Luis Zea

Guitar, Composer, Composition Competition Judge

Tuesday, February 17, 2026
7:30 pm EST
WPAC Concert Hall

Wednesday, February 18, 2026
1:00 pm EST
WPAC Instrumental Hall
Free admission

Wednesday, February 18, 2026
2:00 pm EST
WPAC Instrumental Hall
Free admission

is available to attend all festival events at a single reduced price: $100 general, $70 senior/FIU faculty, staff, & alumni, $30 student

With over forty years of professional experience and worldwide recognition by colleagues, critics and audiences alike, the Venezuelan classical guitarist Luis Zea is known for his versatile talent as a performing and recording artist, arranger, composer, teacher and author. Hailed by Cuban master Leo Brouwer as “the ideal soloist”, Zea is the outstanding disciple of the legendary Venezuelan composer and guitarist Antonio Lauro (1917-1986) two Venezuelan guitar legends: composer and guitarist Antonio Lauro (1917-1986) and the celebrated guitar virtuoso Alirio Díaz (1923-2016) who played a major role in Zea’s musical development. He also took lessons from Leopoldo Igarza and Rómulo Lazarde. In England he earned degrees from the University of London (King’s College) and University of Reading, and also studied privately with the renowned British guitar pedagogue and composer John Duarte. Zea has toured and given master classes worldwide, including venues such as the Wigmore Hall and Alice Tully Hall.

Zea has performed at venues such as the Wigmore Hall (London) and Alice Tully Hall (New York), and has participated in many guitar events around the world, including the Aarhus International Guitar Festival (Denmark, 2013, 2014 and 2017); Festival Internacional de Agosto (Venezuela, 1989 to 2000); Cannington International Guitar Summer School (England, 1976 to 1986); Festival y Concurso Internacional de La Habana (Cuba, 1992); Concorso Internazionale di Chitarra Classica “Citta de Alessandria” (Italy, 1990); Classical Guitar Festival of Great Britain (England, 1994 and 1997); Volos International Guitar Festival (Greece, 1982 and 1994); Festival Internacional de Guitarra Clásica Escuela Fernando Sor (Colombia, 2009); Bolivar Hall International Guitar Festival (England, 2004); Festival de la Universidad de Los Andes (Colombia, 2010), among many others.

His solo CD Vals Elegíaco has been critically acclaimed and he has been involved in numerous recording projects in various capacities: as a performer, composer, arranger and musical producer. His work has been published in Venezuela, England, Italy, Germany, Canada and the USA. Zea’s many articles, written for prestigious international guitar journals such as Guitar International, Classical Guitar and Guitar Forum (England), Doberman Yppan (Canada), Gitarre und Laute (Germany), Zanibon Edition and Carlo Marchione Music (Italy), Guitar Player and Mel Bay Publications (USA), Venezuela Sinfónica and Fundación Vicente Emilio Sojo (Venezuela), which have made a significant contribution to guitar pedagogy. He is regarded as a world authority on the music of Antonio Lauro. Additionally, Zea is co-author (with John Duarte) of The Guitarist’s Hands (Universal Edition,1978), an influential book on guitar technique. The European Guitar Teachers Association (EGTA) commissioned him to write an extended article entitled On Teaching the Unteachable, published in its journal Guitar Forum (2003). The publishing companies www.dobermaneditions.com and www.Marchionemusic.com each launched a series of editions featuring some of Zea’s compositions and arrangements with a preface by Leo Brouwer.

Zea was Visiting Professor at the Indiana University School of Music (Bloomington, USA, 1997-1998) and the State University of New York (Fredonia, 2004 & 2010), replacing Maestro Ernesto Bitetti and Distinguished Professor Jim Piorkowski, respectively, while on sabbatical leave. In the US he has given master classes at other prestigious institutions like the Manhattan School of Music (New York), California State University (Fullerton) and the Boston Conservatory. The D’Addario Co. –one of the world’s leading manufacturers of strings for musical instruments– has used Zea’s artistic image to promote its products. The Festival Maestros e Intérpretes de la Guitarra (1994) and the II Festival Internacional de Guitarra de Caracas (2012) were organized as a homage to Luis Zea, and guitarists from Europe, North and South America have travelled to Venezuela to study with him under the sponsorship of the international education programs of their respective countries.

Between 1988 and 2000, Zea did many concerts, master classes, workshops and seminars throughout Venezuela thanks to the patronage of Proyecto Cultural Mavesa, a private enterprise whose mission it was to preserve and renew the Venezuelan classical guitar tradition. He also acted as artistic adviser to the Proyecto and many national and international festivals and competitions took place in Venezuela during that period. Zea was the guitar professor at the Universidad Nacional Experimental de las Artes in Caracas (1987-2012) and for eighteen years he was a member of Navidad en Familia, a vocal and instrumental ensemble directed by the distinguished Venezuelan pianist Clara Marcano and devoted to the preservation of Venezuelan cultural traditions and family values. Luis Zea resides in the USA and performs on a guitar made by the legendary French luthier Daniel Friederich fretted with D’Addario Pro-Arté strings.

www.zeaguitar.com

SOME CRITICAL COMMENTS

“Luis Zea can produce the warmth and vibrato of the cello, the ripe silvery twang of the harp, the elegance and contrapuntal clarity of the harpsichord, and the ghost pitches of the harmonics of the violin. All of which it is to say that the Venezuelan artist plays the guitar very, very well.”
The Washington Post

“In him I have admired the poetic instinct required for the best interpretations as well as the refined virtuosity of his technique and the profound understanding of the various composers and styles of the most important guitar repertoire. I wish this young master great success in the continuation of his already brilliant musical career.”
Alirio Díaz

“Luis Zea is a remarkable musician.”
Antonio Lauro

“The Siete Canciones Populares by Manuel de Falla and the Canciones Catalanas by Miguel Llobet set a level of achievement very difficult to be surpassed
by composers and arrangers for the guitar. I can assure that Luis Zea’s harmonizations of Venezuelan popular songs rise to a very high artistic level indeed, going far beyond the trivial versions to which we have sadly accustomed ourselves. It is undoubtedly a pleasure to play Luis Zea’s harmonizations. You will not be disappointed.”
Leo Brouwer

“ Luis Zea evinces an instrumental technique of outstanding refinement and musicianship of the highest order.”
John Duarte