Miloš Karadaglic, Guitarist

Twenty-seven-year-old Miloš Karadaglic has a goal: to return the guitar to its rightful place as a concert instrument, and after having heard him play, it’s easy to believe that he’ll have no problem reaching his goal. Karadaglic has fingers of fire and a heart to match, and it doesn’t hurt that the young man from the Balkan country of Montenegro is drop-dead gorgeous.

After having exhausted all the available possibilities for developing his skill in his home country, Karadaglic was accepted at London’s Royal Academy of Music, where he became a scholarship student of Michael Lewin, the school’s head of studies. Difficult as it was to be so far from his home and family, Karadaglic devoted himself to his studies and made rapid progress. “I worked and practiced — so many levels, so many concerts, deadlines, and preparations,” he says. “It was very intense, and I didn’t do anything apart from practicing and sleeping.” He graduated with first-class honors in June 2004, continued his studies with a two-year master’s degree in performance, and became the first guitarist ever to be made a Meaker Junior Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music, which gave him another two years to refine his skills. He has since appeared at various major venues and has won several prestigious awards, including the Ivor Mairants Award in 2002, the Julian Bream Prize (awarded personally by Bream) in 2005. He also became the first guitarist ever to win the Prince of Wales’ Prince’s Prize.

Karadaglic plays with a natural and instinctive musicality and has the requisite technique to support his passionate and sensitive approach to the repertoire. This album features works by Albéniz, Tárrega, Granados, Llobet, Domeniconi, and Theodorakis — all composers from the area surrounding his beloved Mediterranean.

“There isn’t a more accessible or more beautiful instrument than the guitar,” he says. “The guitar repertoire is wonderful, and there is a lot of it. It needs to be brought out of its niche and to have a renaissance. This is my mission!” Highly recommended.