German guitarist Oliver Fartach-Naini is an exceptionally versatile guitarist who tours internationally from his base in Australia where he teaches at the University of Adelaide’s Elder Conservatorium of Music. A student of American guitarist-composer Laurie Randolph, he looks back on a colourful career of innovative projects with which he has delighted audiences the world over.

Testament to his versatility is his eclectic portfolio of collaborative projects and well over a hundred world premiere performances of new works which composers such as Carlo Domeniconi (Italy), Richard Charlton (Australia), Ludger Vollmer (Germany), Geonyong Lee (South Korea), Jaime Zenamon (Brazil) and Máximo Diego Pujol (Argentina) have written for him and his ensembles.

To date he has released 11 CDs including 7 different chamber music formations for the German Labels Deutsche Grammophon, Kreuzberg Records, Acoustic Music Records as well as Credia International (Universal) and Ethnoclassics.

His latest recording, due for release in December 2018, is a solo album of four suites and pays tribute to the rich musical traditions of the Americas. Hector Ayala’s well-known Serie Americana as a milestone in this tradition is here complemented by Máximo Diego Pujol’s more recent Seis revelaciones alongside Richard Charlton’s Suite Latina and Maximo Diego Pujol’s Suite Adelaires, which were composed for Oliver Fartach-Naini in 2006 and 2014 respectively.

One of his latest collaborations on his mission to expand the guitar’s repertoire is the album Canto Antigo – a compilation of new folk song arrangements for violin and two guitars by Vincent Lindsey-Clark (England), Laurie Randolph (USA), Stephen Whittington (Australia), Jaime Zenamon (Brazil) and Richard Charlton (Australia), which he recorded with violinist Zia Hyun-Su Shin and guitarist Lee Song-Ou for Credia Classics (Universal Music) in 2015. The Persian Art Music CD Didar – Live in Berlin with Majid Derakhshani (Composition, Tar, Voice), Thea Nielsen (Flute) and Amir Abbas Zare (Daf) is another one of his ventures discovering new horizons. His Deutsche Grammophon recording of Schubert’s song cycle Winterreise in Ludger Vollmer’s arrangement for viola (Richard Yongjae O’Neill) and two guitars topped the South Korean classical charts for three months after its release in early October 2007. Further key collaborations include projects with Korean guitarist Lee Song-Ou, Australian clarinettist Peter Handsworth and his Berlin based quintet Tango Concertante.

The German publisher Edition Margaux created the Collection Oliver Fartach-Naini, which is dedicated to the numerous pieces composers from all over the world have composed for Oliver Fartach-Naini and his ensembles. His standing as an educator has seen him selected as the repertoire consultant for the 2011 AMEB classical guitar syllabus, which entailed the publication of 7 graded and edited repertoire books with performance notes and the compilation of a graded 1000-work repertoire list.

Oliver Fartach-Naini holds degrees from the University of the Arts Berlin (Performance & Pedagogy), the Academy of Music and Theatre ‘Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy’ in Leipzig (Music Performance) and was awarded his PhD (Music) from the University of Adelaide.

Oliver Fartach-Naini endorses LaBella Strings.