Francis Kleynjans

Biography

Born in Paris on April 15, 1951, Francis Kleynjans began studying classical guitar at age 14 at the National Academy of Music in Paris with Alexandre Lagoya. He perfected his training with the great Venezuelan guitarist Alirio Diaz. Thanks to his talent as a performer, he was highly praised by the Yehudi Menuhin Foundation. After that, he gave many concerts around Europe and participated in many television and radio programs. Francis Kleynjans is also a great composer. Many are the publishers t...

Born in Paris on April 15, 1951, Francis Kleynjans began studying classical guitar at age 14 at the National Academy of Music in Paris with Alexandre Lagoya. He perfected his training with the great Venezuelan guitarist Alirio Diaz. Thanks to his talent as a performer, he was highly praised by the Yehudi Menuhin Foundation. After that, he gave many concerts around Europe and participated in many television and radio programs.

Francis Kleynjans is also a great composer. Many are the publishers that include his work in their catalogs. More than 600 works for guitar, etudes and concert pieces, for solos, duets, trios, and quartets, but also film soundtracks have raised him to the rank of the greatest composers for the guitar. Kleynjans' work was duly repaid when he won first prize in composition in the twenty-second guitar contest organized by Radio France. The award-winning "A l'aube du dernier jour" was recorded by Roberto Aussel. In April 1984, Francis Kleynjans wrote his first concert for guitar and string orchestra. This work performed with the Philharmonic Orchestra of Nice, was presented to the public at the Second International Guitar Festival of Nice. Francis created two other concerts (in 1988 and 1990) and were played by the Regional Orchestra of Cannes, conducted by Philippe Bender. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.