Plínio Fernandes fuses two worlds together when he performs: his cultural heritage of Brazil, where his musical roots stem from, and his added western classical music experience, as he has studied and finessed his craft in Europe. Recently signed to Decca Gold, the 29-year-old’s debut album Saudade was released worldwide in 2022 to critical acclaim and debuted at #1 on Billboard Traditional Classical Albums Chart.

In 2023, Fernandes won the Revelação award at the 30th annual Prêmio da Música Brasileira (Brazilian Music Awards). 2022 also saw the guitarist racking up a diverse suite of awards including Forbes Brasil’s annual Under 30 list, Classic FM’s Rising Stars list, and Revista Concerto’s Young Artist Award. Fernandes also has performed in sold-out concert halls across the world–including the Royal Albert Hall and Radio City Music Hall–and has given solo recitals as well as masterclasses in Hong Kong, Portugal, and South America.

Born into a family of musicians, Fernandes received his first guitar lessons from his father. At the age of 12, after winning national youth guitar competitions, he played as a guest soloist with the Campo Grande Symphony Orchestra and took private lessons from Henrique Pinto and later, at 16, from Fabio Zanon. Encouraged by his family and teachers, he moved to London to study at the Royal Academy of Music under a full scholarship funded by the Brazilian Ministry of Education.

Italian guitarist Andrea Bissoli is the author, artistic director and lead interpreter in "Villa-Lobos: The Guitar Manuscripts", a three-CD international recording project published by Naxos from 2013 to 2015.

His recordings have been broadcast by BBC, Classic FM, Radio France, Rai Radio 3, ABC and many North American networks. Rádio Cultura FM (Brazil) selected the first volume of the series as their "CD of the Week" at the beginning of December 2013, and Naxos Deutschland launched it as the "Naxos CD of the Month" in January 2014.

Andrea Bissoli gave his first recital at thirteen, performing Villa-Lobos's Cinq Préludes, and has won awards at several music competitions in his native Italy since then. He later studied with artists of international renown, including Stefano Grondona, Laura Mondiello, Alirio Díaz, Paul Galbraith and Oscar Ghiglia. He studied at the Conservatorio 'Arrigo Pedrollo' in Vicenza receiving full marks, and then completed undergraduate and postgraduate courses cum laude. He was given a Diploma of Merit at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena, after playing Bach’s Ciaccona BWV 1004 at the Salone dei Concerti in July 2002. Three years later he recorded the Ciaccona for the CD "La Guitaromanie", published by the Vicenza Conservatory in 2007. 

In 2006 he started the guitar duo Phèdre Adroit with Federica Artuso. Their repertoire includes an all-Villa-Lobos programme of unpublished transcriptions for two guitars by Andrea Bissoli. They have studied baroque music with Monica Huggett and Sigiswald Kuijken, and also play nineteenth-century music on two period instruments, a ‘Petitjean l’aîné’ and a ‘Lacote’ respectively. 

Andrea Bissoli has been researching the works of Villa-Lobos for some ten years, and has written articles for the specialized journal "Il Fronimo". He has prepared the archetype of Villa-Lobos’s Motivos Gregos, a lost score for guitar, flute and female choir by collating the remaining historical sources. He has transcribed for the guitar Dime perché and Tarantela, two early works by Villa-Lobos dating from a time when the composer used to write guitar in hand. Bissoli has also completed Valsa Concerto No. 2, the earliest of Villa-Lobos’s guitar works to have survived, and has made an instrumentation of fourteen folksong arrangements from Villa-Lobos’s Guia prático, choosing a selection of pieces tailor-made for the guitar. All of these, along with other unpublished works and renowned masterpieces, feature on the tracklist of the three-CD Naxos series, which won widespread praise in the international press. 

Andrea Bissoli performs regularly as a soloist and chamber musician in Italy as well as abroad. He plays a guitar made by Jacques Vincenti, strung with New Nylgut strings by Aquila Corde Armoniche.

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