Michael Laucke

Michael Laucke (29 January 1947 – 2 December 2021) was a Canadian classical, new flamenco and flamenco guitarist and composer.

Starting at the age of thirteen, Laucke gave professional snooker demonstrations and his winnings allowed him to take trips from Montreal to New York City to study the classical guitar with Rolando Valdés-Blain.

Laucke was born in Montreal, Quebec, on 29 January 1947 to parents of Russian- and Polish-Jewish heritage.

After they separated when Laucke was sixmonths old, he lived with his mother, brother, uncle, and grandmother.

His grandmother raised and nurtured him; she died at the age of 100.

At the age of seven, Laucke appeared in the Montreal Star newspaper having designed and built a boat from 2,000 toothpicks.

A yo-yo expert by age ten, he soon discovered that he loved performing and competing, eventually winning a C$60bicycle as the champion among 2,000contestants in a Montreal yo-yo competition.

He discovered an interest in playing guitar, but his brother disapproved, so he practiced at friends' homes.

He also took up snooker, and became competent enough by the age of thirteen to gain a job as a demonstrator for the Brunswick Corporation, a snooker table manufacturer.

Laucke learned billiards from George Chenier, a fellow Montrealer and the North American snooker champion.

The two faced each again four years later at the North American snooker championships in Montreal, where Laucke won the championship.

Laucke recalls: "Then I decided to leave snooker, I had done what I wanted to do... My love for the guitar was overwhelming. There was a lot more money in snooker, but snooker was just a passion, and music was my love."

Laucke's snooker winnings allowed him to finance 110trips from Montreal to New York City to study the classical guitar with Franco-Spaniard Rolando Valdés-Blain.

With Frank Angelo as his manager since 1961, Laucke performed his first guitar concert in Montreal in 1965, a program of atonal music with the Société de musique contemporaine du Québec.

Laucke studied with several classical guitar masters: Franco–Spaniard Rolando Valdès-Blain from 1963 to 1977, Julian Bream in 1969 as winner of the Julian Bream Master classes, Alirio Díaz from 1977 to 1979 and Andrés Segovia from 1982 to 1986.

With a career spanning over 30 years, Laucke began performing in 1965, recording the first of 16 albums in 1969, and toured in 25countries.

Laucke was introduced to complex flamenco techniques by Spanish guitarist Paco de Lucía when the two shared a loft and performed together for the jet set in New York City in the early 1970s.

Laucke was introduced to complex and advanced flamenco techniques by Spanish guitarist Paco de Lucía when the two shared a loft in New York City in the early 1970s.

During this period, de Lucía and Laucke gave a concert in the Spanish Embassy, where Countess Elsa Peretti, jewelry designer at Tiffany's, first heard the two guitarists.

She immediately invited them to one of her parties at her New York penthouse, where the two guitarists performed in private for the New York City jet set, including fashion designer Calvin Klein, Andy Warhol, Halston, and Giorgio di Sant'Angelo.

In 1971, he performed his first of many concerts at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. His first concert in New York, where he also first met Senator Claiborne Pell, took place in 1972.

In 1971, following the first of his many concerts at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., The Washington Post proclaimed that Laucke had displayed "the highest form of virtuosity".

His first concert in New York took place in 1972 at the Greenwich House Music School.

Senator Claiborne Pell was in attendance and invited Laucke to perform his first concerts in Washington, DC, thus beginning a 15-year affiliation as Laucke's active supporter in the U.S. Pell's former campaign manager, Raymond Nelson, handled logistics for many of Laucke's U.S. performances.

In 1973, Laucke starred in a documentary produced by Radio-Québec called La Guitare, and he performed at Montreal's Summer Olympic Games in 1976.

In 1977, he founded Trio3 with Sayyd Abdul Al-Khabyyr and Pauline Vaillancourt, and the D'Addario strings-manufacturing company became his sponsor.

His recording of works by William Walton, Richard Rodney Bennett, and François Morel on the Radio Canada International label (RCI457) won the Canadian Music Council's Grand Prix du Disque-Canada in 1979.

The album included Morel's new composition Me duele España, written for and dedicated to Laucke.

In 1982 he was selected by Andrés Segovia to perform for the PBS network at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

Laucke subsequently became Segovia's pupil, and also studied with other classical guitar players, including Julian Bream and Alirio Díaz.

He performed mainly on classical guitar until 1990; from then until has last performance in 2015, his concerts consisted exclusively of flamenco and new flamenco works.

Laucke broadened the guitar repertoire by creating over 100transcriptions of classical and flamenco music.

Several notable Canadian composers have written atonal works for him.

SOCAN's The Music Scene magazine considered Laucke to be one of "five of Canada's best-known soloists".

Music critic emeritus, historian, and musician Eric McLean of the Montreal Gazette avowed: "Laucke is the person who has done more for the guitar in this country than anyone else."

He received many other awards and honours throughout his career, including the Grand Prix du Disque-Canada for Best Canadian Recording.

He was also a music industry businessman.

The Montreal Gazette noted that these artistic gatherings were: "the closest thing to the 18th century intellectual and artistic salon to be found anywhere these days".

Laucke was frequently hired to play at the launches of Giorgio di Sant' Angelo's new fashion lines and later those of Calvin Klein.

"I was only 21 at the time, and it all seemed like a dream," Laucke recalled.