Julio Salvador Sagreras

Julio Salvador Sagreras (22 November 1879 – 20 July 1942) was an Argentine guitarist and composer. He gave many radio performances during his lifetime.

Guitarist, pedagogue and Argentinian composer. His two parents were guitarists who taught him the guitar very early. Julio Salvador Sagreras participated in concerts at the age of 6. At age 12, he studied piano and composition. He progressed quickly and became a professor of guitar at the Académia de Bellas Artes. In Buenos Aires, he met the editor Francisco Nuñez, who later published a hundred compositions of Sagreras. In 1905 he opened his own school, Academia de Guitarra. Between 1900 and 1936, Julio Sagreras gave many concerts in concert halls and saloons, and also participated in radio releases. Most of today’s authoritative biographical information on Sagreras comes from Jaime Guiscafre’s Master’s thesis (University of Wisconsin).

Sagreras is also known for his methodical and well-annotated guitar instruction series. It consists of seven books that take the student from the beginner to the advanced stage. The series is so well thought out and so incrementally progressive that it has often been said that the student can teach himself. Further information about Sagreras’ Lecciones de Guitarra [Lessons for Guitar] can be found in the Doctoral document of Brent McPike (D.M. Indiana University, 2004), The Guitar Lessons of Julio Sagreras: A Study in Fingering, Articulation, and Application which is in the archives of the Guitar Foundation of America (GFA) in Akron, OH. In addition to Sagreras’ Lecciones… other famous works for guitar include Maria Luisa (a mazurka), El Zorzal (Estilo), Violetas (Waltz), and the virtuosic El Colibri.