HARTZELL, Valérie

  Valérie Hartzell began playing guitar at the age of three, and studied with maestro Alexandre Lagoya in Nice at the age of six. She won several international competitions before performing and broadcasting in Europe (France, England and Italy), the USA and Canada, most recently for BBC Radio 3 on ‘In Tune’ and at Latitude Festival, where she was dubbed ‘enrapturing’! She has performed in over 30 festivals & 200 concerts, including the ChamberArt Music Festival in Madrid, Spain, the Pennsylvania Academy of Music Festival, at Guitaromania in Agen, France and at Taipei American School Arts Festival in Taiwan.

As a guest soloist & chamber musician, she has performed for the NYC Classical Guitar Society, the Grand Canyon Guitar Society, the Performing Arts Society of Kenai, Alaska, the Oxford Guitar Society, the Manchester Acoustic Guitar Society, the Liverpool Guitar Society, The Ealing Guitar Society of London, North Wales Guitar Circle, Music on the Quantocks, Impington Music Society, Mayfield Music Society, at Arizona State University, University of Alaska at Anchorage, Holywell Hall at Oxford University, and Clare Hall at Cambridge University. Valérie has a Bachelor in Music from Peabody Conservatory where she studied with Manuel Barrueco and a Master in Art from Radford University in Virginia where she was awarded a Graduate Teaching Fellowship.

Currently, Valérie lives in Somerset, England where she composes (solo compositions are published through Bergmann Editions bergmann-edition.com) and maintains an active concert career both as a soloist and as a chamber musician. She is Artistic Director of the annual “Classical Minds” Guitar Festival. Her recordings include highly acclaimed solo album Ex Tenebris Lux and ensemble album Presti.