Biography (read more)
Narciso Yepes (14 November 1927 – 3 May 1997) was a Spanish guitarist. He was born in Lorca, Region of Murcia. He took his first lessons from Jesús Guevara in Lorca. At 13 he was accepted at the Conservatorio de Valencia to study with the pianist and composer Vicente Asencio. He made his Madrid début on 16 December 1947. In 1950 he spent a year studying interpretation under George Enescu and Walter Gieseking. He gave his last concert in Santander on 1 March 1996 and died in Murcia in 1997.
He was largely responsible for the growing popularity of the Concierto de Aranjuez. In 1964 he performed it with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, premièring the ten-string guitar, which he invented in collaboration with the guitar maker José Ramírez III. His research into forgotten sixteenth- and seventeenth-century manuscripts led to the rediscovery of numerous works for guitar or lute. He was the first to record Bach’s complete lute works on period instruments.
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