Videos | Craig Winston Classical Guitarist
I explored many styles of music before I became a classical guitarist. I spent my early years playing rock and heavy metal, later I studied jazz at Berklee College of Music and Lewis & Clark College. Ultimately, I discovered my passion for classical guitar at the Denver International Guitar Festival in 2019, where I saw so many incredible players performing incredibly beautiful music. After hearing the suite “Platero y Yo” performed in concert, I decided to become a classical guitarist, ultimately pursuing a Master of Music degree from the University of Denver's Lamont School of Music.
The videos below are some of my favorite classical pieces and a few from my past work in other genres. Enjoy the music!
Classical Guitar Videos
"Registro" by Anotnio Lauro
Antonio Lauro is a Venezuelan composer, active during the 20th century. “Registro” is the prelude movement from his Suite Venezolana, one of his masterpieces for classical guitar. Lauro was inspired by the guitar virtuosos that would haunt the guitar shops of Venezuela, picking up every instrument, improvising, seeming to test every note of the guitar. “Registro” is to test out an instrument, and this piece takes on that spirit of a classical guitarist improvising across the range of a beautiful new guitar.
III. CANCION BY ANTONIO LAURO, FROM SUITE VENEZOLANA
This third movement from Lauro's Suite Venezolana, for classical guitar, is a sweet and melancholic piece with many technical challenges for the performer. Like all the movements of this suite, Lauro adapts modern harmonies to craft a through composed serenade. Listen for repeated themes that reappear, though always transformed and reharmonized. Lauro is ever insistent on stretching the limits of the guitarist's fingers, and he makes no exceptions here.
Venezuelan Waltz no. 2 “Andreina” by Antonio Lauro
Antonio Lauro is famous for his Venezuelan Waltzes. The most performed of those are the trio “Tatiana,” “Andreina,” and “Natalia,” originally published as “Tres Valses Venezolanos” for classical guitar. In these pieces you can hear the influence of his experience with popular music and his love of ballroom orchestras. “Andreina” combines influences of European classical traditions with Latin American ballroom, and a hemiola rhythm that hearkens back to Spanish influences.