Celia & George

A dazzling musical journey!

This electrifying duo employs a unique, world first combination of instruments: classical guitar and cimbalom. The dazzling passion of the classical guitar intermingling with the mystic cimbalom results in a heated and amorous dance on 136 strings!

Duo Celia & George
Swedish classical guitarist/composer Celia Linde is one of Scandinavias most prominent guitar soloists and a former student of Andrés Segovia. She won the first Prize in “International Segovia Fellowship Competition” in New York 1986. Andrés Segovia wrote:... "Her technique is exellent and her musicianship exact, noble and expressive."
Her compositions are lauded by music critics as being reminscent of the sensibility of
Argentinian guitar maestro Jorge Morel.
Celia Linde was born in Gothenburg, Sweden. Her multicultural heritage comes from a Turkish father and a Swedish mother. As a young teenager Celia heard Andrés Segovia on radio and after that began playing the guitar. Since there were no guitar teachers in the rural area where she lived she taught herself to play by ear and improvise her own melodies. Celia studied at The Royal Academy of Music in Copenhagen, Malmoe State College of Music and Manhattan School of Music under renowned brazilian guitarist Carlos Barbosa-Lima. She performs standard works for guitar and orchestra and tours frequently as a soloist throughout Europe, the USA, Canada, Scandinavia and Turkey.
Celia is often featured as a solo artist on National Swedish Radio-Television and has also been profiled on the BBC, Denmark’s Radio, Turkish Radio-Television (TRT) as well as New York’s WNYC and other international radio stations.
In 1988, Celia Linde entered the international concert circuit with a brilliant US debut to
a sold-out house in the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. In 1992 Celia Linde was honored by being chosen to play a solo performance at the Olympics in Barcelona for heads of state including the Kings and Queens of both Spain and Sweden. Celia has previously released CDs on the Caprice, RCA and Blue Bell records.

George Mihalache is a gypsy and a native of Bucharest, Romania. He grew up in a
family of folk musicians, so-called (lautari]. George started learning music 24 years ago from his grandfather who played the violin. He and Georges father was the driving force to continue the and to keep the traditional old gypsy music.
Instead of violin he decided to play the cimbalom, a stringedpercussion instrument related to the hammered dulcimer with roots in ancient Persia. The so-called “tambal” in Romania is used extensively in gypsy music and is a fully chromatic instrument with a range of four full octaves. George toured with his fathers band and played at weddings and musical events in Denmark, Romania and around Europe. This was the best school for George to become a good lautari and he learned to play improvised arrangements and accompaniments from the best lautaris in Romania. The accompaniments that George does on this CD are improvised and not written down, so there are no scores available In 1993 George settled down in Copenhagen, Denmark and has since toured extensively throughout Europe in various orchestras and world music ensembles.

Recently Celia and George was invited to perform in “Ulsan World Music Festival” in Korea and Art Gallery Club in Tokyo.
Celia and Georges latest CD “Episodes on a Journey” is due to be released by Naxos/Proprius in August 2010.