Michael Laucke

Michael Laucke (born 29 January 1947) is a Canadian classical, new flamenco, and flamenco guitarist and composer, and a music industry businessman. 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. Still active in a career spanning five decades, Laucke began performing in 1965, recording the first of 16 albums in 1969, and has toured in 25 countries. 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. 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. 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 on, his concerts have consisted exclusively of flamenco and new flamenco works. Laucke has broadened the guitar repertoire by creating over 100 transcriptions 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 has received many other awards and honours throughout his career, including the Grand Prix du Disque-Canada for Best Canadian Recording.