmony and counterpoint. He undertook a teaching career at the conservatory in Buenos Aires while continuing his performances in concerts, which he had begun in 1975. He had the opportunity to play in the most famous concert halls in Argentina (Colón Theater, Coliseo, Cervantes, San Martín) and in Europe (France, Spain, Belgium, and Switzerland as well as in Norway). In 1982, in collaboration with a few other musicians, he founded the Guit-art group, where the most promising guitarists of Buenos Aires were invited to share their knowledge and to take courses together with Eduardo Fernández. Their project became a guideline for Argentinian guitarists. In 1984, Claudio Camisassa joined the Rencontres internationales de musique contemporaine of Buenos Aires group where he premiered many works (solo guitar, chamber music) some of which were personally dedicated to him. During that year, he discovered the lute through Weiss performances by Hopkinson Smith, and he developed a true passion for early instruments. From 1987 to 1992, he studied first with vihuelist and musicologist Javier Hinojosa in Paris and then with Hopkinson Smith in Basel, to specialize in early music performance on the original instruments (lute, theorbo, and baroque guitar). Claudio Camisassa has been successful in defining his own musical personality through Argentinian folk music (tango and folklore) as well as early music performed on the original instruments (vihuela, baroque guitar, lute) and contemporary music for guitar.