Fabio Zanon was born in Brazil, where he had his formal music training, first with his father and later with Antonio Guedes and Henrique Pinto. He came to international prominence in 1996, when he was the first prize winner of two of the most prestigious international guitar competitions - the 30th Francisco Tarrega Prize in Spain and the 14th Guitar Foundation of America GFA Guitar Competition in the USA - in a space of a few weeks.

These were followed by a successful tour of 56 concerts in the USA and Canada and by the launching of his first three CDs, which established his reputation as one the most all-embracing talents in the international guitar scene. His CD of Villa-Lobos'guitar works was hailed as a reference recording. His vast repertoire includes all the major pieces written for the guitar and more than 20 concertos. He is also an inspirational teacher - he has given masterclasses at many of the most prestigious universities, conservatories and festivals in North America, Europe and Brazil.

Heitor Villa-Lobos was born in Rio de Janeiro, the son of an intellectual who taught him to play the cello. After his father's death, the young Heitor learned to play the guitar, an instrument associated with the lower ranks of society. In 1906 he embarked on a legendary trip to the North of his country, returning to Rio in 1910, where he married a pianist and tried (unsuccessfully) to catch up with his musical education as a ‘serious’ composer, while working as a free-lance musician, playing at the opera house at night and in cafes during the day. His earliest known guitar works, including the Suite populaire brésilienne, belong to this period.

Villa-Lobos was already in his thirties when he was ‘discovered’ by the pianist Artur Rubinstein, then a frequent visitor to South America. He added many of the Brazilian's pieces to his repertoire and prepared the ground for his first trip to Europe. Sponsored by magnates, Villa-Lobos lived in Paris from 1923 to 1930, where, through his natural charisma, he became one of the most respected composers, a friend of the major artists of the time and a darling of the press. Encouraged by the good reception to his exoticism, he felt liberated from the petit-bourgeois taste that had informed his earlier work and created an enormous number of experimental pieces. Around 1929, at one stroke, he revolutionized the history of the guitar with the composition of the 12 Études.