Andy Terry - Classical Guitar

Andy first started studying Classical Guitar at the age of fifteen. He began his studies with Edgard Zaldua, Professor of Guitar at Harrow public school, and his twin brother Jairo, who first introduced him to what was to become a lifelong interest in South American music, and he played the first of many public concerts after just two years of tuition. Edgard Zaldua is a Colombian guitarist, born in Bogota, who studied at the Royal Conservatoire in Madrid under Regino Sainz de la Maza, the famous guitarist who performed the premiere of the Concierto de Aranjuez in 1940, and to whom it was dedicated.

 

Andy then became the first guitarist to study music at Keele University in the UK, under the guidance of Professor Peter Dickinson who encouraged his interest in 20^th century South American composers, particularly the Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos, and the Venezuelan guitarist and composer, Antonio Lauro. Without any facilities for guitar tuition at Keele at that time, Andy travelled to the School of Music in Birmingham for tuition from Professor Brian Whitehouse, and played many concerts in and around the Midlands, as well as at Keele as part of his studies.

 

As well as many venues over the years in the UK, Andy has played concerts in Paris, Hannover, in the beautiful city of Vitebsk in Belarus, and in the Madeiran towns of Calheta and Funchal.

 

In 2004 Andy was very privileged to meet the great international Classical guitarist Maestro Alirio Diaz, pupil and friend to Andres Segovia, who worked closely with Villa-Lobos and Lauro. 

 

Andy plays a guitar handmade by the luthier Antonio Picado in his workshop in Cardoso, Berga, a mountain village near Barcelona. The instrument has a robustness that copes well with the strong, sometimes percussive sounds of South American music, but can also achieve a delicate expressiveness that is particularly appropriate for the classical repertoire of the 19^th century composers.

 

He also plays aRaimondo electro-classical guitar with a Fishman amplifier, for venues where slightly more volume is necessary.

 

Having suffered from a degenerative eye disease all his life, Andy is now registered blind, with very limited vision, but does not allow this to interfere with his performing and teaching.