The String Sensation Guitar Duo, Jona Steinmeyer and Jürgen Ohnemus, play Luiza by Antônio Carlos Jobim on two modern concert guitars, a Fernando Mazza and a Rafal Turkowiak Opus Virtuoso.
About Luiza
Jobim wrote Luiza in 1981 for Brilhante, a telenovela on Brazil's TV Globo. He wrote both the music and the words. That sets it apart from many of his best-known songs, whose lyrics came from partners such as Vinícius de Moraes, the lyricist of A Felicidade. Luiza is a song from Jobim's later years, written more than twenty years after the first wave of bossa nova had carried his name around the world.
On two guitars a song like this can be laid out in full. One player can carry the melody while the other takes the harmony and the bass, and the roles can change from verse to verse. What the duo has to solve is balance, so that two instruments of the same family sound like one arrangement and not like two guitars competing.
The Duo
The two guitarists come from Schwäbisch Hall. Jona Steinmeyer, born in 2002, won numerous first prizes at Jugend musiziert, the German national competition for young musicians. Jürgen Ohnemus has released numerous CDs, some with his own compositions, and has toured throughout Europe and in Asia. The duo arranges most of the music it plays, with programmes that move between Spain, Argentina and Brazil. You can also hear them play Jobim's A Felicidade on the same two guitars, and our article on João Gilberto and the nylon-string guitar tells where the bossa nova sound came from.
The Two Guitars
The Fernando Mazza 2026 is a lattice-braced instrument with a cedar top and Santos rosewood back and sides. Mazza is an Argentine maker with a workshop in Arezzo, Italy, and he builds in the Australian lattice tradition. Our portrait of Fernando Mazza introduces his work.
The Rafal Turkowiak 2026 Opus Virtuoso No. 766 has back and sides of amboyna burl. Turkowiak was born in 1966 in Golanice near Leszno in Poland and built his first guitar as a teenager after taking an old one apart. His instruments include construction ideas far from the traditional Spanish model. Read more in our portrait of Rafal Turkowiak.
Watch the Performance
Browse the repertoire in our overview of famous classical guitar pieces, or see the instruments in our range of classical guitars.
