Valérie Hartzell began her classical guitar studies on a half-size Ramirez at the age of three. At the age of six, she studied with maestro Alexandre Lagoya at the Académie Internationale d’Eté in Nice, France.

She has performed in Europe, Canada, the U.S. and has appeared on television in Nice, FR and Houston, TX. She has also been featured on National Public Radio in Texas and Alaska, the show “Women in Music” which is broadcast on CKWR, 98.5 FM Canada, U.S. syndicated radio show, Classical Guitar Alive! and on the BBC Radio in the UK. She has been featured in several guitar magazines and newspapers including Bedfordshire The Oracle (UK), Bedfordshire on Sunday (UK), Anchorage Daily News (Alaska, USA), Warrington Guardian (UK), Soundboard Magazine (US), Classical Guitar Magazine (UK), and Gendai Magazine (Japan).

She has performed in over 30 festivals, including the 2010 ChamberArt Music Festival in Madrid, Spain, the East Carolina University Competition and Festival in Greenville, NC, the Pennsylvania Academy of Music Festival where she shared the stage with Eliot Fisk, Guitaromania in Agen, France, and at the Menil Community Arts Festival Performance at the Rothko Chapel.

Hartzell has been featured as a guest soloist for the New York City Classical Guitar Society, the Grand Canyon Guitar Society, the Performing Arts Society of Kenai, Alaska, the Oxford Guitar Society in England, the Manchester Acoustic Guitar Society in England, at Arizona State University, at Svenska Margaretakyrkan in Oslo, Norway, at University of Alaska at Anchorage, at Peck School of the Arts (University of Milwaukee-Wisconsin), Clare Hall at Cambridge University, and at Studley Castle in Warwickshire. Recently, she gave an eleven-concert tour of Alaska as part of Duo Amiche (with mezzo-soprano & pianist, Tamara McCoy) and a seven-concert tour of England, including a London debut.

She is a prizewinner in 8 international competitions including 1st prizes at the 10th International Guitar Competition “Simone Salmaso” in Italy and at the Concours de Guitare Classique Heitor Villa-Lobos in France.

Ms. Hartzell has a Bachelor’s from Peabody Conservatory where she studied with Manuel Barrueco on scholarship and a Master’s Degree from Radford University in Virginia where she was awarded a Graduate Teaching Fellowship.

She has two recordings; Ex Tenebris Lux, a solo project and Presti, an ensemble project, which were both recorded at the National Public Radio studios in Houston.

Currently, Hartzell lives in Bedfordshire where she maintains an active concert career both as a soloist and as a chamber musician while maintaining a guitar tutoring studio. She is also the music director of the North Bucks Guitar Club in Woburn, England and the artistic director of the annual ‘Classical Minds’ Guitar Festival and Competition held in Houston, Texas. www.valeriehartzell.co.uk