Eric Henderson records music by J.S. Bach, Manuel Ponce, Sting, and his own compositions.

Eric Henderson is back with five new GSI recordings. Eric is a classical guitarist with a fascinating backstory. He is one of the former students of Maestro Andres Segovia! 

He began playing the guitar at the age of six. At first, he played fingerstyle music, but then quickly moved to the classical guitar which he learned from his wonderful teacher, Antonia Morales. The first milestone in his career occurred when he was just thirteen years old. Antonia took him to Los Angeles to attend one of Segovia’s concerts. After the concert, she arranged a private meeting to introduce young Eric to Maestro Segovia who after meeting Eric, invited him to come to study with him in Spain. He was the third person ever invited to study privately with Segovia.

While in Madrid, Eric practiced the guitar for 12-14 hours every day. He studied there not only with Maestro Segovia but also with another great teacher, Aureo Herrero. Overall, Eric spent four years in Spain mastering his skills. In addition to guitar lessons, he also studied composition, theory, and interpretation with some of the top European teachers at the time, including Federico Moreno Torroba. If you'd like to learn more about Eric's story, check out our first article about his career. (Click here)

This time, we had the pleasure of recording five pieces performed by Eric. In the first video, you can hear Eric performing "Preámbulo and Allegro Vivo" by Manuel Ponce. He recorded this piece on a 1930 Santos Hernandez SP/CSAR guitar. This particular guitar is a gorgeous and slightly more ornate example of Santos’ work, with beautiful materials and great style and charm in design and execution.

The second piece is Johann Sebastian Bach's "Prelude" from "Lute Suite in C Minor, BWV 997". The guitar featured in the video is a 2022 Tobias Berg CD/WN - this guitar is built with a stunning set of walnut wood used for the back and sides.

There wouldn't be a recording session with Eric without featuring some of his excellent arrangements of popular music! This time, Eric recorded his arrangement of Sting's "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" from "Ghost In The Machine" by The Police. He decided to record this video on a 1964 Daniel Friederich "Recital" SP/CSAR.

The final two videos feature Eric's original compositions. The first piece is titled "Bells of Pyrgos" and it's inspired by the bells of one of the churches in Pyrgos - a small town on the island of Santorini, Greece. The bells that inspired the piece ring in very close intervals which inspired this composition. The guitar featured in that video is a 1995 Paulino Bernabe CD/CSAR (ex Marc Teicholz). Eric's second composition is titled "Flamenco Surf". It's a flamenco-inspired composition with a very catchy theme. Eric recorded this piece on a 2023 Hironori Fukuda SP/CSAR.