Galina Vale

Galina Vale biography

Never afraid of controversy Galina has become a unique personality of the international guitar world: very few female guitarists have even attempted both classical and flamenco genres, while her most recent recording also included electric guitar. She continues to experiment in crossing of boundaries and musical styles. Her individualistic solo performances combine a charismatic stage presence and dynamic powerful playing style with an unusually wide ranging and technically demanding repertoire; including classical music, flamenco, arrangements of Latin American and East European folk music. A breath of fresh air, she is a musical actress...' - Guitar Magazine, U.K. 'Hard to believe that there was just one woman and her guitar on stage because Galina had the whole orchestra at her fingertips'- Chesterfield Advertiser, U.K. 'Her playing is almost indescribable with a lot of volume, and repertoire that few would choose to attempt 'Beautiful like Venus, plays like Paco de Lucia...'- Goniez Pomorsky, Poland 'A dazzling performance from Galina Vale'- Musical Opinion, U.K. Guitarist Galina Vale (Vernigora) also known under nickname Maestra was born in the Ukraine and comes from a family of musicians. She began studying the guitar and made her first public appearance on state television at the age of eight, from twelve she was performing major guitar concertos with the Kharkov Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra. Galina has won prizes at international guitar and music competitions in Poland, Italy, Hungary, Spain, the United Kingdom, and has performed over 2000 concerts across West and Eastern Europe . . Her recitals have included very technically demanding works, such as the arrangement by Japanese virtuoso guitarist Kazuhito Yamashita of The Bogatyr Gate of Kiev (from Pictures at an Exhibition by Mussorgsky), considered impossible for guitar (Goniezc Pomorsky) alongside her own arrangements of works like Rachmaninovs Prelude no.5 in G-minor and Hungarian Dance no.5 by Brahms Her repertoire has ranged from orthodox classical guitar (Sor, Mertz, Tarrega, Villa-Lobos), music from the renaissance and baroque (Galilei, Bach, Dowland, Scarlatti) through arrangements of classical instrumental,orchestral works and opera (Liszt, Paganini, Sarasate, de Falla, Gimenez, Bizet, Rossini...) the modern guitar (Walton, Dyens, Rak...) to flamenco (Escudero, Sabicas, Peña...) and arrangements of South American and East European folk music (Cardoso, Ramirez, Shevchenko...). Her interpretation of pieces by the famous guitarist-composer tepan Rák inspired his praise before a huge audience at the Esztergom International Guitar Festival (Hungary)... finally I have found a guitarist who can perform my music! She has also starred in three music films produced by Ukrainian State Television: "Portrait with guitar ", "Strings and Sails ", " Spirit of Spain" Her first CD The Legend was released in 1996 (under her maiden name Galina Vernigora) with the support of Gendai Guitar Foundation of Japan and Masaru Kohno. It featured on US FM radio in the network programme edition of Great Women Guitarists produced by Classical Guitar Alive in 1997 and later with the Maltese National Radio on the programme Cantabile. Galina now lives in England and continues with her career as a concert performer . During 2006-2008 , Galina has performed in Spain, Portugal, Turkey, Thailand, South Korea, Mexico and United States. www.galinavale.com www.myspace.com/galinavale http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galina_Vale