Ricardo Gallén
Ricardo Jesús Gallén García (born 12 March 1972, Linares, Jaén, Spain) is one of the foremost Spanish classical guitarists of his generation. A prize-winner at five international competitions, he has performed in more than 35 countries, released twelve albums for Naxos and Eudora Records, and has held the Guitar Chair at the Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt in Weimar since 2009.
Background
Gallén took up the guitar at age four and gave his first public recital at five. He studied at the conservatoires of Córdoba, Jaén, Madrid, and Granada, then at the Mozarteum University Salzburg and the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München, where he completed the Konzertexamen under Joaquín Clerch in 1999. Earlier teachers included Víctor Valls, Miguel Barberá, Demetrio Ballesteros, Carmelo Martínez, and Eliot Fisk.
Between 1997 and 2002 he won five major international competitions: the Markneukirchen International Competition (1997); the Andrés Segovia Competition (1st prize and special prize, 1998); the Alhambra International Guitar Competition (1998); the Francisco Tárrega International Contest (1st prize and audience prize, 1999); and an international guitar competition in 2002 (1st prize plus five special prizes).
In 2009 he became Professor of Guitar at the Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt Weimar — one of the youngest to hold a full professorship there. From 2017 to 2023 he also taught at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo. He has received the Medal of Honour of the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de Granada.
Performance at Siccas Guitars
Ricardo Gallén performed Vals No. 3 Op. 8 by Agustín Barrios Mangóre on a 2026 Enrico Bottelli classical guitar (No. 321).
Discography (selected)
- Guitar Recital (Naxos, 2000)
- Bach: Complete Lute Works (Sunnyside Records, 2013)
- Fernando Sor: Guitar Sonatas (Eudora Records, 2014)
- En Silencio — Barrios, Piazzolla, Villa-Lobos, Brouwer (Eudora / IBS Classical, 2018; Melómano de Oro, Opus d’Or)
- Preludes and Dances from Brazil — Sérgio Assad & Villa-Lobos (Eudora, 2025)
See more classical guitarists in our Great Classical Guitarists overview.
