Thibaut Garcia, Guitar at Heart

Growing up in Toulouse with his Spanish father and French mother (from the Vendée region), Thibaut Garcia was never far from a guitar. “Spain’s national instrument” was always present as his father, well-versed in the classical guitar repertoire, would play it around the house and at parties, when he wasn’t cooking tapas or paella.

“My first musical influences weren’t so much Beethoven, Brahms, and Chopin, but Fernando Sar, Isaac Albeniz, and Francisco Tàrrega,” recalls Garcia. At 31, the guitarist has now become a leading figure in classical guitar, famous enough to feature in the newest documentary (now streaming on medici.tv) by renowned filmmaker Bruno Monsaingeon, the man behind seminal films on the great Yehudi Menuhin and Glenn Gould.

Thibaut Garcia began playing the guitar regularly at age six and a half. When he turned eight, his parents enrolled him at the Toulouse Conservatoire. As a teenager, he was deeply moved by a performance of St Matthew’s Passion at the Halle aux Grains, the home venue of the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse. “It was my first ever concert experience and I will never forget it. I couldn’t live without Bach’s music  — it’s an essential part of my life and career,” he explains, still moved by the memory. In one of the most poignant moments of Monsaingeon’s documentary, Garcia and close friend and collaborator Antoine Morinière perform Bach’s Goldberg Variations — their own arrangement for guitar duet featured in their superb new album — in a serene, spiritual  concert for the monks of Solesmes Abbey.

Among the teachers who encouraged the self-proclaimed “guitar geek” to pursue his passion is Marc Navarro, who helped Garcia broaden his repertoire over the course of his studies at the Toulouse conservatoire —  “he shaped me,” Garcia says. It was under the tutelage of Paul Ferret, a musician equally gifted in both jazz and classical music, that Thibaut earned his diploma and entered “that pivotal time when you have to choose: I either settle down, or take flight.” During a music workshop, he was told about the Conservatoire de Paris. He was 14 years old, a restless student with a lackluster academic record: “I was bored back then, I was becoming a sad child.” The solution presented itself when his father learned — from a patient at his physical therapy practice — about specialized classes designed to prepare students for admission to the famous conservatoire.

From then on, he focused all his time and effort on one goal. “I made the most progress of my life between the ages of 14 and 17,” the artist confides, having watched his parents’ footage of early rehearsals with Bruno Monsaingeon for the documentary. He passed the entrance exam at age 16 and was enrolled at the Parisian institution at 17. Two teachers were particularly influential during his time at the Conservatory: Olivier Chassain and Judicaël Perroy. “They opened my eyes to the many possibilities of the instrument,” he says, “and introduced me to the great masters of the past.” They also ignited his passion for the instrument itself.

Garcia’s appreciation of the instrument-making process is clear in how he speaks about the guitar that luthier Paulino Bernabe made for him for the 2015 Seville Guitar Festival. Recently, the virtuoso acquired a 1904 Enrique Garcia guitar, “an absolute gem: when you play it, you feel as though you’re stepping back into the musical world of the early 20th century.” But for Thibaut Garcia, this exploration of the past goes hand in hand with a desire to break new ground with the instrument. “I dream of making a guitar,” he shares. “I’m currently working with a luthier on a prototype, adding an extra string.”

As part of the documentary, Garcia allowed Monsaingeon to film him dancing a few steps with his guitar and his partner, choreographer Aure Wachter in a  truly heartfelt moment. It’s an art form he’s been nurturing since his days at the conservatoire, where his roommate was a dancer. In fact, when asked about other genres of music he enjoys, Thibaut immediately cites flamenco, both because of its obvious connection to his roots, but also because of the link formed in flamenco between dance and the guitar. He is determined to continue this experimental dialogue between the two arts, hinting — somewhat mysteriously — at a “monumental” project in this field coming soon. 

How does he cope with the demands of being the highly sought-after concert performer he has become in such a short time? “I love touring,” he explains. “These encounters with different audiences are always a ‘win-win’: their enjoyment reinforces our own.” On stage, he recalls having experienced twice those rare,  fleeting, transcendent moments that transport a musician to another dimension. In one of those performances, he was playing Albeniz’s Asturias at the Abbey School in Sorèze, near Toulouse, with his parents in the audience: “I felt an incredible ease in my playing, a sensation of warmth throughout my body, and the light seemed to be at its brightest.” As a fan of team sports, Thibaut Garcia borrows a term from them to describe this very special state: the flow. 

In order to give himself every chance of pursuing the career that brings him such joy — despite its more routine aspects, which can sometimes lead to bouts of exhaustion — the guitarist played in one competition after another during his younger years. In 2013 and 2014, he competed in Seville and Alicante, before triumphing in 2015 at the most prestigious competition of them all: the GFA (Guitar Foundation of America) in Oklahoma City. The prize included recording an album with Warner Classics and a world tour of around 50 concerts, concluding at Carnegie Hall in New York. It was a memorable evening, culminating in the young man’s challenging transcription of the ‘Toccata’ from Bach’s Partita No. 6 for harpsichord. 

This demanding competition opened the doors to the most prestigious concert halls, but Garcia remembers it as a time of immense pressure, which sometimes meant he lost focus while playing: “In Oklahoma City, I walked off-stage disappointed with my performance, even though I had won!” Speaking in the documentary as he approaches his thirtieth birthday, with his talents established, he feels a natural desire to broaden his repertoire, to “put himself out there.” As a concert artist, he seeks to move beyond programs that consist mainly of “stringing together pieces we like.” For example, he enjoys alternating a Baroque first half with a second half devoted to Albeniz. During the upcoming summer festivals, audiences will be able to hear Thibaut Garcia in eight different settings: solo, duo, chamber music, and various orchestral arrangements, including a double concerto for guitar and bandoneon that he performed in South America.

Garcia also wishes to go beyond performance, taking a keen interest in staging: “I pay close attention to the dramaturgy and lighting of my concerts,” he notes. Having been arranging music since the age of 16 — whether that’s Bachs suites or, more recently, pieces by Marin Marais — the performer is increasingly venturing into improvisation and composition. His fondness for period instruments is also a way of trying to understand how the great performers of the past mastered them. “I’ve gotten into the habit of practising certain pieces in the style of predecessors I admire: Ida Presti, Julian Bream, John Williams, and André Segovia.” To unwind, he has even tried his hand at composing a song for Barbara Pravi. But above all, he aspires to compose a true contemporary piece for classical guitar. 

In everything he does, Thibaut Garcia always strives towards one goal in particular: “to transform something raw into something crafted.” In his rare moments of relaxation, this is what draws him to his father’s favorite pastime: cooking. Yet, his signature creation strays far from his Spanish roots: the Paris-Brest!

Translation: Nadya Miryanova and Holly Hunt