{"id":9991,"date":"2018-05-16T16:16:43","date_gmt":"2018-05-16T23:16:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/?p=9991"},"modified":"2018-05-16T16:16:43","modified_gmt":"2018-05-16T23:16:43","slug":"the-duo-evangelos-liza-have-been-making-beautiful-music-together-for-more-than-50-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/the-duo-evangelos-liza-have-been-making-beautiful-music-together-for-more-than-50-years\/","title":{"rendered":"The Duo Evangelos & Liza Have Been Making Beautiful Music Together for More Than 50 Years"},"content":{"rendered":"
BY GRAHAM WADE<\/h6>\n

Evangelos Assimakopoulos and his wife Liza Zoe are considered among the finest classical guitar duos of their generation. Since their arrival on the international music scene in 1967, Evangelos & Liza have played duo concerts throughout the world, and appeared with many major orchestras. Segovia regarded them as worthy successors to the Presti-Lagoya Duo and commented, \u201cI cordially wish Evangelos and Liza to conquer the high estimation of the public as they have conquered mine!\u201d<\/p>\n

CLASSICAL GUITAR: <\/b>At what ages did you start playing the guitar?<\/p>\n

LIZA: <\/b>We were both born in 1940 and began playing guitar at the age of 13. We studied with Dimitris Fampas [1921-1996] at the National Conservatory of Athens. At that time the guitar was known mainly as a popular instrument, not a classical one.<\/p>\n

EVANGELOS:<\/b> Fampas was a soloist and teacher who inspired pupils and taught good technique. Such teaching was rare at the time. It was only in August 1950 that Segovia taught for the first time in Siena, Italy, exploring composers, repertory, tone, and all that. Fampas, one of Segovia\u2019s pupils at Siena in 1954, brought all this to his students.<\/p>\n

\"andres
With Maestro Andr\u00e9s Segovia, Academy of Santiago de Compostela<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

CG:<\/b> When did you first meet each other?<\/p>\n

EVANGELOS:<\/b> During the \u201950s, we met as students in Fampas\u2019s class. He used to organize concerts for his advanced pupils. In 1960\u201361, we received the first guitar diplomas with honors at the National Conservatory of Athens, recognition of Fampas\u2019 pedagogic abilities.<\/p>\n

CG:<\/b> When did you decide to form a professional duo?<\/p>\n

EVANGELOS: <\/b>At first, we played solo recitals, building independent reputations. This changed when Presti and Lagoya [Ida Presti and Alexandre Lagoya] visited Athens in 1960. This inspired us to change direction. Fampas invited the duo for dinner along with advanced students. We had an opportunity to play for Presti and Lagoya and experience the excitement of hearing them perform. We realized that the guitar duo represented a wider musical canvas.<\/p>\n

CG:<\/b> What are the attractions of duo playing? <\/span><\/p>\n

LIZA:<\/b> Cooperation, collaboration, and musical dialogue. There are more options, the music breathes more, technical and musical limitations can more easily be surpassed. There is greater sound production, variety of articulation, and wider range of colors. <\/span><\/p>\n

CG:<\/b> What are the special problems of duo playing?<\/p>\n

EVANGELOS:<\/b> Our ideal is to make two guitars sound as one. We spend hours on technically simple musical phrases, on coordination, working on tone, and such things. Also, there is the correlation of interpretive views. A musical phrase spontaneous for the soloist becomes a topic of debate for a duo.<\/p>\n

CG:<\/b> When and where were your first concerts together?<\/p>\n

EVANGELOS:<\/b> In 1960, we performed duo concerts, and in 1963 we played in Athens and other Greek cities mixing solos and duos. These concerts established us as a duo in music and in life. But then we became interested in presenting only duo music, enlarging our program with transcriptions, as well as getting Greek composers to write new works.<\/p>\n

CG:<\/b> Around this time you also studied with the Presti-Lagoya Duo.<\/span><\/p>\n

LIZA<\/b>: Yes, in 1964 we got a scholarship at the Presti-Lagoya Summer Academy in Nice, France. The focus for Presti and Lagoya was tone. They played with the right side of the nails. During three summers at the Academy, we heard their tone qualities in concerts. This was the most colorful, bright sound we had ever heard. <\/span><\/p>\n

CG:<\/b> And then of course you got married!<\/span><\/p>\n

LIZA:<\/b> Yes. Presti and Lagoya were \u201cbest man\u201d at our marriage! Their wedding gift was to present us in their concert at Menton [on the Cote d\u2019Azur in France], where we played a program in the first half. All through the years, we had a warm friendship with them, which inspired us in our career. Ida Presti\u2019s death in April 1967 deprived the world of an immensely gifted guitarist.<\/span><\/p>\n

CG:<\/b> When did you first meet Segovia?<\/span><\/p>\n

EVANGELOS:<\/b> We first met Andr\u00e9s Segovia in September 1967 in his summer house in Granada, Spain. <\/span><\/p>\n

LIZA:<\/b> We had lessons with Segovia for three summers at the Academy of Santiago de Compostela and at his house, Los Olivos, in Herradura, near Granada. In 1969, Segovia gave us a letter of recommendation in which he named us as the world\u2019s best guitar duo and introduced us to guitar festivals as well as to his English agent, Ibbs & Tillet. Above all, he recommended us to his American agent, Sol Hurok, a mighty agency. During these years, we made 19 tours of the United States and Canada, playing hundreds of recitals and concerts with orchestras. <\/span><\/p>\n

CG:<\/b> There seemed to be an abundance of concert opportunities in those days.<\/p>\n

LIZA:<\/b>\u00a0 <\/span>During the \u201970s and \u201980s, the classical guitar had a sudden explosion throughout the world. This opened up opportunities for guitarists to give international concert tours and master classes.<\/p>\n

CG:<\/b> Do you think those decades were the best years?<\/p>\n

EVANGELOS:<\/b> Certainly. During the \u201970s, the French newspaper Le Monde<\/i> mentioned that every year one million guitars were sold in Europe and another million in the US. We remember the delirium with\u00a0 <\/span>[Joaqu\u00edn Rodrigo\u2019s] Concierto de<\/i> Aranjuez<\/i> played by [Narciso] Yepes, and many students came to the National Conservatory, where we were teaching, wanting to learn Recuerdos de la Alhambra <\/i>or Asturias<\/i>!<\/p>\n