Andres Segovia

Andrés Segovia had multiple marriages and relationships. He married Adelaida Portillo in 1918. In 1935, he married Paquita Madriguera, a pianist. He developed a relationship with the Brazilian singer and guitarist, Olga Praquer Coelho, in 1944, which lasted for over a decade.

In 1962, he married Emilia Magdalena Corral Sancho and they were blessed with a son, Carlos Andrés Segovia, in 1970.

He died on June 2, 1987 of a heart attack in Madrid, Spain. He is buried at Casa Museo de Linares, in Andalusia.

He was born on February 21, 1893 in the town of Linares, situated in one of Spain's autonomous regions, Andalusia.

After living with his parents for two years, he was moved to Villacarillo under the care of his childless uncle and aunt, Eduardo and Maria.

He started playing guitar at the age of six. His uncle used to sing songs to him and pretended to strum an imaginary guitar in his lap.

When he was ten, his uncle and aunt moved to Granada where he received his formal education. He also acquired his first guitar while living in Granada.

His first experience of classical guitar music was a performance by a flamenco guitarist, Gabriel Ruiz de Almadóvar.

At the age of 16, he performed publicly for the first time at the Centro Artistico, Granada in 1909.

After some years, he gave his first professional concert in Madrid. Most of his performed compositions were the works of Francisco Tárrega and some of them were his own guitar transcriptions of J.S. Bach.

Over the next few years, he played at many concerts such as, in Madrid in 1912, at the Paris Conservatory in 1915 and in Barcelona in 1916.

He also made a successful tour of South America in 1919. In 1923, he played at a concert in Mexico for the first time.

In 1928, his first tour to America was organized and afterwards he met Heitor Villa-Lobos, the Brazilian composer. Their friendship lasted for life as Lobos composed many tunes for him in the later years.

He is credited to have dignified the classical guitar as a legitimate concert instrument with his remarkable conviction and influential personality.

He influenced a generation of classical guitarists who built on his technique and musical sensibility. He was able to popularize the guitar with the help of new technological advances such as recording, radio, and air travel.

He was one of the first artists to endorse the use of nylon strings instead of gut strings in guitars. This new development allowed for greater stability in intonation.