Guitar (CD+DVD)

The 28-year-old guitarist, MILO KARADAGLI (Pronounced: Mee-losh Kah-rah-dag-lich) is from the beautiful Balkan state of Montenegro and is signed to the prestigious classical record label, Deutsche Grammophon. He goes by just his first name.

Milo's love-affair with the guitar began when he was eight

Armed with the family's dusty old guitar, Milo enrolled at a specialist music school, where in six months he learned all its teachers had to impart.

Milo gave his first public performance at nine, entered (and won) his first national competition at eleven, on the same day won a singing competition in his home town. He became a star performer on television and radio, took guitar master-classes in Belgrade, and then, shortly after the end of the Balkan war, decided to try for a scholarship at London's Royal Academy. Secretly, he made an audition video for it, complete with a spoken introduction and sent it to the Academy.

A hero in his own hometown, transplanting himself in a new culture, in a teeming city, wasn't easy. But the struggle paid off when his fortunes changed from going around begging a record label to record him, to winning a hotly-contested contract with Deutsche Grammophon.

Michael Lang, President, Deutsche Grammophon, said, "We're thrilled to work with Milo he's a terrific talent, an engaging personality and we know the time is now to re-establish the classical guitar in the world of music. Milo is the one."

The début album by Milo, The Guitar, pays tribute to the guitarist's own Mediterranean roots. Featuring music from his Montenegro homeland and from the Balkans and Spain, and by composers such as Granados, Domeniconi and Albéniz, the recording explores the Euro-Arabian world that his instrument has come from.

Milo said of his signing: "Deutsche Grammophon is a home to many of my musical idols. When I was a child, I remember listening to the great guitarist, Andrés Segovia, and dreaming that one day I, too, might have such a career. Now it is becoming a reality and my dreams are being fulfilled more quickly than I could possibly have imagined. I am honoured and excited to begin my collaboration with this fantastic label and hope, through my playing, that I will bring the guitar to a new generation of listeners."

Milo takes the guitar from the domestic environment to the concert hall but never lets people forget that guitar music is universal. It's the most popular instrument studied by kids after the piano.

The classical guitar has had at least three international heroes Andres Segovia, John Williams and Julian Bream. But, in Milo's view, it has "fallen asleep slightly". So he's made it his mission to awaken it from its slumber and make it speak again.

"He punched through this trio of ballads (El Decamerón Negro) with an innate poise and elegance that made you sit up and listen ... And then the firecracker: A superbly inflected, impeccably judged rendition of Ginastera's Sonata a giant tapestry of sound combining luminous melancholy and bravura energy" (The Times)
". . . extremely persuasive musicianship . . . Karadaglic is a thoughtful, intelligent artist, as supple in his phrasing as he is generous in his use of colour." (Gramophone magazine)