The Guitar Studio International Festival Presents: Gabriel Bianco

Gabriel Bianco is considered one of today’s finest classical guitarists. He has won first prize in numerous international competitions, performed in over fifty countries across every continent, and recorded eight CDs.

His awards include ADAMI “Classical Revelation” (2011) and first prizes at major international competitions such as Sernancelhe (Portugal, 2005), Île de Ré (France, 2006), Gitarre Forum Wien (Austria, 2006), Silesian Autumn in Tychy (Poland, 2006), the Hubert Käppel Competition in Koblenz (Germany, 2007), Barbezieux (France, 2007), the Guitar Foundation of America (United States, 2008), Fundación Gredos San Diego in Madrid (Spain, 2011), and the Andrés Segovia Competition in Almuñécar (Spain, 2012).

Gabriel Bianco has appeared in concert at many of the world’s most prestigious venues, including the Théâtre du Châtelet, La Folle Journée de Nantes, the Radio France Occitanie Festival, the International Guitar Festival of Paris, Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow, the Herbst Theatre in San Francisco, the Luis Ángel Arango Auditorium in Bogotá, the Central Conservatory of Beijing, the Musashino Art Center and Yamaha Hall in Tokyo, the Kyiv Philharmonic, the Zurich Opera, and the Lausanne Opera.

A passionate chamber musician, Bianco has been a member of Quatuor Éclisses since its founding in 2012. For the ensemble, he has created numerous arrangements and recorded four albums with the Ad Vitam Records label.

He also collaborates closely with mezzo-soprano Marina Viotti, performing his own arrangements of classical and popular repertoire. Their recording was released in April 2023 on the Aparté label. In addition, he has recorded a duo album with oboist Michaela Hrabankova for Ad Vitam Records and regularly performs with artists such as Edgar Moreau (cello), Maïté Louis (violin), Mathilde Caldérini (flute), Lola Descours (bassoon), Kévin Amiel (tenor), and Romuald Grimbert-Barré (violin).

Gabriel Bianco has recorded two solo albums: one for Naxos, featuring works by Bach, Mertz, and Koshkin, and another for Ad Vitam Records, devoted to music by Da Milano, Scarlatti, Regondi, and Paganini. He is also deeply committed to contemporary music and has collaborated on the creation of new works for solo guitar and chamber music with Atanas Ourkouzounov, Sergio Assad, Karol Beffa, Orestis Kalampalikis, Matthieu Stefanelli, Jules Matton, Camille Pépin, Inès Halimi, and Thomas Viloteau.

Born in Paris in 1988, Gabriel Bianco began studying guitar with his father. In 1997, he enrolled at the Conservatoire National de Région (CNR) of Paris in the class of Ramon de Herrera. He pursued music studies through the baccalaureate and, in 2005, was unanimously admitted to the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (CNSMDP), where he studied with Olivier Chassain.

He was awarded his Guitar Prize in 2008 and his Chamber Music Prize in 2015, both with the highest distinction and the congratulations of the jury.

Since 2018, Gabriel Bianco has served as Senior Docent at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, where he gives individual guitar instruction and directs the classical guitar department. He performs exclusively on Savarez strings.