WREXHAM SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Achille Jones – Guitar

Born in Wrexham, Achille Jones began to play the guitar at the age of ten, having lessons with a local guitar teacher. He started to learn the classical guitar with Noel Wilde at 17, obtaining Grade 8 at 19. He then had lessons from John Arran for the next four years obtaining ALCM and LLCM Diplomas.

He has performed recitals locally at Chester Town Hall and Wrexham Library, and also further afield in Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham and London. His recent performances at the Wess club and also at The Andrew Wilde Dunham Lawn concerts in Manchester were well acclaimed.

A varied career includes working at Brymbo Steelworks, where he was employed until its closure in 1990. Since then he has taught classical guitar at the Wirral School of Music for twelve years and has also worked for the Merseyside, North Wales and Cheshire Education Authorities as a peripatetic guitar tutor. He takes a great interest in local live music and regularly performs at local musical functions.

His repertoire ranges from Renaissance – Dowland and Narvaez, through Baroque (especially Bach’s Lute Suites), to Classical - Fernando Sor and Mauro Giuliani, Romantic, including works by Fransisco Tarrega, to Post Romantic Villa Lobos, Lauro, and William Walton.

He owns an extensive library or classical Compact Discs and Video recordings, including many hundreds by artists such as David Oistrakh, Denis Brain and in particular Sviatoslav Richter, who, though a pianist, remains Achille’s biggest musical influence.

November 2002

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