"That art demanded, along with the inspiration of the creator, his teaching skills; and it was this new and urgent need to form a family of followers of his solid teachings, which formed this group of disciples, which, if it was not and could not be numerous, was well prepared and fervently organized to continue his work."

Despite Francisco Tárrega’s (1852-1909) popularity due to his famous guitar works, little has been known for his teaching activity and that’s because he didn’t write any complete guitar method. This fact divided the Spanish guitar community into the “Tarregaphiles”, as great Andres Segovia used to mention them and to the rest who were critical to Tárrega’s approach as a teacher. The first ones wrote methods, books and various articles dedicated to their teacher and these methods gave the foundations of modern classical guitar in the 20th century. However, with the time and especially after the loss of Tárrega’s last student Emilio Pujol, the legacy of this school started to be underestimated and declined by scholars and the wider guitar commune. At the same time, performing style and trends were changing to match with the modern guitar constructions and the new different strings, aborting finally the “old-school” performers. 

Which part of Tárrega’s authentic teaching passed to his students and what did this school left behind is the main subject of our research based on primary sources held at the recently acquired Fernando Alonso collection of the Instrument Museum of Barcelona. Thus, we analyze sections of guitar pedagogy, historical continuity and instrumentation and we combine them for the first time with applied examples on original instruments and period strings. The results of this research give a new importance to Tárrega’s legacy and to his contribution in the 20st century. Last but not least, this new perspective of his teachings inspire us for a number of applications in modern pedagogy. 

• Music and sound education experiences, values, and practices
• Curricula and critical approaches
• Historical and cultural perspectives and contemporary educational practices
• Lifelong learning for music educators
• Alternative musical instruments

Y.E. is a Doctor in Arts and holder of two Masters (Classical guitar and Early Music) from the esteemed Free University Brussels and the Royal Conservatory of Brussels. He studied classical guitar at the Music Science and Arts Department- University of Makedonia, State Conservatory of Thessaloniki, Municipal Conservatory and Music School of Dráma. 

Yiannis has been guided by the internationally acclaimed guitarists Elena Papandreou, Thanos Mitsalas, Antigoni Goni, Oscar Ghiglia, Carles Trepat and lutenists Xavier Diaz-Latorre, Nicolas Achten and Dirk De Hertogh.

He worked among others as guitar and research assistant at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels during 2014-2021, Municipal Conservatory of Brugge and the Spanish Institute of Brussels. As a performer and lecturer, he has travelled to Spain, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, UK, Austria, Australia, Hong Kong as well as in Greece and his articles have been published in international magazines.  

In 2019 he published his first solo album dedicated to the Spanish modernist period with Belgian label Passacaille records. 

Since 2022 he has been teaching classical guitar and chamber music at the Music Studies Department of the University of Ioannina.