Fernando Gonzalez – Guitar

Fernando Gonzalez is a Chilean guitarist who hails from a musical family and received his first guitar lessons from his father, Arturo Gonzalez, a renowned guitar player and pedagogue. His mother, a musicologist, inspired him to study musicology at the Musicology Department at the University of Chile.

In 1973, Fernando travelled to Belgium, where he received First Prize in Guitar from the Royal Music Conservatory of Brussels and First Prize in Chamber Music and a diploma of higher education in guitar from the Royal Music Conservatory of Antwerp. He studied under Darwin Vargas and Victor van Puyenbroeck and, for seven years, was an assistant lecturer under the latter.

Since graduating, Fernando has performed extensively, both as a soloist and with orchestras like the Royal Flemish Philharmonic Orchestra. He is particularly fond of such Baroque composers as Bach

and Scarlatti, although his favourites also include the traditional guitar repertoire of Albeniz, Villa-Lobos, Lauro and De Falla.

Together with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of Flanders, Fernando recorded a CD performance of the famous Concierto de Aranjuez by Joaquín Rodrigo, for which he elicited praise from the composer himself.