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"George Vassilev is a brilliant musician who is presenting us a richly expressive and deep interior discours. With his excellent interpretation he is showing us the thousand sound resources of his guitar and is doing this in a particularly seductive manner"
Albin Jacquier / Tribune de Geneve/ Switzerland
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"... he is among the most prestigious guitarist of the European younger generation."
24 hours/ Bulgaria
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‘…outstanding playing… five brilliant musicians…’
Take five brilliant musicians from a variety of walks of life (but with associations to the Australian Chamber Orchestra as a common thread), stick them together for a couple of sessions during an unseasonally steamy September in Sydney, and let them loose on one of the hottest classical musical tickets of recent years ñ the tangos of Astor Piazzolla. And what do you get? Well, you get outstanding playing of 10 Piazzolla works and a recording where you can practically hear the beads of sweat forming on the musicians brows. With accordionist James Crabb taking on the bandoneon parts, violinist Richard Tognetti, guitarist George Vassilev, pianist Benjamin Martin and ACO bassist Maxime Bibeau throw themselves into the Piazzolla classics with gusto. The immortal Libertango is lithe and sinewy in this quintet arrangement, Milonga del Angel comes off well, and an epic Tangata brings it all home. Tango from the right hemisphere, wrong side of the Pacific, but right side of the musical heart.
Martin Buzacott / Limelight Magazine, Australia
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"Emouvant a chaque prestation, le bulgare George Vassilev ... a su nous toucher chaque fois droit au coeur. Son jeu est sensible, son vibrato sert constamment un legato soutenu - qualite qui se fait rare! Il a tout: fantaisie, imagination, grande presence sonore, sens poetique - dans la finesse d'une technique et d'une intelligence musicale superieures"
D. Rebouillot / Les cahiers de la guitare/ France no. 46, 68
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" ... his tone, poetical and subtile, yet at the same time somehow luminous, saturated with inner intensity, takes possession of the listener in a most domineering way. The audience froze in mute admiration... his musical spontaneity is may be his strongest feature together with his fenomenal
technique."
Rosemary Statelova / Bulgarian National Music Magazine
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"Bulgarian guitarist George Vassilev brought a light touch, secure technique and imaginatively selected program to the Marlow Guitar Series Saturday night at Westmoreland Congregational Church. From the opening Bach Fantasia and Fugue, BWV 997, to a flamenco encore two hours later, he showed mastery in a variety of styles, stringing out clearly shaped notes like diamonds on a necklace".
Joseph McLellan / Washington Post/ USA
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"Vassilev - emotional depth - generosity - a great talent"
Classical Guitar/ London
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" ... he is a guitar player, performing with unbelievable lightness that is spreading over the audience as a feeling of complicity in a refined, spiritual game. Everything is presented with intensity, depth and is masterly musically performed. Vassilev has turned out his instrument into a confessor of a deeply sensitive, tender human substance. I apprehended him as a troubadour of the 20th century, carrying us towards another forgotten type of emotions and aspirations of the soul. He is magnificent!"
Boyanka Arnaudova /Magazine "Kultura"/ Bulgaria
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"George Vassilev plays the guitar with virtuosity and a rich and intensive sound that suits the famous spanish rhythms. He played the introductory "allegro con spirito" with feeling and vivacity, while the emotional "adagio" glowed sensually and showed him as a lyrical poet of the strings, and the vivid finale sparkled with true southern glow. Therefore the big audience in Sonderjyllandshallen in Aabenraa applauded him with such an ovation coming from the heart. "
Bodil Sorensen/ Sonderjullands Avisen / Denmark.
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"... colorful, precise sonority which creates an elegant and delicate atmosphere. G. Vassilev's execution is of the highest class."
La Gazetta dell Mezzogiorno/ Italy
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" Bulgarian guitarist George Vassilev opened the new season Friday night quietly and with no superfluous gestures.
... A Joaquin Turina Sonata and "Choro Da Saudade" by Agustin Barrios showed his grace and technical ease ... A change in composers worked to Vassilev's advantage. Dusan Bogdanovic's Introduction and Passacaglia, with its descending, triplet-rich melodies and use of harmonics as signposts, swelled and sighed poetically. Two energetic pieces by Astor Piazzolla set up
guitarist's most impressive showing all night, the “Five Bagatelles” by William Walton. Vassilev's tone and temperament were dead on in each setting, right up to the fast chordal lines of the concluding “Con Slancio” movement.
Encores are often little more than bonbons, desserts to the main course. The choice of a tango satisfied the need for some flash and fun. In the case of Vassilev, it proved he can show boat, but he really doesn't need to".
Charles McCardell / Washington Post/ USA
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" Bulgaria has clearly produced a top-notch classical guitarist in George Vassilev."
Nottingam Evening Post/ Great Britain
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"More than 10 minutes the electrified audience (in the Drama theater) applauded the performence of the guitar player George Vassilev. His virtuose and inspired interpretation of "Concierto de Aranjuez" caused a furore..."
Ani Ilieva /Trud/ Varna / Bulgaria
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"... he plays with authority and displays a particularly attractive sense of colors."
La Tribune de Genève/ Switzerland
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" ... for his debut concert in Kastelskirken Bulgarian guitarist George Vassilev (born 1966) had put together a most exciting and varied programme.
The six works spanned from late renaissance and baroque to modern compositions for solo guitar, among them the very beautiful Suite for Guitar from 1985 by Carlo Domeniconi. Vassilev played as if it was Life itself that he held in his hands with a passion and technique that concert audiences only rarely get the opportunity to enjoy and his performance that included two encores ended in a well deserved standing ovation. The musician's unique understanding and contact with the instrument made it possible for him to pass on to the audience a tension of almost cinematic effect & this was not merely lyrical guitar playing, this was the unquestionable talent for reaching the
very core of musical interpretation. The key word is sublime insight ..."
Mette Rothschildt / Berlingske Tidende/ Denmark
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"George Vassilev's intense and very musical expression gives his interpretation the intelligence and the sensibility of the great musician"
La Vanguardia/ Spain
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"... Bogdanovic's "Sonata" (1978) ... was played with a ferociousness and lively gusto, where Vassilev's enjoyment of playing was almost palpable. After this rather monumental workout he plunged headlong into Brouwer's "El Decameron Negro" with what can easily be desribed as panache. By now Vassilev was firing on all cylinders. ... A familiar piece was given an outstanding rendition. An encore of a flamenco fantasia of sorts showed yet more of the Vassilev nimbleness.
And what an unexpected surprise it was".
Tim Panting/ Classical Guitar/ Great Britain |
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“L’art de la guitar“ is undoubtedly one of the most exciting books on guitar technique to be published
in the last few years, proposing innovative methods for the training of advanced guitarists. [...]
It goes well beyond traditional methods [...] and offers rich and new material [...],
opening up new horizons of guitar technique.“
Cla Mathieu European Guitar Teachers Association / EGTA-Journal Mathieu European Guitar Teachers Association / EGTA-Journal 
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