In celebration of Memorial day GSI is offering 25% off all accessory web orders up to $1,000*. That’s 25% off all strings, cases, furniture, electronics, machine heads, books, CDs, DVDs – almost anything in the store. Simply enter coupon code MEMDAY2013 at checkout to receive your discount. Sale ends Tuesday.

*Can’t be combined with other offers, maximum discount is $250, discount does not apply to guitars or Guitar Specials.

Taso Comanescu, who recently recorded some great videos for us (check them out here) came back to record some duos with Mak Grgic, this week, and while he was here we asked him to play a little on the new Lorenzo Frignani ’1910 Manuel Ramirez’ that just arrived. So Taso recorded Tarrega’s ‘Lagrima’ on this guitar, which sounded perfect for the piece.

Current Inventory     |     Past Inventory

Lorenzo Frignani lives and works in the charming city of Modena, Italy. Established as an independent luthier in 1986, he has been building a variety of instruments including guitars, lutes and violins for nearly 3 decades. In addition to his own concert guitar models, Frignani makes a unique replica of a 1910 Manuel Ramirez guitar (Frignani owns the original and has studied it extensively) and gives it an aged/distressed look, built into each new guitar – a technique common in the violin world which he has adopted for this model. Frignani has won many awards for his guitars and his lutes both in Italy and around the world (Including his nomination in July of 2011 as “luthier of the year” by the town of Fiuggi-Lazio.).

In addition to his work as a guitar maker, he is deeply involved in many other aspects of the larger musical community. He has been a member of various international juries in guitar competitions. He has also taught regularly, including violin making courses for The Arts and Crafts School of Centopievese. He also collaborates with the city council of Pieve di Cento (Bologna) as artistic consultant for the schools’ activities pertaining to lutherie. And he has taken on several apprentices over the years, to study privately with him.

Frignani is also involved extensively in publishing. He is dedicated to researching and preserving the history of these instruments and has collaborated in numerous publications to this end including “Ricercare – Sull’ arte liutaria” in 1987 at Finale Emilia and “Ricercare – Sull’ Arte Liutaria” in 1989 at Medolla. He provide a chapter of the book “Il Salotto Musicale”(Bologna 1992, Forni) which discusses the musical instruments of the classical period (ca. 1780-1820). In collaboration with the town council of Pieve di Cento and the arts and crafts school he published a new text about historical plucked instruments of the 18th and 19th century, “Chitarre e Mandolini – piccola raccolta di strumenti a pizzico italiani del 18° e 19° secolo”. In 2007 he founded the publishing house LF Edizioni. Together with Sauro Malagoli, he translates foreign scripts about lutherie to the Italian language and publishes their own books as well. In 2005 he published the book “Marino Capicchioni and Mario Capicchioni, liutai”.

Frignani is also sought after for his general expertise – he is the technical advisor for matters concerning musical instruments at the Modena law court, where he is arbitrator for the Arturo Toscanini Foundation which works for the Symphonic Orchestra of the Emilia Romagna. He also works as an instruments’ expert for the insurances Assimusica (Cremona) and AXA ART. He’s a member and Vice President of the associations A.L.I. Professional (Italian Association of Professional Luthiers) and A.L.A.D.F.I. (French Association of Bow and Violin Makers).

He also collects instruments, and enjoys making them available to the public, as well as collaborating with other collectors for this purpose. He has held instrument expositions at Parma, Finale Emilia, Medolla, Pieve di Cento, Spezzano and Rome, as well as abroad, at Beijing, Geneva and Mittenwald, and he has participated at exhibitions dedicated to contemporary luthery in Austria and China. In 2002, he was the trustee and organizer of the “Musica a Corte e in collezione” antique musical instrument exhibition in Modena (Italy).

GSI is the exclusive dealer in the USA for this fine maker.

One of the amazing details about this guitar is that it has repairs made with discarded music from Celedonio Romero. Apparently Celedonio would often practice in Santos Hernandez’ workshop, so that Santos’ trash can was filled with discarded music – arrangements Celedonio would have been working on – and when Santos needed some paper for a repair he would grab it from the trash can. In this case, some of that music made its way into the guitar, as you can see in the photos. I don’t imagine that either Celedonio or Santos was unaware of the beauty of doing a repair in this way.

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Hungarian guitarist Andras Csaki came by GSI last week. He’s been touring the world and winning competitions since 1999 – you can read more about him here. He played Dowland’s ‘Farewell’ on a Sakurai-Kohno Professional-J spruce guitar and Barrios’ Vals Op. 8, No. 3 on a Thomas Norwood ’1932 Esteso’ model.

The registration deadline is just a few days away – May 15th – so click here for more info on the NYGS website.

BE A PLAYER: Exploring Entrepreneurship and Creating Performance Opportunities
Welcome to the 13th annual New York Guitar Seminar at Mannes College. We are thrilled to bring together again an international faculty of renowned performers and teachers for five full days of workshops and master classes in New York City. The New York Guitar Seminar is open to high school, college, and graduate students; music teachers; professional performers; and all classical guitar players seeking to broaden their musical horizons. Performers at all levels of playing skill are welcome.

More than 40 hours of activities
University housing available (apply separately after you register)
Special rate for ensemble members attending together
“We invite guitar players of all ages to this year’s seminar, where you can learn how to be proactive in creating opportunities to perform, to establish careers in music, or to just have fun playing for others.”
— Laura Oltman and Michael Newman, Cofounders and Directors of the New York Guitar Seminar at Mannes College
In addition to offering five faculty concerts, 100 master class lessons, and daily ensemble coachings by a faculty of a dozen of the world’s top guitarists, the seminar will provide multiple solo and ensemble performance opportunities for all participants, plus new, innovative, hands-on workshops and discussions that will focus on elements of career development, encouraging guitarists to learn more about how to organize and oversee their own events, concerts, recordings, videos, press materials and publicity, web sites, publishing, teaching opportunities, community outreach presentations, and other topics.

Registration Options:

Full Participant Performs in two master classes, performs in final concert, participates and performs in an ensemble with three chamber music coachings (optional), performs in open stage sessions (optional), performs and participates actively in all workshops and lectures. Admission to all concerts and events of the seminar.
Ensemble Participant Performs in two master classes with his/her pre-formed ensemble, the ensemble performs in final concert, the ensemble receives three chamber music coachings, performs in open stage sessions (optional), performs and participates actively in all workshops and lectures. Admission to all concerts and events of the seminar.
Full Auditor: Active participation (optional) in workshops and lectures. Admission to all events of the seminar.

All full participants in the seminar are entered in a drawing to receive a new concert guitar, generously donated by Guitar Salon International (www.guitarsalon.com).

About Ensembles:

The ensemble feature of the seminar is always a great opportunity to meet and work with interesting people from all over the world. It is incredible how quickly a new piece can really come together with a bit of efficient rehearsal and some great coaching. That’s the whole point—to sight-read, to learn music quickly, to get really good at rehearsing, and to have new performance opportunities—all within a few days.

As a full participant you will be part of one ensemble, with which you will have three rehearsals/coachings, and perform in the final concert. The music for the ensembles will be handed out on the first day of the seminar. You will be able to chose the piece and ensemble and part you want to play. We lay out all the ensembles and parts and participants get to sign up to whatever piece and part they want. Thousands of classical guitar lovers, ranging in age from 8 to 82, have attended past New York Guitar Seminars at Mannes from six continents, 50 countries, and nearly 40 states.

The next guitar for our upcoming Scott Tennant and Pepe Romero Jr. concert on June 1st is a 1919 Santos Hernandez spruce and cypress guitar – I asked Pepe if he considered it a flamenco, a classical or just a guitar, and he said it was just a cypres guitar (cypress was cheap and readily available at the time – flamencos were generally cheaper guitars, which is why cypress was almost always used for them).

Pepe also says “It definitely has a flamenco attack and I have it set up between classical and flamenco. If ever a guitar had duende, this one has it. It is pure magic! This is easy to play, explosive and beautiful sounding. It is super light weight and totally alive. My head stock is my version of this guitar. When I started to build guitars my father took out 5 Santos Hernandez guitars and told me to take the one that I liked the most, study it, play it and get inspired. I am inspired just thinking of this guitar! This is the one that I chose that day.”

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We’ve got two guitars From Granada builder Lucas Martin just finished and ready to make their way over to us – a flamenco blanca and a cedar and rosewood classical. Lucas’s guitars don’t tend to stay in the showroom for very long – between the sound, the playability, the beautiful workmanship and the price they’ve become very popular very quickly.

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The next guitar that will be featured in our upcoming Scott Tennant/Pepe Romero Jr. event on June 1st is this 1958 Miguel Rodriguez flamenco nicknamed ‘Henrietta’ (Henrietta was the name of the previous owner). This was the guitar that Pepe Romero used to record his Flamenco Fenomeno record when he was just 15 and his next record at age 18. Celedonio Romero also recoded on this guitar. When Pepe Jr. turned 15 his father gave it to him, and Pepe Jr. says that he “played it for years and was moved by the beauty and raw attack that this guitar has.”

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