{"id":11316,"date":"2018-11-05T16:19:31","date_gmt":"2018-11-06T00:19:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/?p=11316"},"modified":"2018-11-07T11:02:40","modified_gmt":"2018-11-07T19:02:40","slug":"catching-up-with-virginia-luque-new-guitars-and-albums-from-prolific-creator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/catching-up-with-virginia-luque-new-guitars-and-albums-from-prolific-creator\/","title":{"rendered":"Catching Up with Virginia Luque: New Guitars and Albums from Prolific Creator"},"content":{"rendered":"<h6>BY BLAIR JACKSON | <a href=\"https:\/\/store.elizabethl27.sg-host.com\/collections\/back-issues-1\/products\/no-391-fall-2018\">FROM THE FALL 2018 ISSUE OF CLASSICAL GUITAR<\/a><\/h6>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><a href=\"http:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/virginia-luque-segovias-last-private-pupil-has-become-a-nonstop-ambassador-for-classical-guitar\/\"><strong>Since we last spoke with the prolific New York-based Spanish guitarist Virginia Luque more than two years ago<\/strong><\/a>, she has been characteristically busy with a million different projects, including the launch of a new line of hand-crafted classical guitars, and an assortment of prospective album releases. So we peppered her with a few questions. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>CLASSICAL GUITAR:<\/b> What was your inspiration and motivation to put your name on a line of guitars? <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>VIRGINIA LUQUE:<\/b> For many years, I had the desire to present my own brand, Imperial. <\/span><span class=\"s1\">I wanted it to be a handmade guitar with a great playability, the sound I was looking for, great craftsmanship, good projection, and very importantly, a great price. So I teamed up with a marvelous luthier from the West Coast who builds these guitars with a professional sound at an affordable cost.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s1\"> So far I have Model 1A, spruce\/jacaranda, and a\u00a0cedar\/jacaranda coming up this August. Of course the spruce and cedar are for the tops; the jacaranda\u2014from Brazil but grown in Indonesia\u2014is for the backs. The jacaranda will not cause any trouble for players who need to fly and check with customs about Brazilian wood regulations [CITES].\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">\u00a0<b>CG:<\/b> Who are the guitars aimed at?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><br \/>\n<b>LUQUE:<\/b> When guitarists see a reasonable tag price, the first reaction is that it\u2019s made only for students. Wrong! This is a professional instrument that will satisfy professionals and students alike. That was my goal.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s1\">A problem that many guitarists experience is that, depending on their development as a player, they keep switching among semi-professional-level instruments, chasing a fullness of sound. I think Imperial can bridge that gap. It has that fullness of sound\u2014clear and velvety deep sonority\u2014and easy playability for a demanding musician.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Virginia Luque\u2019s Imperial line of classical guitars. # 103\" width=\"1170\" height=\"658\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/RXI9HIBl2gE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>CG:<\/b> Within the past year you released your ambitious two-disc set of Bach\u2019s Goldberg Variations. Can you tell me a little about why you decided to tackle such a difficult project and what was involved in pulling it all together?<\/span><span class=\"s1\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>LUQUE:<\/b> First, I have to admit that piano arrangements are not my favorite work to do. I\u2019m well aware of the many issues that a transcription presents, as the guitar does not have the range of a piano. But the Variations were the love of my life!\u00a0I passionately followed every single piano interpretation that exists. I was a witness to this masterpiece throughout the years as I became a Bach music lover. So I wanted to see if I could accomplish with my two hands the closest version to the piano transcription.\u00a0But I also needed to be aware of the guitar\u2019s acoustics and characteristics, and to find the proper speed that would make the phrases not sound mechanical on the guitar. Meters needed to be adjusted carefully, without going too far away from the original tempi. This is a challenging and difficult work that offers a different power of expression and interpretation for guitarists.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s1\">By the way, next year, in New York, I will perform a live streaming concert of the Goldberg Variations. I will be recording it, as well, for a surround sound DVD.<br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>CG:<\/b> You always have so many projects in the works. What albums do you have planned at the moment?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>LUQUE:\u00a0<\/b>I\u2019m starting a new series of recordings called \u201cThe Gold Catalogue: Composers\u201d on my Iberia Productions label. They are homages to composers who have enriched the guitar repertoire. Each of them will include a premiere of a work commissioned by me. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s1\">In the coming months, I will be recording a whole album of works by\u00a0Jorge Morel, who is a longtime friend. It will include the premiere of a new composition I commissioned called <i>Introduction, Petit Dance, and Giga<\/i>, and another\u00a0that he offered me to record years ago. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s1\">The other CDs will feature Leo Brouwer, Ernesto Cordero, Sergio Assad, and Nikita Koshkin. There will also be an homage to Federico Moreno Torroba, whom I met when I was young. He appreciated my interpretation of his music and was always offering me his feedback. He became my friend and sent\u00a0me his music all the time.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s1\">On top of that I am finally releasing a CD of my original classical and flamenco-style pieces, called <i>Ausencias<\/i>. And I will\u00a0also\u00a0record a CD of etudes for dexterity, called <i>Warming Up<\/i>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/dJ8mNT2HqYo\" width=\"780\" height=\"439\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BY BLAIR JACKSON | FROM THE FALL 2018 ISSUE OF CLASSICAL GUITAR Since we last spoke with the prolific New York-based Spanish guitarist Virginia Luque more than two years ago, she has been characteristically busy with a million different projects, including the launch of a new line of hand-crafted classical guitars, and an assortment of prospective album releases. So we peppered her with a few questions. CLASSICAL GUITAR: What was your inspiration and motivation to put your name on a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11318,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/virginia-luque-chris-lee-photo.jpg?fit=900%2C600&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11316\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}