Evangelos Assimakopoulos
Encyclopedia
Evangelos Assimakopoulos (born 10 September 1940) is a Greek classical guitarist and musical pedagogue. In 1965 he married guitarist Liza Zoe
and together they established the guitar duo Evangelos & Liza.
-Lagoya
duo in France and Andrés Segovia
in Spain. Since 1959 Assimakopoulos has given many solo recitals throughout Greece. In 1965 he married guitarist Liza Zoe (born Missolonghi, Greece in 1940) who was also a solo performer, and they established Greece’s first guitar duo, known as the Athenian Guitar Duo.
Since 1967 the couple has toured all over the world and given hundreds of recitals in major concert halls, performed for many radio and television stations and taken part in many festivals. They also appear as duo soloists with symphony orchestras, as well as teaching seminars and holding master-classes at universities and academies overseas.
In 1970 The New York Times
wrote of them "...at Carnegie Recital Hall last night the society [of Classic Guitar] presented a pair of talented visitors from Greece...the Athenian Duo".
A number of composers such as Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco
, John W. Duarte
and Jorge Morel have written pieces for Evangelos and Liza and the two musicians have written their own transcriptions and arrangements of classical composers, such as J. S. Bach and Chopin.
Since 1991 they have organized the yearly Guitar Festival of Patras, a 4 day musical event which includes master-classes, lectures, concerts and guitar competitions. Oscar Ghiglia
, Roland Dyens
, Marcin Dylla
and other well-known guitarists have taken part in this institution.
Assimakopoulos has produced several records and CDs of works for one and two guitars; he has published 28 books with works for guitar solo and duo, and over his 50 years of teaching he has established a school of guitarists known both in Greece and abroad.
CD:
Liza Zoe
Liza Zoe is a Greek classical guitarist and musical pedagogue. In 1965 she married guitarist Evangelos Assimakopoulos and together they established the guitar duo Evangelos & Liza.-Biography:...
and together they established the guitar duo Evangelos & Liza.
Biography
Born in Agrinion, Greece, Assimakopoulos studied the guitar in Athens at the National Conservatoire under Dimitris Fampas. He completed his degree in 1961 and was awarded First Prize and the Medal for Outstanding Performance and also won first prize in the Naples International Guitar Competition (Italy). Shortly afterwards he was awarded a scholarship to study with the PrestiIda Presti
Ida Presti, was a French classical guitarist. She has been called ‘the greatest guitarist of the 20th century, and possibly of all time.’-Biography:...
-Lagoya
Alexandre Lagoya
Alexandre Lagoya was a classical guitarist. His early career included boxing and guitar, and as he cites on the sleeve of his 1981 Columbia album, his parents hoped he would outgrow his predilection for both....
duo in France and Andrés Segovia
Andrés Segovia
Andrés Torres Segovia, 1st Marquis of Salobreña , known as Andrés Segovia, was a virtuoso Spanish classical guitarist from Linares, Jaén, Andalucia, Spain...
in Spain. Since 1959 Assimakopoulos has given many solo recitals throughout Greece. In 1965 he married guitarist Liza Zoe (born Missolonghi, Greece in 1940) who was also a solo performer, and they established Greece’s first guitar duo, known as the Athenian Guitar Duo.
Since 1967 the couple has toured all over the world and given hundreds of recitals in major concert halls, performed for many radio and television stations and taken part in many festivals. They also appear as duo soloists with symphony orchestras, as well as teaching seminars and holding master-classes at universities and academies overseas.
In 1970 The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
wrote of them "...at Carnegie Recital Hall last night the society [of Classic Guitar] presented a pair of talented visitors from Greece...the Athenian Duo".
A number of composers such as Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco
Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco
Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco was an Italian composer. He was known as one of the foremost guitar composers in the twentieth century with almost one hundred compositions for that instrument. In 1939 he migrated to the United States and became a film composer for some 200 Hollywood movies for the next...
, John W. Duarte
John W. Duarte
John William Duarte was a British composer, guitarist and writer.Duarte was born in Sheffield, England, but lived in Manchester from the age of 6...
and Jorge Morel have written pieces for Evangelos and Liza and the two musicians have written their own transcriptions and arrangements of classical composers, such as J. S. Bach and Chopin.
Since 1991 they have organized the yearly Guitar Festival of Patras, a 4 day musical event which includes master-classes, lectures, concerts and guitar competitions. Oscar Ghiglia
Oscar Ghiglia
Oscar Ghiglia is an Italian classical guitarist.Born of an artistic family - his father and grandfather were both famed painters, his mother an accomplished pianist – Oscar Ghiglia had to choose between a path strewn with brushes and colours and a world cut into harmony and melody.Though his early...
, Roland Dyens
Roland Dyens
Roland Dyens is a French classical guitarist, composer, and arranger.Dyens studied guitar with the Spanish classical guitarist Alberto Ponce and analysis with Désiré Dondeyne. He has won several prizes in competitions for classical guitar performance as well as for composition...
, Marcin Dylla
Marcin Dylla
Marcin Dylla is a Polish classical guitarist. He was born on June 6, 1976 in Chorzów. Between 1995 - 2000 he studied at the State Academy of Music in Katowice with Wanda Palacz. He continued his education abroad in the Musical Academy in Basel, Switzerland with Ocar Ghiglia, at the Musical Academy...
and other well-known guitarists have taken part in this institution.
Assimakopoulos has produced several records and CDs of works for one and two guitars; he has published 28 books with works for guitar solo and duo, and over his 50 years of teaching he has established a school of guitarists known both in Greece and abroad.
Guitar discography
LP:- The Art of two Guitars
- Musique Baroque pour Deux Guitares
- Romantic Music for two Guitars
- Spanish Music for two Guitars
- Evangelos & Liza play Solo Music by Weiss & Albeniz
- Evangelos Assimakopoulos plays Isaac Albeniz
CD:
- Evangelos & Liza play the Romantics
- Baroque Music for two Guitars
- Evangelos & Liza Play Solo Music by Albeniz & Weiss
- Spanish Guitar Music 'Recuerdos de la Alhambra'
- Latin American Guitar Music 'El Decameron Negro'
- Evangelos & Liza play the Fandango by A.Soler
- The Guitar in Latin America 'Carora'
- Double Cd: 50 Years of Guitar Artistry
- Celebrated Pieces for Classical Guitar 'Romanza'