La Laguna honra a Guillermo González, maestro del piano
La Laguna celebrates the 80 years of Guillermo González, a master of the piano, a renowned universal performer, National Music Award winner, and Honorary Son of the City. Next Monday, April 7, the Leal Theater will host a tribute event as part of the celebrations of the 25th anniversary of the founding of the Municipal School of Music of La Laguna, which bears his name.
The event will revolve around the personal and professional trajectory of Guillermo González (Tejina, 1945), who will be interviewed on stage in a relaxed format by journalist Alexis Hernández, and will be musically illustrated by performances by pianist Inmaculada Marrero and soprano Candelaria González, student of the School Adrián Mesa Regalado and several teachers and the adult choir of the center. The event will take place in the main hall of the Leal Theater starting at 6:30 pm, with free admission until full capacity is reached.
The mayor of La Laguna, Luis Yeray Gutiérrez, states that Guillermo García is «a universal lagunero, who has carried the name of the Canary Islands in recitals in the main theaters and auditoriums alongside the most prominent orchestras in the world. This is a well-deserved recognition of the figure of one of the most brilliant pianists of the last half century in our country, of whom we are deeply proud.»
On the other hand, the councilor of Culture, Adrián del Castillo, recalls that Guillermo González has lent his name to the Municipal School of Music since its foundation in 2000. «Guillermo González has received numerous national and international awards throughout his career, and La Laguna has also granted him the title of Honorary Son, but we felt that, as a master of masters, the School should pay him this tribute as a highlighted act of the celebrations of its 25th anniversary, which also coincides with the 80th birthday of our honoree,» he said, while thanking «the effort of the center’s director, David Martel, and his team for carrying out this initiative.»
Considered a great specialist in Spanish music and one of the top piano exponents in this country, Guillermo González’s long professional career has earned him numerous and memorable reviews citing his deep knowledge and interpretive versatility of piano literature from all eras, as well as important awards, including the National Music Award in 1991, and the National Record Award in 1980 for the recording of Teobaldo Power’s work for the label (EMI)
A disciple of José Cubiles, Vlado Perlemuter, and Jean Paul Sevilla, he pursued his musical studies at the Santa Cruz de Tenerife Conservatory, and later in Madrid and Paris, winning awards at a young age in important international piano competitions.
In 1998, he published a new version of the Iberia score according to Albéniz’s original texts, offering for the first time in the world the composer’s manuscript in a facsimile edition. Guillermo González has given numerous recitals and concerts with several of the world’s leading orchestras and has performed in over thirty countries.
In 2008, he was chosen as the only pianist to represent Spain and the Hispanic world in the grand concert held at the new National Theater of China during the cultural events of the Beijing Olympics, performing alongside pianists such as Lang Lang and Philippe Entremont in front of an audience of 5,500 people.
Since 2005, Guillermo González has led an ambitious project with the Superior Conservatories of Shanghai and Central China to teach and promote Spanish music in that country, where his edition of Iberia was also published (Shanghai Music Publishing House).
He is the author of numerous recordings of classical and contemporary authors and has carried out an intense teaching work, being a Professor at the Royal Superior Conservatory of Music in Madrid and an Extraordinary and Honorary Professor at the Santa Cruz de Tenerife Conservatory, among others.
The Municipal School of Music Guillermo González
The Municipal School of Music of La Laguna Guillermo González opened its doors in the 1999-2000 school year on Nava y Grimón street (water street) in the former Pensión Soria. Initially, the center offered instrumental specialties in classical guitar, piano, clarinet, trumpet, and violin, as well as complementary musical training and music and movement.
Having gone through these 25 years, the center has now doubled the number of students and has added more disciplines, so that today it offers piano, classical guitar, clarinet, flute, trumpet, saxophone, percussion, violin, cello, electric guitar, electric bass, drums, complementary musical training (music theory and modern harmony), music and movement, choir, and instrumental ensembles.
The tribute event for Guillermo González is one of the main events in the program prepared for the 25th anniversary of the center, which has also included to date a training festival, with the participation of several invited music schools, and a benefit lyrical gala, among others.
