Guitar Festival Thursday Concert – Amadeus Duo

Tutor information

They are counted among the top-class international guitar duos, receiving enthusiastic reviews from all over the world. Canadian Dale Kavanagh and her German partner Thomas Kirchhoff have made up the Amadeus Guitar Duo since 1991. The secret of their success, regularly documented by more than 70 concerts per year, is the complete devotion of the two artists to their instrument. Hence, they did not limit themselves to playing as a duo but began to concentrate on the repertoire for guitar and orchestra. Thanks to their commitment, this genre was soon able to emerge from its niche. In more than 100 cities, they played their “Spanish Night” recital, featuring concertos for one, two and four guitars and orchestra by Joaquin Rodrigo and the world-famous panpipe player Gheorghe Zamfir and they are considered as the specialists for works for guitars and orchestra.
The Amadeus Guitar Duo has so far appeared in more than 1,800 concerts in some 70 countries in Europe, Central, South and North America, and Asia. The duo has always been able to delight its audience with its exuberant temperament, virtuoso performance, sensitive creative power and a fulsome, warm, carrying guitar tone. They regularly play together with the Prague, Mainz and Mannheim Chamber Orchestras, the Munich Symphony Orchestra, the Halle Philharmonic State Orchestra, the International Philharmonie, the Gotha-Suhl Thuringian Philharmonic, the Philharmonia Hungarica, the Capella Cracoviensis, the Ankara President Orchestra and the South Westphalian Philharmonic.
Dale Kavanagh and Thomas Kirchhoff have recorded a large number of productions for radio and television (BBC, ZDF, CBC, WDR, BR,  TRT, etc.). They have also recorded 21 CDs (NAXOS International, Haenssler-Classic) which document the high quality of the Amadeus Guitar Duo. The two artists’ stirring commitment and inspiring style of playing have enabled them to considerably broaden the repertoire for guitar, especially for guitar and orchestra. Such renowned composers as Harald Genzmer, Gheorghe Zamfir, Roland Dyens (Paris), Jaime Zenamon (Curitiba), Christian Jost (Cologne), Carlo Domeniconi (Berlin), Gerald Garcia (Oxford), Martin Herchenröder (Siegen) have written orchestral concertos for them. Stephen Dodgson (London), Harald Genzmer (Munich), Jaime M. Zenamon (Curitiba) and Christian Jost (Cologne) have dedicated compositions for two guitars to them. All works have been published by Schott’s, Mainz – Edition Margaux, Berlin, Edition Peters, Frankfurt, and Verlag Hubertus Nogatz, Essen.
In 1992 they founded the International Guitar Symposium in Iserlohn, which is today one of the most important festivals of its kind in Europe, with more than 250 participants from more than 40 countries, concerts featuring world-famous stars, master courses, lectures, exhibitions and many other activities (www.guitarsymposium.com).
They celebrated their 30^th anniversary as the Amadeus Guitar Duo in the season 2021/22. In the upcoming season, these successful musicians have been invited to tour the U.S.A., Canada, South-Korea, China, Thailand, England, Italy, Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Turkey, Lithuania, Romania, Hungary and Poland. Today, Dale Kavanagh and Thomas Kirchhoff live with their daughter Melissa-Rachel in Germany, and both were professors who have been teaching at the newly launched guitar class of the Detmold Musikhochschule from 2001 to 2021. The Amadeus Guitar Duo play exclusively D’Addario strings on guitars made by Antonius Müller, Germany, Stephan Connor, USA and guitars made in China by MARTINEZ GUITARS.

Press comments:
“Surely one of the most innovative duos in the world”
(Gitarre & Laute, Germany)

“Real professionals for guitar and orchestra”
(Musikmarkt, Germany)

“Any Rodrigo connoisseur will be thrilled with this.”
(American Record Guide, USA)

“A great success!” on Spanish Night 1
(Guitar Art, Italy)

“Once again, thoroughly commendable” on Spanish Night 2
(Acoustic Guitar Mag., USA)