Carlos plays some favourite music from Spain and Latin America, plus new music by Armand Coeck and Carlos himself.

Since January 2022 Purley Classics is having monthly concerts and recitals at St. Mark’s Church. Purley Classics has invited the famous guitarist Carlos Bonell to perform at St. Mark’s Festival.

Carlos Bonell has been described by the Classical Guitar Magazine, UK as "one of the great communicators of the guitar world". He has recorded more than twenty albums and played in forty countries, with concert appearances ranging from intimate recitals to concertos with symphony orchestras.

Carlos was born in London of Spanish parents learning to play Spanish folk music from the age of 5 with his father who was a keen amateur guitarist. He completed his studies at the Royal College of Music with John Williams, where he was appointed the youngest ever professor at the age of 22.

After Carlos' New York début in 1978, the New York Times described him as an artist of "superb poetic gifts". Appearances followed at many international Festivals followed including The City of London, Aldeburgh, Helsinki, Israel, Tanglewood, Sydney, Istanbul, and Hong Kong.

In 2006 Carlos began to help Sir Paul McCartney who is composing a concerto for guitar and orchestra. Over many meetings he has notated and recorded drafts of the guitar part. The work was featured in a June 2007 cover article by The New Yorker magazine.

Carlos' interest in bringing the classical guitar into the mainstream led in 2008 to his album release Queen Guitar Rhapsodies, in concerto-style arrangements of music by the group Queen for solo guitar and symphony orchestra. It was widely praised, including by Queen's Brian May himself.

In 2012 his album of Beatle arrangements Magical Mystery Guitar Tour went to number one on the UK classical iTunes charts. The album also entered the top ten in the overall UK iTunes charts.

In 2018 Carlos spent time in the studio recording music for the UK TV series Endeavour (the young Inspector Morse). Carlos also recorded the guitar music and theme with orchestra for the original Inspector Morse series – 30 years ago!

In 2020, during the pandemic, he initiated the Zoomed Guitars Live on social media, a worldwide gathering of guitar players and music lovers. At the time of writing in 2022 this is still active.
www.carlosbonell.com

Tickets: This is a Purley Classics event. Open to all with a retiring collection to cover costs.
https://www.purleyclassics.com

Enquiries : info@stmarksfestival.com