World-renowned guitarist maestro Carlo Ambrosio made his maiden visit to Pakistan recently and entertained the audience here with solo performances of classical compositions. Hotel Avari had arranged Ambrosio’s solo-shows in collaboration with the Italian embassy in Islamabad.

The guitarist performed in Islamabad for a fundraising for a mobile library, while his shows in Lahore and Karachi were a gesture of love from Italy in collaboration with Avari family. The concerts were followed by separately held week-long Italian food festivals in Lahore and Karachi at Avari Hotels.

Dressed in white suit, 58-year-old Ambrosio played Spanish, Brazilian and Italian compositions of famous artistes in his almost one hour solo performances.

"I have visited India previously but that was in the late 1980s. And now I am here on a brief tour to Pakistan," says a casually-dressed Ambrosio, sitting in the hotel lobby, a couple of hours before his show in Lahore. "I know India and Pakistan were one country, later divided. I recognise many things. Apart from food and music, there a lot of cultural similarities."

Ambrosio had little knowledge of guitar being a big attraction for the youth in Pakistan. He guessed it in his first concert in Islamabad when many young people wanted to be photographed with him. "Aged 18-25, they came and took selfies and just by looking at their fingers I guessed they play guitar. But I could not ask them because time was short."

Ambrosio got started on guitar rather early. "My aunt Angela used to bring me presents -- classical music albums (LPs). When I was five-and-a-half, I was walking with my father down the street. I passed by a big music shop and saw a guitar among other music instruments including cello, flute etc. but somehow I was caught by the guitar," he says. "I don’t know why I did this but I remember it as a big mistake because it was keeping me up at night. I have guitar in my hand for the last 52 years."

He terms choosing a guitar a "mistake" because then he had nothing to do in life except it. "This thing is just like a girl you meet in primary school and you fall in love and get married and everything; and one day you recap and say okay but what about the rest of the world. This is only what I know, and that is a problem. When I started looking around I realised that I cannot play anything else. Once I thought may be the guitar is not so important so I started playing cello. I was 11 when I started playing cello and I was already doing concerts."

His message to all youngsters is that anything they want to do and do it to the maximum level possible, they should start at a very early age because they have to build their brain. "It is just like learning a language which is hard to learn at a later age but much easier in early years."

Born in Rome in 1958, at the age of 10 and after five years of self-teaching, Carlo Ambrosio moved to London to continue his guitar studies and to follow Composition and Orchestra Conducting classes at the Royal College of Music. Starting from 1972, he began his studies of the unique Renaissance Lute. In 1977, he started teaching guitar at the Montclair State College New Jersey (United States of America).

He has been teaching at the Mimar Sinan University of Istanbul, at the Jyväskylä University (Finland) and at the Sibelius Akademie in Helsinki for many years. The guitarist, also a composer, has toured the world intensively, since 1970, giving over more than 2500 concerts.

He is a winner of international competitions and has delivered lectures in a number of universities. In 1989, after a plane accident in Spain, Ambrosio had a gap of almost 15 years in his concert-career. He also started writing film music for Primrose Music London in his recording studio and devoted himself to music production.  In 2003, he started touring again as both guitar and lute soloist.

Ambrosio gives a long pause when asked what is guitar to him today after 52 years. "After 52 years [long pause]. Well if you ask me what is your wife to you after 52 years.  I would say it is "incest". At this point it is incest," he says smilingly.

Ambrosio’s passion with guitar grew with age. Comparing guitar with some other great instruments, he says, "Some instruments have volume; some can sing; and some others are polyphonic. Indeed, string instruments have vibrato; they can vibrate and sing very much. Guitar can vibrate and sing very well but it has not harmony like piano. You cannot play many notes together with guitar. Guitar lacks harmony, while piano is fantastic for this but it does not vibrate," he says. "Violin can sing, piano can make notes, while guitar can do both. Guitar can make you happy, laugh or cry like any instrument. It depends on what you play."

He says unlike piano and violin, guitar has got many things less but there is something which belongs to guitar and not to piano, for instance, guitar has been "an instrument of rock".

About the popularity of guitar among the youth, he says, "It is a dream for them because it has been seen in hands of heroes. All these guitarists made the image that the guitar has a power," he says, adding, "Also, guitar is easy to carry and play." Then also, "vibration is an important form of music; it excites emotions indeed and that is why youth like it too."

In Pakistan, Ambrosio has also briefly performed with tabla and tanpura with some local artistes to create fusion. However, he thinks most such experiences are for fun. "I had been asked to try with some local musicians and play with Indian Pakistani rhythm but actually you must compose something expressively for that combination."