Mak Grgić

 

RECITALS                                                                                                                 

 

 

NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART

 

"Grgic ... proved himself a lyrical, insightful player throughout the evening ... Weiss’s Passacaglia in D Major (a masterwork if there ever was one) may have been the high point of the evening; a superb, finely detailed reading that showed Grgic is a guitarist to keep an eye on."

THE WASHINGTON POST

 

GUANDONG, CHINA

 

“Mak’s playing sparkled with intense fire, giving life to even the smallest notes in the music. His musical approach is  multifold and tends to diverse musical styles and genres with playful beauty.”

 

 YENGCHENG EVENING NEWS

 

MODERN ART MUSEUM OF FORT WORTH

 

“… a program that would have needed a bucket of popcorn to be any more cinematic...Bach’s incredible Chaconne from the Partita for Solo Violin No. 2 … the longest piece on the program, this highly complex, 13-minute work is almost operatic in its structure. Employing a slightly darker-than-average tone, Grgic managed to clearly articulate the work’s many voices without getting lost in its daunting architecture … “And now, the fun one,” Grgic said, before launching into a wonderfully clever arrangement of the main theme from Ennio Morriconi’s score for Sergio Leone’s legendary spaghetti Western The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. His intro proved to be right on the money … you would have to give this concert a thumbs up.”

FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM

 

 

CD REVIEWS                                                                                                            

 

 

CINEMA VERISMO

 

“On this disc, the gifted young guitarist Mak Grgic uses different guitars to perform arrangements of music featured in film soundtracks; a flamenco instrument, for example, for Alberto Iglesias’s “Volverino.” Mr. Grgic’s imaginative, expressive playing is also heard in Stanley Myers’s “Cavatina”; an excerpt from Mascagni’s “Cavalleria Rusticana”; and selections by Bach, Albeniz, Albinoni, Bernstein and Nino Rota.”

THE NEW YORK TIMES

 

“Following in the footsteps of fellow Balkan virtuoso Milos, Slovenian guitarist Mak Grgic’s talents are showcased on a cleverly compiled selection of classical pieces familiar from the Movies–not just the mandatory Cavatina, but orchestral pieces ingeniously arranged for solo guitar … the poignancy of Morricone’s Gabriel’s Oboe is deftly sustained by the solitude of solo guitar, Elsewhere, Nino Rota’s Godfather’s Waltz is even more stately than in the film, while Albeniz’s Asturias allows Grgic to indulge the core classical repertoire.”

THE INDEPENDENT UK

 

“[On] Cinema Verismo…rest assured the 14 tracks add up to a well-contrasted and satisfying hour-long recital. More importantly Mak Grgic’s abundant, yet tasteful guitar virtuosity leaves a powerful impression … Aside from Grgic’s own talent for nuance and multi-hued voicings, the coloristic variety also is due to his use of different instruments throughout the recital.”

CLASSICS TODAY