ENRIQUE CORIA

“My father gave me a Spanish guitar when I was 12 years old and I went crazy,” recalls Enrique Coria. “I was always thinking about the guitar. My father knew of a musician in Dique Los Molinos, the small village in the center of Argentina where we grew up.” Enrique learned the fundamental chords that he would practice each day for hours from this man.

When unable to get guitar strings, he would use fishing lines instead. He taught a friend to play guitar so he could make music with someone else. At 15, he left his family and moved to the city of Cordoba to pursue a career as a guitarist.

Enrique immediately began performing contemporary Argentinean folk music with different bands at clubs and festivals in Cordoba. When he was 18, he moved to Buenos Aries to work with a popular group called Los Rundunes. At 20, he started playing guitar with a well known Argentinean singer named Hernan Figueroa Reyes, who introduced Enrique to many great performers of the region. Through Reyes, Enrique met and studied with a classical guitar master from Argentina named Jorge Martinez Zarate.

During the past 40 years Enrique has played on over 400 recordings with popular groups from Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Bolivia, and the U.S.. He joined the David Grisman Quintet in 1994, and is featured on Dawganova ACD-17. He has also released two critically acclaimed recordings under his own name, “Solos from South America” (ACD-6), and “Latin Touch” (ACD-23).

But it is the music that you will hear on Solos From South America that Enrique Coria has always dreamed of recording. They are guitar compositions that mix the classical style from Europe with the folk rhythms and harmonies of Latin America. Some of the music was written by noted early 20th century composers like Eduardo Falu from Argentina, Antonio Lauro from Venezuela, and Augustin Barrios of Paraguay. Each has written or arranged music that is now prominent in the repertoires of many world-class guitarists. But most of the gems on Solos From South America are outside the mainstream of the classical guitar world – just as Enrique himself is. His technique is beautiful. His sound is rich and full, and the music is most evocative.