About

About Ricardo

International concert guitarist and Professor of Guitar at the Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt in Weimar. Twelve award-winning albums. Medal of Honour of the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de Granada. Artist of Knobloch Strings.

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Short biography

Ricardo Gallén was born in Linares, Spain — the birthplace of Andrés Segovia — and gave his first public performance at the age of five. It seemed almost inevitable that a child from that city would find his destiny in the guitar. What was less predictable was the singular artistic voice he would develop: one that combines immaculate technique with a depth of musical thought rarely encountered on any instrument.

Winner of over twenty international competitions, including the Francisco Tárrega, Andrés Segovia, and Markneukirchen, Gallén has performed on stages that represent the pinnacle of the classical music world — from Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow to Stadttheater Bern — appearing in more than 35 countries across Europe, Asia, and the Americas. Whether as a soloist with orchestra, in chamber music, or in solo recital, his presence on stage captivates audiences, creating an intimate musical world regardless of the size of the venue.

Gallén’s twelve albums — released on Eudora, IBS Classical, Sunnyside Records, Naxos, and MarchVivo — have earned the highest critical acclaim, with awards including Melómano de Oro, Opus d’Or, and Native DSD Album of the Year. Particularly celebrated for his interpretations of Bach, which combine historical rigor with a profoundly personal musical vision, he also performs on historical 19th-century instruments, bringing an authenticity of sound and style that sets his recordings apart.

Beyond the concert stage, Gallén is recognized as one of the most influential guitar pedagogues of his generation. Since 2009, he has been Professor of Guitar at the Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt in Weimar, and between 2017 and 2023 at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo. His students have gone on to win major international competitions worldwide, a testament to the clarity, depth, and transformative power of his teaching.

His commitment to the wellbeing of musicians has led him to co-direct, for over a decade, the pioneering Guitar and Physiotherapy Course in Valencia. This unique initiative combines anatomical expertise with instrumental mastery, promoting healthy, sustainable technique for performers of the guitar and other instruments alike.

What some people say

  • Pay attention to this prodigious performer!

    In music there are great virtuosos, creators, interpreters, specialists in style or historical rigour, with or without culture (!). Very few can combine two or three of these qualities, but it is miraculous to bring them all together: McFerrin, Savall… yet the young maestro Gallén possesses the culture and the all-encompassing miracle of the whole.
    Leo Brouwer
    Composer and conductor

  • Straight to the heart

    The concert artist and teacher Ricardo Gallén moved his audience deeply on his debut in Costa Rica. That night, the Teatro Nacional belonged to him alone. Silence reigned. The theatre rose to its feet and applauded so fervently that he returned not once, but three times. An unforgettable night.
    Ana María Parra
    Newspaper La Nación, Costa Rica

  • An infinite guitarist

    Ricardo Gallén’s infinite mastery transported the listener to other realms of knowledge and feeling in an irresistible and powerful way, turning his concert into an act of profound and extraordinary musical spirituality — such was the absolute silence of the audience, completely absorbed by the immense sonic beauty that emerged from the rosette of his instrument.
    José Antonio Cantón
    Newspaper El Mundo, Spain

  • I have been a fan ever since that evening

    The last time I heard Ricardo Gallen play live was at the GFA Conference in Miami, Fl. in 2002. I had never heard Ricardo play prior to the concert. Ricardo was one of the last to play for the evening, if not the last (it seemed so), and he literally blew the roof off the house.
    Rognvald
    Delcamp Classical Guitar Forum

  • For the love of it

    Ricardo walks at the pace of a quaver, wrapped in a harmonic cushion that overflows and emanates from his Paco Santiago Marín guitar. Ricardo has always had that gift of drawing us away from ourselves each time he touches the wood.
    Cecilia González
    Melómano Magazine, Spain

  • The most sublime magnetism

    A tenth of a second — the precise measure of time Ricardo Gallén needs to captivate an audience. There is no doubt that we have witnessed the concert of one of the greatest guitarists of our time.
    Teresa Camarena
    Newspaper El Día de Córdoba, Spain

  • It’s a magic recording

    I cannot select a favorite track. The entire album is a jewel. The sensitivity expressed in Gallén’s playing, the tone he generates from the beautiful 19c-style guitar he plays, well, it’s impossible to describe just how exquisite it is. Norbert Kraft did a magical job recording Gallén (about the Cd: Complete Works for Lute by Bach).
    Miguel Marcos
    Bandcamp

  • His virtuosity is deeply convincing

    The guitar is not necessarily the most typical solo instrument in a classical concert — but when one hears a virtuoso such as Ricardo Gallén, the fascination of this instrument becomes immediately clear. A completely new spectrum of sound opens up.
    Stephan Herbert Fuchs
    Frankenpost, Germany

  • With soft, flowing tone production, he spreads a quiet melancholy without lamentation, a silent scepticism without despair

    Ricardo Gallén takes up the melancholic songfulness magically with the six strings of his instrument. From the shimmer of the cantabile middle register, he later sets himself off into darkness, into the deep register, to unfold tragic inconsolability. The fascination lies in his thoughtful high concentration, which allows him to spread quiet wistfulness without complaint through soft, flowing tone production.
    Michael Thumser
    Hochfranken-Feuilleton, Germany