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Guitar music is now written both by players of the instrument and by many who are not, but it was not always so. At one time composers were also virtuoso performers (usually of their own works) but during the nineteenth century this link became less and less strong; today, the composer-performer is a rare bird. The tide of musical events, however, bypassed the guitar, so that, until the situation was changed through the efforts of Andres Segovia (1893 - 1987), those who wrote for it also played it. In his own time Paganini was a famed virtuoso on both the violin and the guitar. In fact it was with plucked strings that he began his musical life at the age of five, with mandolin lessons from his father (a capable amateur musician); after two years he turned to the violin; which has the same tuning as the mandolin. Having soon exhausted his father's resources as a teacher he studied first with Antonio Cervetto (a theatre violinist) and then with the (locally) more famous Giacomo Costa, who, maybe to boost his own prestige as much as for the benefit of his pupil, arranged for the twelve-year-old Paganini to play in public. One year later his formal instruction in violin-playing ended and the self-instruction that led to the development of his 'legendary' technique began. Norbert Kraft The guitarist Norbert Kraft won early distinction in 1975, when he was awarded the Grand Prize in the Canadian CBC Radio Competition, following this in 1985 with first prize in the Segovia International Competition in Mallorca. He enjoys a substantial career as a concerto soloist and appears regularly with important orchestras, particularly in Canada and in the United States of America, as well as in Europe and the Far East. He was chosen to represent Canada at World Expo '90 in Osaka and again in Seville in 1992. Norbert Kraft is a faculty member of the Manhattan School of Music in New York
