Master Guitar Teacher – Master Classes & ONLINE Lessons
Experience & Expertise
Highly praised by the international press, Denis Azabagic (Bosnia and Herzegovina), performs concerts around the world, maintaining a balance between his solo recitals, chamber music with the Cavatina Duo and Fandango quartet as well as engagements as soloist with orchestras.
Azabagic has won twenty-four prizes in international competitions and Mel Bay has published a book based on his experience and insights on the subject of competitions.
Denis Azabagic has recorded 14 CDs for international labels such as Naxos, Cedille, Opera Tres, Bridge records, Neos and Orobroy, as well as two DVDs for the Mel Bay Company. His recordings and live performances are highly acclaimed by music critics, for his elegant approach to music and his unique way of communicating and reaching the audiences’ hearts.
As a guest instrumentalist and soloist Azabagic has appeared with the Chicago Symphony
Orchestra, Chicago Sinfonietta, Tallahassee Symphony Orchestra, Illinois Symphony Orchestra,
Sacramento Chamber Orchestra, Madrid Symphony, Traverse Symphony, Monterrey
Symphony, L’Orchestre Royal de Chambre de Mons, among many others. He has also collaborated with the Casals Quartet, Chicago Chamber Musicians, Civitas Ensemble and Music
Now.
Azabagic has performed at such venues as Chicago’s Symphony Center; the Royal Concertgebouw in Amsterdam; Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow, Radio France in Paris; Aix-en-Provence Festival; France; El Palaude la Musica in Valencia, Spain; Savannah on Stage; Omni Foundation (San Francisco); Ravinia Festival; National Chang Kai Shek Cultural Center, Taiwan; and The National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing, China. Azabagic’s performances have been broadcast live on NPR and WFMT radio, and on television in Asia, Europe and the United States.
His repertoire includes solo and orchestral music from the Baroque era to the present. As half
of the Cavatina Duo (with Eugenia Moliner, flute), he has performed a vast repertoire
including many works written expressly for the duo.
As a guest instrumentalist and soloist Azabagic has appeared with the Chicago Symphony
Orchestra, Chicago Sinfonietta, Tallahassee Symphony Orchestra, Illinois Symphony Orchestra,
Sacramento Chamber Orchestra, Madrid Symphony, Traverse Symphony, Monterrey
Symphony, L’Orchestre Royal de Chambre de Mons, among many others. He has also collaborated with the Casals Quartet, Chicago Chamber Musicians, Civitas Ensemble and Music
Now.
In July 2020 Cavatina Duo is releasing their first baroque album “Folias and Fantasias”, music of Telemann and Marais, for Bridge Records. Critics are already praising this album: “Simply the finest flute-guitar duo on the planet”, the Cavatina Duo offers a recording for our times: music at once heartbreaking and uplifting”.
Upcoming recording projects include a new release with Cedille Records, ”River of Fire”, inspired by Gypsy music from around the world collaborating with the world renown Pacifica Quartet.
Since 2019 Denis Azabagic is the artistic director of Chicago International Guitar Festival and faculty member of the Summer Guitar School “PrSt” in his native home of Tuzla (Bosnia and Herzegovina) as well as Guitar director of the “Curso Juan Gual Esteve” in Burriana (Spain).
Azabagic’s love for performing extends to sharing with others his knowledge of music making. He frequently offers master classes while on tour, teaches at the University of Illinois and was the head of the guitar department at Roosevelt University in Chicago until May of 2023.
In 2018 Denis Azabagic was named Director of Lead Guitar, Chicago, a not-for-profit organization that builds free, sustainable classical guitar programs in schools with low arts access, aligning it’s mission and Mr. Azabagic desire to access communities often neglected and sidelined.
Highlights for the upcoming season include concerts and master classes in North America, Taiwan, China and Europe as well as appearances with his new ensemble Fandango!
Denis Azabagic uses D’Addario strings.
