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Ahmed Dickinson Cardenas

Ahmed Dickinson Cardenas is one of the finest young performers of the Cuban Classical Guitar School. He is a sophisticated virtuoso on his instrument and an ambassador of Cuban culture.

 

Born in Havana, Dickinson Cardenas began playing drums and percussion at age 4, then classical piano and guitar at 9. He graduated from the Superior Institute of Art (Havana) in Guitar for which he was awarded a first-class honours degree, and also graduated a year early. Later he received lessons at the Royal College of Music and in 2006, supported by The Kramer- Chappell Scholarship and the Mad Hatters Club, he undertook studies at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama.

 

For almost a decade Ahmed had the privilege to work closely with the late Cuban guitar composer Jose Antonio (Ñico) Rojas. Over this period Ahmed single-handedly transcribed, learned and performed most of the old master’s unpublished works, enabling access to this cultural legacy for future generations of guitarists.

 

In the UK he has performed in prestigious venues such as the Wigmore Hall, the Sage Gateshead, King’s Place, the ICA (Institute of Contemporary Art), St James’ Church Piccadilly and the Bolivar Hall amongst others. Recent festivals include The London Guitar festival, Bath International Guitar Festival, Ards Guitar Festival (Northern Ireland) Hispano-American Guitar Festival (Mexico), King’s Place Festival and Dublin Guitar Week (Ireland). In recent years he has frequently collaborated with many outstanding musicians from various musical spectrums including Cesar Portillo de la Luz, Eduardo Niebla, Lizzie Ball, Ben Wragg, Luzmira Zerpa, and Laura Mitchell to name a few. In 2008 he performed works by famous composer Judith Weir, in a series of concerts broadcast by BBC Radio3.

 

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This year Ahmed Dickinson won Best Instrumental Soloist & Best Instrumental Album at Cubadisco 2009, the prestigious Cuban Music Record Industry Awards, for his recording paying homage to the late Ñico Rojas. The same album was also nominated for Best Artist & Best Newcomer in Songlines World Music Magazine and Best Album & Best Single at the Latin American Music Awards UK.

 

Ahmed Dickinson is a Concordia Foundation and Yehudi Menuhin’s Live Music Now artist.


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