Considered one of the great guitarists of the international scene, the Spaniard Pablo Sáinz Villegas, who is in New York to offer two concerts today, intends to use his music to eliminate borders and connect and humanize the world.
“Music is a universal language that has the power to humanize, to create links and bridges of communication between different cultures,” said the artist in an interview with Efe in a typical New York cafe, where he has resided since More than 15 years.
For Sáinz Villegas, born in Logroño, La Rioja, that is one of the best characteristics of music, a communication tool with which to boost understanding and global learning.
“Today we have the great developments in communication, and the question now is to talk to each other, to understand each other, to learn from differences and to inspire each other,” the musician explained.
The guitar, he says, is perfect to fulfill this task, because it is a close instrument, the “instrument of the people”, he points out.
“Almost everyone has seen a guitar or had a guitar in their hands, even in China. That’s why I think I have a precious instrument to launch this message, which is the one of this multiculturality and … let’s talk and We understand each other and grow with the challenges. ”
At age 40, the artist, who has received dozens of international awards, is immersed in a tour of nine countries, and between concert and concert he has had time to record an album together with the Spanish tenor Plácido Domingo, whom he met in a Performance in Madrid a little over a year ago.
“With what Plácido Domingo represents in the history of music and in the present, it was a great pride and a great honor to record with him,” says the guitarist, who said that the duo with the tenor will go on sale ” Between November of this year and February of 2018 “.
“I still can not say much, because it is not official yet,” said Sáinz Villegas, who revealed that he will have a “very Latin” character.
The classical guitarist has been playing since the age of 6, when his parents pushed him to learn to play an instrument and quickly besieged a “connection” with the guitar and a “facility” that made him perceive music as a game.
Since then, the hours he has devoted to music are incalculable.
“I got to play 12 hours a day, due to exceptional circumstances, such as when I recorded the album with Plácido Domingo, but normally I practice about 4 or 5 hours a day,” says Sáinz Villegas, recently arrived from a trip to New Zealand, where he offered a concert.
In New York, where he plays in Joe’s Pub, an informal and relaxed environment, he has chosen to give a rare concert, accompanied by Spanish percussionist Nacho Arimany and Argentine bass player Pedro Giraudo, who will have a more “jazzy” “.
In addition to his concerts, the guitarist also gives time to several philanthropic projects, such as the Legado de la Música without Borders organization, which has brought music closer to more than 15,000 children at risk of social exclusion in Mexico, Spain and the USA .
When he is not dedicated to this project or traveling to perform at a concert, the musician returns to the Big Apple, where he lives, a city that says he is “passionate” for the diversity of its people and what it brings.
That the connoisseurs compare him to the teacher Andrés Segovia, to act with Plácido Domingo or to receive an endless number of good critics, they excite La Riojan, but they do not disturb or disturb the life of Sáinz Villegas, who is aware that he is “living his dream”, but He stands with his feet on the ground.
“It’s easy, I’m like this. My parents gave me some values, I grew up with them,” he says normally.
“What good is it to look at people from above when you want to offer them and you want to share something?”, Ditch.
