Latest News: In June 2000, Roland Dyens was named Professor of Guitar at the
Conservatoire National supérieur de musique de Paris, assuming responsibility
for the class of his teacher, Alberto Ponce.

Roland Dyens was born on October 19, 1955, and began studying the guitar at the
age of 9. At 14, he enrolled at the Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris to study
with the Spanish master Alberto Ponce. He passed his Concert Degree with high
honors in 1976. He then won several prizes, including the Villa-Lobos Special
Prize at the Alessandria International Contest in Italy, and became a laureate
of the Beracasa and Menuhin Foundations. In addition to his superb background
in performance, Roland Dyens also studied
composition and orchestration with the master Désiré Dondeyne. He was awarded
first prize in harmony, counterpoint and musical analysis.

Roland Dyens has continued to pursue the dual calling of pedagogue and
performer, and is widely recognized as a consumate interpreter, arranger,
composer and improvisational artist who has a rare ability to share his musical
insights and performance skills with students. He is a perennial guest in
various festivals and prestigious events in France and abroad. He has appeared
many times at the Salle Cortot, Théâtre de Paris, Espace Cardin, Salle Gaveau,
Auditorium des Halles, and at the International Guitar F
estivals of Nice, Cannes, Paris, Liège (Belgium), Arvika (Sweden), Tychy
(Poland), Esztergom (Hungary), Marktoberdorf (Germany), the Classical Guitar
Festival of Great Britain, Festival du Marais (Paris), Aix en Provence, Radio
France Festival at Montpellier, Midem, Printemps de Bourges, Musicora,
Carrefour Mondial de la Guitare in Martinique, The Stetson University Guitar
Workshop (Florida, USA) and many more. He has toured successfully in the United
States, the Middle-East, Indonesia, Scandinavia, Poland, Brazil... In addition to his many live
concerts, Roland Dyens makes regular radio and television appearances.

Roland Dyens’ career as teacher, mentor and pedagogue is equally demanding. His
master classes and guitar workshops are very highly regarded. His summer
workshop in the bucolic French countryside have become something of a
tradition. He has sat on numerous academic juries, among them those of the
Scola Cantorum, Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris, and the Conservatoire
National Supérieur de Paris. He has also served on the juries of numerous
international competitions (Montelimar, Geneva, Fort de France, Bari
..). In 1987, he won the Grand Prix du Disque de l’Académie Charles-Cros during
the celebration of the centenary of Heitor Villa-Lobos, and the year after, he
was classified among the hundred best living guitarists, of all styles. In the
last few years, he appeared on the cover of five major guitar magazines: Les
Cahiers de la Guitare (France), Classical Guitar (England), Gitarre & Laute
(Germany), Guit’art (Italy) and Gitary Swiat (Poland).

Roland Dyens continues to pursue numerous projects as a recording artist and
composer. Among his published compositions are several works for solo guitar,
two quartets, two octets, a concerto for guitar and string orchestra (Concerto
Métis), a concertino for flute and guitar ensemble (Air Ascendant Terre), a
concerto for guitar and ensemble of 21 guitars (Concerto en Si) as well as a
guitar duo, Côté Nord, which he played with Alberto Ponce in 1993, and which is
brilliantly and successfully performed by the
reknowned duo Assad, to whom he dedicated the piece. His many arrangements have
been received enthusiastically, and their inventiveness serves to extend the
possibilities of the guitar. His eclectic sources range from the popular
(French Songs vols. 1 and 2) jazz and latin idioms (Round Midnight, Nuages,
Berimbau), to the sublime (Aria from the Bachianas Brasileiras No 5, Pavane
pour une infante défunte...). Thanks to his unique talent, breathtaking
diversity and virtuosity, and the originality of his music, Roland Dyens has definitely earned a place
among the most innovative and complete musicians of his generation.

As of October 1998, Roland Dyens has been teaching an eclectic classical guitar
course of his own creation at a Jazz and Rock school in Paris, called simply
l’École. This international class is open to guitarists of all levels, ages and
styles. In addition to classical interpretation, Mr. Dyens teaches an approach
to the art of arranging, harmony and improvisation.