Manuel Barrueco: A Gift and a Life (2006)

Photographed in Peabody Conservatory's Friedberg Hall with four cameras, Manuel Barrueco's 2004 solo recital sponsored by the Baltimore Classical Guitar Society is featured throughout the film. Also included are excerpts of Manuel's performance of Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez before an audience of twenty thousand in Antwerp, Belgium, and the premiere of Roberto Sierra's Folías with Victor Víctor Pablo Perez Pérez conducting the Orquesta Sinfóonica de Galicia. In candid interviews, Manuel shares his life journey from Santiago de Cuba and his first public performance at the age of nine eleven to his debut recital at Carnegie Hall and the international concert and recording career that followed. The documentary covers his openness to a wide variety of styles and his collaborations with non-classical guitarists like Andy Summers, formerly of The Police, and jazz guitarist Al Di Meola. David Tanenbaum tells of recording a duo arrangement of Lennon & McCartney's Penny Lane with Barrueco in the same Abbey Road Studio where the Beatles recorded the original. The film includes a section on Manuel teaching talented guitarists who have come from around the world to attend his Peabody master class, as well as a private lesson with his Peabody student Lukasz Kuropaczewski, who is already an international concert and recording artist.