Biography

Guitarist and lutenist Eden Karamazov is noted for his wide variety of collaborations with top early music ensembles, singers, and even the rock vocalist Sting. He has made several solo recordings. Karamazov was born in Zenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina, then part of Yugoslavia, in 1965. A protege of the conductor Sergiu Celibidache during his student years, he began his studies on the guitar and won several competitions. He added Baroque lute to his portfolio, studying with Hopkinson Smith at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. A breakthrough came in 1998 when he substituted for an ailing Julian Bream. Karamazov began to appear widely in concert around Europe, and a pair of collaborative recordings brought him considerable celebrity: he backed superstar countertenor Andreas Scholl on the 2001 album Wayfaring Stranger, and in 2007, he was heard with Sting on The Journey and the Labyrinth, an album of Dowland's lute music with a dramatic concept that was later developed into a film. Karamazov's 2008 solo album The Lute Is a Song featured guest appearances by Renée Fleming, Sting once again, and singer-songwriter Kaliopi (on whose 2009 album Oblivion he appeared). Karamazov's repertory ranges from the 16th century to the present day. He has appeared with leading early music groups, including Hesperion XXI, L'Arpeggiata, and The Hilliard Ensemble. He has performed at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, London's Wigmore Hall, and the Philharmonie in Berlin, among other major halls, and he has accompanied singers such as Arianna Savall and Nuria Rial (whom he backed on the 2020 album Con Guitarra) in addition to Scholl. Karamazov has also collaborated with the women's vocal group Klapa Cesarice. In 2021, he accompanied recorder player Dorothee Oberlinger on the Harmonia Mundi album Dialoge: Johann Sebastian Bach. Karamazov still sometimes plays the lute on the street, a habit he began during his student years. ~ James Manheim, Rovi