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.
