Hucky Eichelmann, Pioneer of Classical Guitar in Thailand

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1822

Hucky Eichelmann is a guitarist, arranger and composer of exceptional ability with his focus set towards the East.  His stunning virtuosity has allows him to work with some of the world’s top musicians, including Ravi Shankar, Kitaro, Richard Harvey, Nina Corti, Carlos Bonell, Xuefei Yang and perform alongside such legends as John Williams, Paco Peña, Los Angeles Guitar Quartet & David Russell to name but a few.  As a producer he has worked closely with the Stuttgart Ballet, Chico & The Gypsies (formerly Gipsie Kings), Martin Taylor, Pat Metheny, George Winston and Les Ballets Jazz de Montreal a.m.

Hucky’s professional career spans over four decades.  He has toured globally and performed at the world’s top venues, including a concert at United Nations headquarters in New York City.

Born in Sulzburg, which is part of Germany’s musically vibrant southwest region, Hucky earned his master’s degree in classical music at the State Academy for Music and Dramatic Arts in Stuttgart, Germany.  He performed thousands of concerts and hundreds of workshops and master classes around the world.  In Thailand he taught at the St. Cecilia Academy of Music, Chulalongkorn University and Mahidol University.

Adopting Thailand as his home he started developing his own Asian oriented musical repertoire with which he has freed the classical guitar of its niche image and has fully explored the instrument’s versatility.

With his fascinating programs ranging from Bach to disco, Asian favourites to ragtime, Spanish and South American rhythms to Royal lullabies he has thrilled audiences around the globe and he continues to enrich the instrument’s repertoire with his own compositions and arrangements for which the international media hails him as “Musical Ambassador between East and West.”  In Thailand, Hucky’s popularity is closely associated with the music of His Majesty the King.

His amazing skills, inventiveness, showmanship and his contributions to Thai society earned him the household name ‘Godfather of classical guitar’ and made him a pioneer of the guitar movement in Thailand.

Besides his artistic work he pioneered the development of music and dance as Artistic Director of the Bangkok International Guitar Festival & Series (1984-1989) and the Thailand Festival of the Arts (1997-2000), Thailand’s first ever arts festival which inaugurated a new dimension to Thailand’s art and cultural scene.

Hucky’s popular annual Thailand tour to universities and other venues in regional Thailand has created an enormous outreach entertainment and education presence, including getting valuable insight and a positive message out to young people and his large group of devoted fans.

For Hucky, music is a wonderful tool to create peace and a meaningful way of life, and he is delighted to share his music with the world.  His series of sheet music books and his guitar technique method ‘Finger Works’ have become standard works of the guitar curriculum.