As part of its 49th Season, UNLV Performing Arts Center (UNLV PAC) resumes its 20th season of guitar performances, welcoming the return of Las Vegas local and award-winning classical guitarist Ricardo Cobo with “Diary of Musical Images” on Thursday, Dec. 11 at 7:30 p.m. in the Dr. Arturo Rando Recital Hall of the Lee and Thomas Beam Music Center at UNLV.

Born in Cali, Colombia, Cobo began taking guitar lessons at the age of 8, on a twenty-dollar souvenir guitar that his uncle bought him in Brazil. He quickly outpaced his lessons, so his parents enrolled him in the Antonio Maria Valencia Conservatory, now part of Colombia’s national school for the fine arts.

Following high school, Cobo attended Peabody Conservatory as a student of Aaron Shearer, a widely known master of the classical guitar. He ultimately received the Bachelor of Music degree from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and the Master of Music degree at Florida State University. While at FSU, he pursued postgraduate studies under Bruce Holzman, both as a graduate assistant and university doctoral fellow.

Cobo won many international competitions, including the Guitar Foundation of America’s International Concert Artist Competition, Alirio Díaz International Competition, and Casa de España Competition. Cobo’s professional career began when he was 17 and performed with the Orquesta Filarmónica de Bogotá (Columbia) for a television audience of over nine million. Cobo’s recordings are on the ESSAY, NAXOS, Ellipsis Arts, and Angel/EMI labels.

Click HERE for tickets.

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