Norbert Kraft

Not to be confused with Norbert Kraft (Medical Doctor).

Norbert Kraft (b. Linz, Austria, 1950) is a Canadian guitarist, music teacher, producer and arranger.

An international performer, Kraft has also recorded and (together with his wife: Bonnie Silver, who is also a pianist and harpsichordist) produced many albums on the Naxos Records label. In 1994 he launched the label's Guitar Collection as producer and artistic director.

Kraft specializes in solo guitar pieces from the 17th to 20th centuries as well as concerto repertoire. He has published many arrangements and transcriptions of Baroque and later solo and chamber music, including works for guitar and harpsichord. He has also compiled and edited a series of graded technical exercises and repertoire for the guitar. These were published in 1978 as Classical Guitar Editions and were adopted as official curriculum by the Royal Conservatory of Music (Toronto). He is also a composer for classical guitar.

He has served on the faculties of Manhattan School of Music, University of Toronto and The Royal Conservatory of Music.

Awards

• Grand Prize in the 1975 Canadian CBC Radio Competition
• 1985 Andrés Segovia International Guitar Competition (the first North American to do so)
• Gramophone Magazine "Critic's Choice for 1989"
• Classic CD Magazine "Favourite CD of the Year."

See also

• Canadian classical music
• The Royal Conservatory of Music

External links

• Article at the Canadian Encyclopedia
• Some photos of LP covers (Oviatt Library Digital Collections)

Naxos Recordings

• Naxos Guitar Collection
• Naxos Recording Sessions - Videos
• The Bach recordings (2011) - Norbert Kraft recording Ricardo Gallén