LAURA MAZON FRANQUI: ROOTS, REINVENTION AND THE VOICE OF THE NYLON-STRING GUITAR

For Cuban guitarist Laura Mazon Franqui, tradition has never meant standing still. A classical guitarist, educator and Córdoba artist, Laura has built her career at the intersection of worlds: classical and contemporary, Cuban and international, tradition and experimentation. At the center of it all is the nylon-string guitar—an instrument she describes simply as "home." Growing up in Cuba, Laura never learned to see classical and popular music as opposing forces. Music was woven into everyday life. Even while studying at the conservatory, moving from an improvised rumba rhythm to the music of Sor or Giuliani felt completely natural. "I cannot see classical guitar in an orthodox way," she says.

Finding Her Own Voice

Laura was just ten years old when she performed at the Festival de La Habana under the direction of legendary Cuban composer and guitarist Leo Brouwer—an experience whose significance would reveal itself over time. Brouwer's influence extended far beyond technique. His ability to be profoundly connected to Cuban tradition while continually questioning and reinventing the possibilities of the guitar became an early model for Laura's own artistic path. Later, her studies in the United States brought her into contact with artists and educators including Pepe Romero, Scott Tennant, Adam Levin and Rafael Padrón, and she received masterclasses from Manuel Barrueco, Ana Vidović and Meng Su. Each offered a different perspective on the instrument, reinforcing a lesson that has become central to Laura's work: there is no single way to become an artist. Technical command and respect for tradition matter, but eventually another question takes over: What do I actually have to say? For Laura, answering that question means exploring where the classical guitar can go next. "I'm fascinated by the idea that after centuries of guitar history, we still haven’t discovered everything this instrument can be," she says. Her work moves through traditional classical repertoire, Cuban and Latin American music, contemporary composition and the work of women composers, while also drawing inspiration from acoustic and electric guitar, technology and other modern musical languages. It isn't experimentation simply for the sake of doing something different. "A new sound has to communicate something," Laura explains. "What excites me is discovering another emotional vocabulary for the instrument while keeping its soul intact."

An Instrument That Responds to the Imagination

That philosophy is also reflected in Laura's relationship with her Córdoba^® Friederich. For a player so focused on color and expression, choosing the right guitar goes beyond specifications. The more important question, she says, is whether the instrument can respond to the ideas in the player's head. "What drew me to the Córdoba Friederich was its palette and its beautiful sustain." Laura approaches the guitar almost orchestrally, searching for distinct voices within the instrument and moving between warmth and clarity, intimacy and projection, delicacy and intensity. Because her repertoire crosses so many musical spaces, she needs an instrument capable of following her without losing the unmistakable character of the nylon string. "The right instrument starts disappearing beneath your hands," she says. "You stop thinking, 'How do I make the guitar do this?' and you start thinking only about the musical idea." That sense of freedom is also what makes her relationship with Córdoba a natural extension of her larger artistic mission: honoring what the classical guitar has been while helping shape the conversation around what it can become.

Rojo: Memory, Loss and What Music Preserves

Laura's latest album, Rojo, brings those ideas together in perhaps their most personal form yet. The project began as a musical autobiography built around Hispanic and Latin American guitar repertoire that had accompanied Laura throughout her life, with works by composers including Brouwer, Tárrega, Villa-Lobos, Turina, Jorge Morel, Carlos Rafael Rivera and Claudia Montero. But while recording the album, its meaning changed. Laura was grieving the loss of her aunt, Cuban soprano Conchita Franqui, while her family was also selling their home in Cuba. She found herself confronting not only the loss of a person, but of a place and a physical connection to generations of family history. Music became a way of asking what remains. "A photograph preserves an image. An object preserves touch. But music can preserve something much harder to define," she says. "A melody can suddenly return a person to you. A chord can take you into a room that doesn't exist anymore." That idea became the emotional center of Rojo. Even its title carries multiple meanings: passion, life, strength, intensity, love and remembrance. "It's the fire that keeps you moving." Despite its deeply personal origins, Laura hopes Rojo reaches beyond the traditional classical guitar audience. "I want someone who has never listened to a classical-guitar album in their life to hear Rojo and feel something before they worry about what genre it belongs to." For Laura, that accessibility is especially important when sharing Hispanic and Latin American music. Rather than presenting heritage as something fixed in the past, she sees it as something each generation has the opportunity to preserve, question, reinterpret and carry forward. The same idea runs through her relationship with the nylon-string guitar itself. It is an instrument with centuries of history behind it, but Laura's focus remains firmly on what can still be discovered ahead. Through her playing, her Córdoba Friederich and projects like Rojo, she hopes to make the world of classical guitar a little wider—and invite more people into it.

Listen to Rojo by Laura Mazon Franqui on Spotify here.

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