Sagreras, Julio

(b Buenos Aires, 22 Nov 1879 d Buenos Aires, 20 July 1942).
Argentine guitarist and composer.

He began music studies with his father, Gaspar Sagreras, and with Carlos Marchal, later graduating from the Academy of Fine Arts of Buenos Aires, where he was subsequently appointed professor of guitar and solfeggio. He was a founder and first president of the Asociación Guitarrística Argentina. His most important contributions were in the area of guitar pedagogy, and he produced a six-volume set of Lecciones which are still in use today, as is his Técnica superior de guitarra (a compendium of exercises). Several of his virtuoso showpieces, such as El colibrí (The Humming-Bird), are war-horses in the guitar repertory. In all he wrote over 200 compositions for the guitar, most of them inspired by popular songs and dances such as the tango, zamba, waltz and vidala.