Degree Programs
Students in the Guitar and Harp Program at the Lamont School of Music may select the bachelor of music, bachelor of arts, master of music, or master of arts in music degrees. In conjunction with the University of Denver's Daniels School of Business, Lamont offers the 3/2 integrated bachelor's/master's degree program that enables a student to complete both an undergraduate degree in music and a master of business administration degree in five years. Musicians interested contemporary music styles may also pursue the Jazz Studies and Commercial Music Program.

Faculty

Ricardo Iznaola

One of the most attractive personalities of the guitar world, Ricardo Iznaola pursues a brilliant, multifaceted, musical career. Born in Havana, Cuba, in 1949, his activities as a performer, composer, pedagogue, lecturer, and writer have been distinguished by international critical acclaim and the admiration of colleagues and audiences alike. He has been called "one of the most seminal players, teachers and thinkers of the guitar scene today" (SOUNDBOARD, Winter 1994).

His innumerable concert performances include appearances at the Grananda and Santander Music Festivals, the Madrid Autumn Festival, and National Auditorium in Madrid, the Gran Teatro de la Maestranza in Seville, the Wigmore Hall in London, the Grand Salle de L'Unesco in Paris, the Hercule Saal in Munich, the Ishibashi Memorial Hall in Tokyo, the Andres Segovia Spring Festival in Madrid and the Merkin Concert Hall in New York, among others.

Equally renowned as a teacher (the British journal Classical Guitar calls his teaching "bold, original and unconventional,") Iznaola is Chairman of the Guitar Department at the University of Denver's Lamont School of Music, where he is also the founder and director of the annual International Guitar Week Festival, which in 1994 celebrated its tenth anniversary.

He has offered Masterclasses, lectures and seminars at institutions like Yale University, the Royal Academy of Music, Trinity College and Guildhall School of Music in London, Mannes College and the Manhattan School of Music in New York City, the San Francisco Conservatory, the Cleveland Institute of Music, as well as many Summer workshops on both sides of the Atlantic, and Japan.

His publications Kitharalogus-The Path to Virtuosity (now in its second edition), and On Practising, both published by Chanterelle Verlag (Germany) are rapidly being adopted as standard texts by the professional guitar community.

As performer and composer, Iznaola has been awarded top prizes in eight international competitions. His numerous recordings include the world-premiers of such major works as Antonio Lauro's legendary Sonata, and Antonio Jose's 1933 Sonata, a monumental work which Iznaola rediscovered for the guitar repertoire. His daring approach to the art of guitar transcription has produced breath-taking results, as in his renditions of Ravel's Alborada del Gracioso or De Falla's Ritual Fire Dance, never before attempted for solo guitar.

World-renowned double-bass virtuoso Gary Karr applauded Iznaola's creations for the guitar with this accolade: "It's sheer genius how he formulated his transcriptions and I shouldn't imagine there are many guitarists today who can play these dazzling arrangements." American critic Jon Tuska of Classical Magazine hailed Iznaola's playing as "Breath-taking... a technical wizardry which I have not heard from another instrumentalists except for the best of Heifetz and Horowitz."

Internet: Ricardo Iznaola

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