Julian Bream Quotes

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Julian Bream

Profession : Musician

Birth : July 15, 1933

I went to college to study the piano and cello.

Julian Bream

You have to get the attention of the audience. You have to make sure they know you are starting. You have to achieve a rapport with them on the very first chord.

Julian Bream

The guitar is the most beautiful of all instruments.

Julian Bream

The guitar speaks for me and it says things - hopefully - for everybody that I play for.

Julian Bream

When I was 18, I went into the army as a payroll clerk because otherwise I was headed for Korea.

Julian Bream

My father played one of the first electric guitars in England. He built his own in 1940, because you couldn't buy them in those days. He used three telephone pickups under the strings, which gave chronic distortion on chords but was quite good on single notes.

Julian Bream

My father started me off on the guitar, and we learned classical guitar together.

Julian Bream

I think that Bach has a very nice sound on the lute. But I find that what I want to do with Bach is best revealed on the guitar.

Julian Bream

The cult of the instrument is O.K. for people who are mad about the guitar. But I love music. The guitar is just the instrument I happen to play.

Julian Bream

Your experience of life is to a large part distilled into your performing. As you grow older, you concentrate on aspects of music that you perhaps only touched on earlier.

Julian Bream

You're never static as a performer. You either get better or you get worse. As I see it, you have an equal chance at either.

Julian Bream

Quite often, I have to work hard to improve my technical capacity, if you will, before the demands of a new work come within reach. And I find that very stimulating.

Julian Bream

I've always played a lot of Spanish music, but not as much as most guitarists do.

Julian Bream

You have to be serious, and you must have a constantly inquiring mind. But I find it's new music that really stretches me, both technically and as an interpreter.

Julian Bream

Michael Berkeley's 'Sonata' is very - what can you say - melodious.

Julian Bream

Midwesterners make good audiences.

Julian Bream

It's quite a feeling to be all alone on the stage!

Julian Bream

I suppose that when I started to play the lute it was fairly esoteric.

Julian Bream

The guitar was not treated very seriously as a concert recital instrument.

Julian Bream