Gabriel Bianco

Guitarist Gabriel Bianco was a prodigy who began public appearances in his early teens. A member of the Éclisses Guitar Quartet, he is especially known for collaborative guitar work. Bianco was born on April 25, 1988, in the 17th arrondissement in Paris. His entire family was musical, and he began playing the guitar at age five, with his father as teacher. In 1997, he began studies at the Conservatoire de Paris (CNSMDP). At 12, he made a recording for the Musiciens en Herbe program on France's Mezzo TV classical music channel, and in 2002, he accompanied a theatrical presentation for the Théâtre Fragile company, and the following year, he gave his first solo recital. Bianco then returned to the Conservatoire in Paris, where he gave his prize recital in 2008 and graduated with the top prize. Between 2005 and 2008, he won a number of top competition prizes, including those at the International Guitar Competition in Vienna in 2006, the guitar competition at the Koblenz Festival in Germany in 2007, and the Guitar Foundation of America competition in 2008. That led to a release in the Naxos label's Laureate series, released in 2009, featuring works by Bach, Johann Kaspar Mertz, and Nikita Koshkin. In 2012, Bianco co-founded the Éclisses Guitar Quartet with three friends from the Conservatoire, Benjamin Valette, Pierre Lelievre, and Arkaitz Chambonnet. The following year, the quartet won the first prize of the FNAPEC (Fédération Nationale de Parents d'Éleves de Conservatoires) competition. With that group, Bianco has toured widely, appearing not only in France, Switzerland, and the U.S. but in more remote locations such as Indonesia and Algeria. The group has also performed often on French radio and has recorded several albums, including Guitares (2013). Bianco maintained his solo career, releasing the album Capricce: Musique Italienne pour Guitare on the Ad Vitam label in 2015. In 2023, he backed mezzo-soprano Marina Viotti on the album Porque existe otro querer.
© James Manheim /TiVo