GALA CONCERT
World Harmonica Gala
Saturday, Nov. 1st, 2025
8:15 pm
Dr. Ernst Hohner Concerthall / Trossingen
Antonio Serrano (Spain)
Antonio Serrano is considered one of the greatest harmonica players of all times.
His greatest contribution to music was to introduce the harmonica in flamenco, further consolidating such innovation by being part of Paco de Lucia's group between 2004 and 2014. Also his etudes for chromatic harmonica extend and challenge the technical possibilities of the instrument.
His musical versatility has also led him to carry out projects and collaborations in other musical fields such as jazz, flamenco, classical music, tango, and pop.
Antonio Serrano (Madrid 1974) began his musical studies with his father, who taught him to play the harmonica and to read music. Later, he studied piano and violin at the conservatories at Alicante and Madrid, concluding his harmonica training with no other than master Larry Adler, in London.
His flawless technique led him to perform in Paris, at the age of 13, a duet with Larry Adler at a Concert for the United Nations.
Adler became his mentor and they performed together countless times. In 1992, at the age of 18, Serrano performed in Belgium a work written for Adler: Malcolm Arnold's Opus 46 Concerto for harmonica and orchestra.
In the course of his solo career, he has collaborated with the symphony orchestras of Belgium, Cologne, Heidelberg, Kiel and Istanbul, among others, playing original harmonica concertos by H. Villalobos, M. Arnold, V. Williams, etc. and arrangements of works by M. de Falla, G. Enescu, G. Gershwin or R. Kórsakov.
Among his most outstanding recordings are En el Central (1999), Armonitango (2007) with the special collaboration of Toots Thielemans, with whom he had the opportunity to share the stage at several European festivals, as reflected in the album Tootsology.
Harmonious (2012), the latter being his most personal and autobiographical work, one in which he challenges the technical possibilities of the chromatic harmonica, and which lead to his first solo international tour, with great success and making Serrano a world reference in his instrument.