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Helmut Jasbar lives in Vienna and works as a guitarist, composer, author and radio host. He is one of the pioneers of the musical style that is nowadays called “World Music”. His breakthrough came with his concert at Leo Brower’s International Guitar Festival Havana, Cuba, which was celebrated with standing ovations. Since then he has performed throughout the USA, Europe and Asia as a soloist, with his ensembles and with orchestras (e.g. RSO Vienna) and gives master classes at many renowned festivals. (Shanghai Guitar Society, Open Strings Festival Osnabrück, Cordoba Guitarfestival Spain, Jak-Jazz Jakarta, Indonesia, University of North Carolina out of Wilmington, USA, Montreal Guitar Society, Canada and many more). Well-known performers play his guitar music (among others David Russell and the Minguet quartet).

His compositions have been premiered at the Schleswig-Holstein Festival, Carinthian Summer, Brucknerhaus Linz, Echigo-Tsumari Triennale in Japan, at the Theater an der Wien, and the Julliard School in New York, among others. His works are published by Ama, Bosworth, Edition Margaux, Helbling Verlag and Stradivarius. 

He is the founder of the Pasticcio Prize for interesting musical projects and of “Vienna Guitar Festival”, which he supervised for the Radiokulturhaus as artistic director until 2008. For Radio Ö 1 he designs and presents the most popular music programs. Helmut Jasbar’s essays have appeared in the Wiener Zeitung and the Standard, among others. Helmut Jasbar tours solo, and with his crossover ensembles between Urban Music, Jazz and New Classic.

Solo Performances (Excerpts)

Cordoba Guitarfestival Spain
Guitarfestival Montreal and Toronto, Canada
Li Gi Ta Guitar Festival Liechtenstein
Alto Adige Jazz Festival Bolzano Italy
Iserlohn Guitar Symposium, Germany
Festival-Umbria, Omaggio a Segovia Italy
Jazz Festival Jakarta Indonesia
Leo Brouwer’s Guitar Festival in Havana, Cuba

Schloß Wotersen, Schleswig-Holstein Festival, Hamburg, Gelsenkirchen City Theater, Germany

Radio live broadcast from Chicago Cultural Center, Los Angeles, Fairbanks, Alaska, New York, Lincoln Center, Weill Recital Hall USA

Bombay, Poona, Bangalore, Madras, Delhi, India

Mozart Hall Vienna, Konzerthaus Austria

“A Celebration for Hans Werner Henze”
Music by H.W. Henze, John Dowland and others.
Texts by W. Shakespeare, F. Hölderlin, H.W. Henze. a.o.
Speaker: Peter Matic, voice: Cornelia Horak, Helmut Jasbar: guitar

Viennese Traces (first version)
Narrator Anne Bennent.
Texts from Karl Kraus, Joseph Roth to Ernst Jandl,
Music for guitar solo from W.A. Mozart to Helmut Jasbar

Solo performance with three guitars, official Austrian festival contribution
EXPO 2000 Hannover Germany and
EXPO 2016 Shanghai, China

With Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra
“Concierto de Aranjuez” by Joaquin Rodrigo,
And “From Afar…”, the concerto for guitar and large orchestra by Joseph Schwandtner European premiere.
Conductor: Gottfried Rabl.

South Africa, concert and guest lectures in Johannesburg at the local university.
(A few small gigs with the wonderful bassist Gito Baloi.)

Cooperations

Lisa Hofmaninger, Wolfgang Puschnig, Peter Herbert, Lorenz Raab, Matthias Loibner, Judith Schwarz, Raphael Preuschl, Donauwellenreiter. Alaska BigJazzBand and many others

Reviews

Die Zeit
Germany
The Austrian guitarist Helmut Jasbar is a real insider tip. And: basically no music seems to be safe from this guy...
Rondo Magazine
Germany
The Viennese composer Helmut Jasbar proves to be a fascinating discovery: he is full of ideas, peculiar, a bit whimsical even in his handling of found thematic material, and that is precisely why he is so interesting.
Jazzzeit
Austria
Viennese music taken to a new level, far from antiquity junk.
Akustik Gitarre
Deutschland
So erstaunlich wie Jasbars Vielseitigkeit, ist die Tiefe und Intensität, mit der er sich einer musikalischen Sache annimmt.
David Russel
Guitarist
Helmut Jasbar's performance was the highlight of the Havana Guitar Festival!
The Jakarta Post
Indonesia
..dazzling arrangements on a nylonstring classical-style guitar ... one performance area in the quietest corner of the grounds could be reserved for acoustic jazz - and maybe dubbed ``The Helmut Jasbar Stage``, in hopes of luring this immensely talented guitarist back to town!
Actualidad
Cordoba, Spain
...an aura of modernity at Helmut Jasbar's concert at the Palacio ... the audience, mainly young people, was enthusiastic.
Il Mattino
Italia
...a stimulating blend of classical music and love of African-American music....
New Straits Times
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
What he seeks to do in his compositions is to liberate the instrument from the restrictions of serious music conventions.
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