Concert details: Friday 29 June, 2018 at 8pm in Royal Irish Academy of Music, Dublin.

Joaquín Rodrigo praised the CD “Elogio de la guitarra”, which includes some of his solo pieces and recorded by Marco Socías in 1997, as follows: “A new recording of my guitar works is always a cause of satisfaction. But in the case of this young Spanish performer, that satisfaction becomes delight. Marco Socías offers a profound and emotional journey through some of my most emblematic works with genuine musicality and a powerful technique.” Joaquín Rodrigo, January 1998.

Born in Málaga (Spain) into a family of pianists, Marco Socías received his musical education in this city, and afterwards in many masterclasses and at the Musikhochschule Cologne (Germany). Among the most significant personalities for his development are Carmen Gallardo, Antonio Company, José Tomás, José Miguel Moreno, Hubert Käppel and David Russell. He became at the age of 21 the youngest guitar professor in Spain, and has been awarded in some of the most prestigious international competitions, as the “Infanta Cristina” (Fundación Guerrero, Madrid) where he got the first prize, “Le Printemps de la Guitare” (Belgium) and Concorso Internazionale di Gargnano (Italy). Marco Socías is regularly invited to renowned International Guitar Festivals and, besides his intense activity as a soloist around practically whole Europe, Near East, Japan, Korea, South America and USA, he performs very frequently in chamber groups and as soloist with orchestra.

He has performed in important concert halls as Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), Konzerthaus (Vienna), Auditorio Nacional (Madrid), Konzerthaus (Berlin), Philharmonie (Berlin) and Alte Oper (Frankfurt), and has played as a soloist with orchestras as the Radio Sinfonie-Orchester Berlin, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Orquesta Ciudad de Granada, Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia, Orquesta de Cadaqués and Orquesta Nacional de Cuba. Among the conductors he has performed with, are to be mentioned Sir Neville Marriner, Josep Pons, Víctor Pablo Pérez, Odón Alonso and Leo Brouwer. Until now he has recorded eight Compact Discs: Giuliani’s guitar concerto Op.30, “Concerto Meditarraneo” for two guitars and orchestra by Carlo Domeniconi -together with the composer-, a CD with Catalan music (Pujol, Llobet, Mompou), a selection of pieces by Joaquín Rodrigo, the “Álbum de Colien” (contemporary Spanish and Portuguese music), and Spanish songs (Falla, Lorca and Gerhard) with soprano Juanita Lascarro. The most recent ones are solo guitar works by Joaquín Rodrigo for the label EMI, and the “Concierto de Aranjuez” and “Fantasía para un Gentilhombre” for Harmonia Mundi, with the Orquesta Ciudad de Granada conducted by Josep Pons. Italian composer Carlo Domeniconi has written for him the works “Incontro”, “Sonata, quasi una sinfonia”, and his Guitar Concerto n.13.

Nowadays Marco Socías lives in Málaga, and is professor at the Centro Superior de Música “Musikene” in the Basque Country (San Sebastián, Spain).