Alexandre Lagoya

Who was Alexandre Lagoya?

Alexandre Lagoya was a classical guitarist. His early career included boxing and guitar, and as he cites on the sleeve of his 1981 Columbia album, his parents hoped he would outgrow his predilection for both.

Lagoya was born in Alexandria, Egypt to a Greek father and an Italian mother. By 1955, when he married the French guitarist Ida Presti, his career had already begun. On the sleeve of his 1981 record with Columbia, Lagoya pays deep tribute to Presti and admits that after her premature death he was unable to play for years. He returned to the guitar as a teacher, tutoring among other famous guitarists the Canadian virtuoso Liona Boyd. In the early 1980s at the advanced age of 52 he burst back on the international scene with a record for Columbia and an international tour.

Lagoya played a variety of works for guitar, performing concerts and recording albums, often collaborating with Presti and also with other musicians. Lagoya was also a successful teacher. He taught at the Paris Conservatory, and in Canada, and developed a new method of hand positioning which he believed helped people learn to play the guitar better. He also added the use of the little finger to plucking and claimed to have invented a method for maximizing the sound coming from the classical guitar.