Reinventing Guitar
Smaro Gregoriadou

A “must-have” for guitar enthusiasts, Reinventing Guitar brings a rich array of novelties from young Greek guitar virtuoso and composer Smaro Gregoriadou. She plays music from the Baroque to the present on three guitars differing in type, number and material of strings, timbre and tunings, all built by Yorgos Kertsopoulos of Kertsopoulos Æsthetics. Kertsopoulos’ instruments blend exhaustive historical and aesthetic research with practical acoustic applications for current audiences.

Smaro’s beautiful performance of the Bach Lute Suite offers the first opportunity for Kertsopoulos’ unique triple-double-single course guitar to be heard worldwide. Her generous album notes, along with color photographs of the instruments she plays, provide an absorbing backdrop for the program. Her own Balkan Dances, based on folk themes and rhythms, are played on two different instruments, true to Balkan folk tradition.

Smaro’s interest and skill in blending old and new has led this intriguing young artist into classical theatre as well: she is a founder of the Echoes Theatre Company in Athens, whose first production, in 2007, was Sophocles’ Antigone in the original ancient Greek text.

Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757): Harpsichord Sonata L23
Guitar with scalloped frets & movable back/ high tuning
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750): Lute Suite BWV 995
Triple-double-single course guitar/ re-entrant tuning (recording premiere)
Antonio José (1902-1936): Sonata para guitarra (1933)
Classical guitar with metallonylon trebles
Yorgos Kertsopoulos (1952): Some Colour’s Rhythms
Classical guitar with metallonylon trebles
Smaro Gregoriadou (1969): Balkan Dances
Balkan Dance No. 1 on a Bulgarian folk theme
Guitar with scalloped frets & movable back/ high tuning
Balkan Dance No. 2 on a Greek epic song
Classical guitar with metallonylon trebles/ low tuning
All works arr. Smaro Gregoriadou