Galina Vale, Classical Guitar
 The British guitarist Galina Vale was born in the Ukraine to a family of musicians. She began studying guitar very young and made her first public performance at the age of eight. Four years later she performed guitar concertos with the Kharkov Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra. From 1985 to 1991 she studied at the Moscow Gnesiny Music College while also employed as principal guitarist with the Kharkov State Philharmonia from 1986 to 1997. In 1995 she won a scholarship from the Rotary Club Ukraine to pursue her master degree at the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester, UK.
Galina Vale has won numerous prizes at international music competitions in Poland, Italy, Hungary, Spain, the United Kingdom, and has performed over 2,000 concerts across West and Eastern Europe. In 1996 the British Ambassador and High Commissioner to Kenya invited her to Africa for a concert tour and television appearance.
Her repertoire ranges from ‘orthodox’ classical guitar (Sor, Villa-Lobos, Bach) through arrangements of classical instrumental, orchestral works and opera (Liszt, Paganini, Dvorjak, de Falla, Rossini), the modern guitar (Walton, Rodrigo, Dyens), to flamenco (Escudero, Sabicas, Pena) and arrangements of South American and East European folk music (Cardoso, Ramirez, Shevchenko).
In 1996 Gendai Guitar Foundation of Japan (Masaru Kohno) sponsored Galina to release her first CD - ´The Legend´ under her maiden name Galina Vernigora. It was featured on United States FM radio in the network program edition of 'Great Women Guitarists' produced by 'Classical Guitar Alive!' in 1997 and later with Maltese National Radio on the program 'Cantabile'. The CD includes works by Salvador, De Falla, Sabicas, Rodriguez, Sainz de la Maza, Dyens, Cardoso, Escudero, Tirao, Ramirez, Mertz, Barrios, Shevchenko and Rak.
After her album of The Legend (1996), and after moving to Manchester in 1997, Galina released two more CDs - Hungarian Rhapsody (1999) and Great Gates of Kiev (2002). The Hungarian Rhapsody includes works by Liszt, Paganini, Rossini, Barrios, de Falla, Sainz de la Mazza and Rachmaninov. The Great Gates Of Kievincludes works by Mussorgsky, Piazzolla, Albeniz, Llobet, Brahms, Barrios, Dyens, Fampas, Rak, Sabicas, Batista, Steidl and Kozlov. Instrumental Guitar.
The Album - 'Hungarian Rhapsody' was featured on BBC World Service radio and described by the World of Guitar magazine (Poland) as 'an unbelivable performance... a disc which deserves world-wide recognition'.
Her performances include very technically demanding works, such as Modest Mussorgsky's ´Pictures from an Exhibition´ arranged by Japanese virtuoso Kazuhito Yamashita which ´is impossible for guitar´- Goniez Pomorsky Newspaper, Poland 1993. Her skill in managing the pieces of the legendary guitarist Stepan Rak has brought him to express his praise loudly before a huge audience in the 1987 Esztergom International Guitar Festival – ´finally I have found a musician who can perform my music!´
For 2007, Galina is planning three main concerts in Portugal, England, and Indonesia, as well as releasing a new album.
— Basilio Araujo, 9/12/06 |
