This week, Ira spoke with Internationally acclaimed guitarist Ricardo Cobo, who will be performing at the UNLV Performing Arts Center (as part of its “Live from” series Livestreamed from the Artemus Ham Concert Hall) December 11. In this 30-minute episode of Talk About Las Vegas, Cobo talks about his infatuation with the guitar as a child in Columbia; why he chose to move to the United States to pursue his studies and a musical career; his decision to move from New York to Las Vegas (coincidentally on the day that planes were hitting the World Trade Center) to perform and to teach; why he uses more than one guitar in performance; and how this new way of performing (due to Covid 19, there will be no audience) will affect his approach.
Regarded as one of the leading virtuosos of the new classic guitar generation, Cobo gave his professional debut with the Orquesta Filarmónica de Bogotá at the age of seventeen, a performance that was televised nationwide to an audience of over nine million people.
Cobo holds a Bachelor of Music from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and a Master of Music from Florida State University. While completing his studies, he won consecutive prizes in many international competitions and a number of academic excellence awards and scholarships.
Cobo is the Director of Guitar Studies at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and also collaborates with living composers to develop new music for the guitar based on the rich literary and cultural legacy of Latin America.
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