Collection: Hartzell, Valérie

Valérie Hartzell began her classical guitar studies on a half-size Ramirez at the age of three. At the age of six, she studied with maestro Alexandre Lagoya at the Académie Internationale d’Eté in Nice, France.

She has performed in Europe, Canada, the U.S. and has appeared on television in Nice, F.R. and Houston, TX. She has also been featured on National Public Radio in Texas and Alaska, the show “Women in Music” which is broadcast on CKWR, 98.5 FM Canada, U.S. syndicated radio show, Classical Guitar Alive! and live on the show In Tune, BBC Radio 3 in the U.K. She has been featured in several guitar magazines and newspapers including Bedfordshire The Oracle (U.K.), Anchorage Daily News (Alaska, USA), Warrington Guardian (UK), Soundboard Magazine (U.S.), Classical Guitar Magazine (U.K.), Dronfield Eye (U.K.) and Gendai Magazine (Japan).

She has performed in over 30 festivals, including the ChamberArt Music Festival in Madrid, Spain, the Annual Classical Guitar Fall Festival in Oneonta, NY, the Pennsylvania Academy of Music Festival where she shared the stage with Eliot Fisk, Guitaromania in Agen, France, and at the Menil Community Arts Festival Performance at the Rothko Chapel. In 2017, she was the only classical musician to be picked for the BBC Introducing Stage to perform at the Latitude Festival. Most recently, she was one of the featured guest artists at the weeklong Arts Festival at the Taipei American School.

Valérie has been featured as a guest soloist for the New York City Classical Guitar Society, the Grand Canyon Guitar Society, the Performing Arts Society of Kenai, Alaska, the Oxford Guitar Society in England, the Manchester Acoustic Guitar Society in England, the Liverpool Guitar Society, Ealing Guitar Society (London), the North Wales Guitar Circle, Music on the Quantocks Society, Mayfield Music Society, at Arizona State University, at University of Alaska at Anchorage, Holywell Hall at Oxford University, and Clare Hall at Cambridge University. 

She is a prizewinner in eight international competitions including 1st prizes at the 10th International Guitar Competition “Simone Salmaso” in Italy and at the Concours de Guitare Classique Heitor Villa-Lobos in France.

Valérie has a Bachelor of Music from Peabody Conservatory where she studied with Manuel Barrueco on scholarship and a Master of Arts from Radford University in Virginia where she was awarded a Graduate Teaching Fellowship.

She has two recordings; Ex Tenebris Lux, a solo project and Presti, an ensemble project, which was both recorded at the National Public Radio studios in Houston.

Currently, Valérie lives in Bedfordshire in England where she composes and maintains an active concert career both as a soloist and as a chamber musician. She is also the Musical Director of the Cambridge Guitar Orchestra, U.K. and the Artistic Director of the “Classical Minds” Guitar Festival held in Cambridgeshire, U.K. www.valeriehartzell.co.uk

“Terrific! Flames licking at the guitar!” -BBC Radio 3