Claude Engel is born in 1948 in Paris. His musical training almost coincides with his stage debut, since, as early as 1960, he plays the guitar in the show orchestra his father conducts. During eight years, he familiarizes himself with the many aspects of popular music while pursuing parallel studies at the Conservatoire musical de Tours in parallel. In 1968, he enters a multiform career where are intertwined in a fantastic symphony composing for the classical guitar, passion for rock music, numerous recording sessions where he contributes both his guitar expertise and his musical involvement in the world of advertisement and cartoons, not to mention his three albums and many shows where, either alone or with other artists, he gives free rein to his talents as composer, guitarist and singer. From Charles Aznavour to Serge Gainsbourg via Vladimir Cosma, Catherine Lara, Francis Cabrel, Jean-Jacques Goldman, Astor Piazzola and Herbie Hancock, many are the renowned stars, in Europe as well as in North- and South-America, who have had the opportunity to enjoy Claude Engel's collaboration. In 1979, he took part in the recording of Starmania, in its original version; in 1986, he composed La fugue du petit Poucet, a musical tale inspired by a novel from Michel Tournier and played, among others, by Renaud, Jacques Higelin, Fabienne Thibault and Alain Souchon. He recently joined Johnny Halliday in interpreting songs from Elvis Presley, during the shooting of the film Love me. In 1998, he accepted to write and record the arran-gement for guitar of the opera Notre Dame de Paris. For Claude Engel, writing for the classical guitar has always remained a true secret garden whose borders and wealth are still unimagined. The few recordings we have only allow us to fancy their interest. It is mainly works as yet unpublished, true treasures accumulated over decades and transcribing the composer's evolution, that will allow us to capture its full worth.
http://www.claude-engel.com/
