Yesterday I was lucky enough to accompany Leopoldo Neri and Rocío Jódar for an interview of Pablo Sáinz-Villegas which will be published in the next issue of Roseta. I met Leopoldo and Rocío back in 2017 when we presented the “Segovia” issue of Roseta at the Fundación Casa Museo Andrés Segovia. It was nice to catch up with them afterwards over a few drinks and the famous avocado and prawn omelette at La Mimbre just outside the cool walls of the Alhambra. 

Pablo is here in Granada for his concert and masterclasses which are part of the Festival Internacional de Música y Danza. As you can imagine I come into contact with quite a few guitarists in my work and there is no doubt that Pablo is the exception to the rule: the manner in which he chose to manage his career and set his priorities, the way he chose to step outside of the established “guitar world” in Spain and other details which came up during the interview. He is often called the successor of Segovia and although that is an easy thing to say about any successful guitarist in this case his strong personality certainly adds some weight to that claim. Watch for the interview in the next issue of Roseta. It was a pleasure to meet him and I enjoyed hearing his point of view on concentration and stage fright. Pablo is an inspiration to musicians, guitar-makers and anyone else who thinks that it is enough to be great at what you do. It is not enough, you have to get out there and step outside your comfort zone, convince people that you have what they want and above all enjoy what you have chosen to do as your life’s work. I was very unhappy that I had missed out on getting tickets for his concert 2 days earlier. The tickets to the concerts at this festival take all of one hour to sell out. Well, maybe next time.