Jorge Caballero

Jorge Caballero, the youngest musician and the only guitarist to win the prestigious Naumburg International Competition, is known for his dazzling virtuosity, his intense musicality and his spellbinding performances. He is widely regarded as one of the finest guitarists of his generation. Allan Kozinn of the New York Times called him a "superb young guitarist" and praised his rare combination of "a deft, powerful technique and a soft-spoken interpretive persona."
Mr. Caballero's solo recitals have included performances at New York's Alice Tully Hall, the Library of Congress in Washington (in the Great Performers Series), the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco (in the Omni series), the Da Camera Society in Los Angeles, New York's Midtown Concert Series, BargeMusic, St. Bartholomew's Church and other venues in the United States and internationally. He has performed as a soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Orchestra of St. Luke's, the New York Chamber Symphony, the Naples Philharmonic, the Kansas City Chamber Orchestra and the Presidential Symphony Orchestra of Ankara, Turkey, among others.
Critics have praised Mr. Caballero's daring in performing the most difficult pieces in the guitar's repertoire, often together in the same program.
He recently recorded Dvorak's New World symphony, transcribed for solo guitar, a piece that he is one of only two guitarists in the world to perform. His 2000 Musical Heritage recording of the Bach cello suites, which he transcribed, was highly praised by critics. He has also recorded a CD with soprano Theresa Santiago. A recording of Bach's keyboard works is in the planning stages.
His upcoming performances include recitals at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, the Guitar Foundation Convention in Los Angeles, the Katzin Concert Hall of Arizona State University, Weill Recital Hall of Carnegie Hall (with violist David Aaron Carpenter) and 2008 tours in Europe, Brazil and Colombia.
A native of Lima, Peru, Mr. Caballero comes from a musical family. His mother is a well-known singer in Peru and as a child he spent many evenings sitting backstage at her concerts. He learned to play the guitar from his father, but he had already absorbed much knowledge about the instrument from listening to his father give lessons. Growing up at a time when terrorists in Peru bombed electrical stations, he became an expert at practicing in the dark.
He began his professional training at the National Conservatory in Lima, studying with Oscar Zamora. He later came to the United States, where he attended the Manhattan School of Music. He is the recipient of top prizes at the Tokyo International Competition, the Luis Sigall Competition, and the First Latin American Guitar Competition, in addition to the Naumburg, which he won in 1996 at age 19.
Mr. Caballero's repertoire is notable for its breadth and scope: When he applied to the conservatory, his teacher suggested that perhaps he should list the pieces that he could not play, since there were so few of them. It ranges from Bach to Ginastera, from Paganini to Ponce, from Scarlatti and Dowland to Giuliani and Legnani, from Renaissance pieces for the vihuela to modern composers like Carter and Berio.
He is a founding member of Axis, a string quintet that adds to the conventional string quartet the sensual sounds of a guitar, and thus explores new options of sound.