Music

Pablo Garibay

Pablo Garibay did not pursue his childhood dreams of becoming a doctor. Neither did he ever fulfill his musical fantasies of playing the guitar for Pink Floyd and drumming for The Police. But from Belgium to South Africa, Garibay has made his mark as a distinguished classical guitarist. He started taking guitar lessons when he was 13 in his native Mexico, but it was watching Joaquin Clerch, a Cuban classical guitarist, play in Havana that sealed the deal for him.

"I was so moved that I thought, ‘I want to do this...I want to feel this again.' It's like when you taste something that is very delicious you want it again," he says.

He has since become an internationally acclaimed and award winning classical guitarist. Influenced by a complex mix of European and Mexican classical traditions, Garibay creates sounds that are both seductive and unforgettable.

Garibay lives in Germany where he studies with Prof. Thomas Mueller-Pering. His studies in Germany are being supported by FONCA-CONACULTA, a Mexican institution centered on the arts. In terms of future projects, Garibay is working on the US or World premieres of pieces by Mexican composers such as Rodrigo Sigal, Mateo and Tomás Barreiro, Ernesto García de León, and Gerardo Támez at the Boston International Guitar Festival.

On a recent visit to Chicago for the Columbia College Classical Guitar Series, Conduit Magazine had a chance to chat with him.

How did you get into music?

When I was maybe nine years old or ten, I started to hear my brother play in the next room. He's an architect now, but he started with music. As he played his guitar, I was hearing all the time and was very curious. But, I wanted always to be a doctor. I did everything possible to be a doctor. I went to a high school that specialized in biology and chemistry and everything. It was in my last year of high school, when I was 18, that I decided to be a guitarist...I decided that music was my thing. Maybe it's harder economically, but it makes me happy.

I see that you've been to...I mean it's amazing...You've been to Germany, Spain, Belgium, US, France. You've even performed in South Africa. What are these international experiences like? Do they influence your music in anyway?

Of course. In every part, you see different ways of living and seeing and thinking about art. For example, when I was in South Africa, I noticed that music in Africa is based on rhythm and on dance. In Germany, it's more about theory. Each country has different influences and ways of seeing art and music. In the US, for example, you can find everything...everything in culture and in art and in politics.

So, let's talk about classical guitar for a moment. How is it different? Many of our readers are into pop culture and are more familiar with electric and acoustic guitars. So, tell me a little bit about the differences between the electric and the classical guitar.

I would say they don't have much to do with each other...no...not at all. Only maybe the tuning, 6 strings, and the way the notes are distributed in the instrument. The rock guitar is an instrument with huge possibilities because of the volume and the music. The rock guitar is in a kind of music where often it's with other instruments: percussion and bass and keyboard. But the classical guitar is an instrument that was born in the intimacy of the sound and that intimacy of sound is what makes it so nice and special for me. Everything is about taking care of the fine details and playing the beauty of the sound, the wood of the instrument, and the transmission of sound in very special halls. You cannot play a classical guitar in a stadium because no one can hear you. So, it's designed for small audiences. At the same time, that's why it's so special because it's very intime [intimate]. That's why I like the classical guitar. I like also rock guitar. I don't play it, but I love it.

Have you ever played it?

No. Once I played, but I am totally bad. [laughs]

Do you ever see yourself experimenting with any form of popular music?

Yeah. Yes. I would say yes.

Which would it be?

I think Mexican popular music.

What kinds of music, what kinds of artists have influenced your music?

I have so many that I cannot remember everybody. But, I always try to listen to composers that make me feel happy and calm and excited. One of them is...talking about composers...Baroque Johannes Bach and Mozart and Beethoven. And also one special composer for me is Arvo Part, from East Europe, Estonia. He composes church music and his performances and compositions are very mystical and very spiritual. And he always uses silence as part of the music, as a very special way to communicate through silence the deepest and most beautiful emotions that a human being can have. That is the case also for Toru Takamitsu, a Japanese composer. He's not living anymore, but he composed many pieces for guitar and orchestra. Talking about guitar, I have very favorite composers like Emmanuel Ponce from Mexico, Joaquin Rodrigo from Spain, and Antonio Jose, also from Spain, who wrote a Sonata that I will play later today. One of my favorite guitarists is Joaquin Clerch from Cuba.

How has your Mexican roots influenced your music. How have you merged your Mexican roots and the classical tradition in your music?

In Mexico, there has been a very big movement in classical music. We were conquered by the Spanish in the 16th century. So, I think the influences that came in the late generation are a mixture between the ancient pre-columbine or pre-Spanish culture and European music. So the composers in Mexico are very influenced by a very wide range of cultures, from modern contemporary music in America and the European tradition to very ancient kinds of writing and music. Very interesting! The point is that I don't know what specific tradition influences my music, but I feel 100 percent Mexican and I love my country. One of my dreams is to come back to Mexico when I finish my studies in Germany and teach there because we need teachers. All the people who're studying abroad I think they should come to Mexico to give something to the young generation.

That's very good. The Minnesota Public Radio reviewed your recent solo recording and the writer says regarding the recording, "[Garibay] showcases three centuries of Guitar history." What does that mean?

The recording was done by Fleur de Son in Buffalo. Yes...The article is referring to three different important periods in classical guitar history. Classical guitar history is divided into the Renaissance, Baroque, Romantic classical and then contemporary and modern music. I recorded romantic and classical music from the point of view of Ponce. Ponce, a Mexican composer that wrote a Sonata named classical Sonata. I also recorded modern music of a Bulgarian composer, Milen Parashkevov, who lives in the US. So the recording is very mixed and has a lot of variety.

You've won first prize at least 6 times in different competitions all over the world. What's it like to win so many times?

I never go to a competition with the feeling that I should win or beat someone. You cannot compare art. Art is unique from every person. And I am very respectful of each artist's way of seeing things. And I would never say I'm better than him or her or he's better than me. Everybody is unique. But, unfortunately, competitions can be a very big step in a musician's career. So, if you have the luck to win a competition or to make a good performance, with time you can have work opportunities from it. But, I've tried to see competition as a matter of experience, enjoying and trying to do my best. When you are done playing, the result is a matter of luck, a matter of the taste of the jury, a matter of how you felt that day-if you were sick or you had a stomach ache or a headache or if your guitar sounded good or not. There are so many factors.

So, there are many different facets to your career-competitions, master classes, solos, collaborations. What aspect do you like the most?

I think that every aspect is connected with each other, but I would say playing the guitar. There are three or four kinds of playing: Solo concert, chamber music, orchestra, and concertos. For me playing with orchestra has always been my dream and my nicest experience.

You've collaborated with lots of very important figures in your field. What has been your best collaboration so far?

The first name that comes to mind is JoAnn Falletta in Buffalo. She's the conductor of the Buffalo Philharmonic and the Virginia Symphony. She's been a very big personality in my career because, thanks to a collaboration we had in Mexico, she invited me to Buffalo and Virginia. I also made the Buffalo competition, which gave me the Fleur de Son recording. I appreciate so much what she's done for me, but, most of all, I appreciate her as a musician, a professional, and as a friend. There are other persons such as Iván Rizques and Juan Carlos Laguna, my teachers in Mexico, and Thomas Mueller-Pering, my current teacher in Germany. They have been very nice to me and have always guided me in the right way in my music.

You mentioned earlier that it is happiness and fulfillment that you find in doing this work, in playing. When you play music or write, people often ask, "why the hell are you doing that?" So, why would you say it's worth it? Like, what is it that keeps you going even if there is no grand financial reward.

I would say the joy, the feeling that I am saying something beyond words or actions, that I am saying something or trying to communicate something with my instrument...through the sound, through the music and the silence, sound and silence. And I think that is the most rewarding thing when performing, to be able to feel the most pure feelings of anger, love, fear, happiness, sadness. You're telling something through the lines, the notes, the sounds. And when the audience come afterwards and say, "that was very touching" or "that had nervousness inside" or "that had happiness," I am satisfied because I said something without words.

What makes you different? What's unique about your guitar playing?

I don't know [laughing]...I don't know...I don't know... I don't know what...I am good at playing. I just try to do my best.

What's the Garibay thing? What's the unique thing you bring into guitar playing?

I give what I have inside me.

And what's that?

Happiness maybe. I don't know.

You talked about being influenced by all these great composers and guitarists? If you had a choice, how would you like to influence future generations of guitarists and composers.

I would like to have the chance of transmitting to the young generation the importance of working hard in every piece and every note of the music. I would like them to be conscious that every note has to say something, that our lives as musicians have to be painted in the music, and that we would have to be able to say and to communicate our personal experiences through sound. That would be my wish for a student of mine.

How many languages do you speak?

Apart from my mother language, Spanish, I speak German because I live in Germany and had to learn. I also speak English and French and a little bit of Italian.

What's your relationship with your guitar? How would you characterize your relationship with that instrument?

I've played many guitars and have liked each one of them. Now I am playing a guitar made by Kamil Jaderny. He's from Poland, but he lives in Canada...Montreal. My relationship with my guitar is not based on the instrument by itself but in the relationship I have with the instrument builder. In the case of Kamil, he's been a friend since I met him in Buffalo for JoAnn Falletta's Competition. The guitar was included in the prize for the competition, and I've played it since. I've been terribly happy...Really happy because it sounds very sweet, very melodic. It has a very good sound quality. All these things depend on the discipline and care that the builder puts in it. The patience. Kamil is a very patient, methodical and detailed guitar builder. So, the relationship I have with my guitar is the relationship I have with him.

How many years have you been away from home?

3

What do you miss most about Mexico?

My family. My friends, food, public transportation.

So Mexico has a really great public transportation service?

Yes and very cheap. You don't need a car in Mexico and that's what I like. As for food, I can speak about that for two hours. [laughs]

What's a Classical guitarist's biggest nightmare?

A broken finger nail or a dry hall, one that does not carry sound.