Miloš Karadaglić

"Love at first sound" is how Miloš Karadaglić describes the moment he first picked up the old guitar lying around his childhood home in Montenegro, gathering dust. "My father had received this instrument as a gift from my uncle, but he didn't have time to play it. I remember one day I picked it up and started strumming. I felt absolutely like a rock star." Almost three decades later, the man, who has since been called "the hottest guitarist in the world" by the Sunday Times and "classical music's guitar star" by BBC Music Magazine, grins at the memory. "I thought: This feels so good... I'm going to do this." Montenegro in the early 90s was not an obvious springboard for future classical success. "At the time I started playing, the Balkan wars were raging," Miloš recalls. "In Montenegro, we were less vulnerable, but it was a very isolated environment. My parents tried their best to give us everything they could, and they managed to create an atmosphere where family truly was everything. I think through that hardship, we grew even closer. That experience so early in life really made me understand what family means. They were my first audience." His family gently supported him when, at the age of 14, Miloš decided to attend a specialized music school rather than a prestigious grammar school. "I was a really good student, and in Montenegro, we didn't have a strong tradition of classical music," he explains. "Music didn't mean a secure existence, and when you grow up under those difficult circumstances, your parents want you to have security. When I told them I loved music more than anything, they said: 'Okay, we will support you as best we can, but you really have to work hard and be the best, because otherwise, it's just not worth it.' That was something that really stuck with me. In fact, I made the decision that playing guitar would be my life; that music would be my life; and yes, that I would be the best I could possibly be." Leaving the war-torn Balkans and arriving in London to take up one of the coveted places at the prestigious Royal Academy of Music was, he says, "a bit like flying to Mars. I was clueless." Nevertheless, Miloš stuck to this work ethic and developed into a world-class artist within eight years. Finally, in 2010, he signed his first record deal with the legendary classical label Deutsche Grammophon. Soon after, he was selling out major concert halls and topping music charts around the world. For any young musician, this would have been a meteoric rise, but for a classical guitarist, it was particularly breathtaking. "You could count on one hand all the times in history a classical guitarist has been allowed such a spotlight," he jokes. "It was incredibly difficult to break through the glass ceiling that the industry had created around us guitarists. But then I truly believed that if I could fall in love with the guitar – I, a boy from Montenegro, where there is no classical guitar tradition – then anyone could. I guess you could say I was very resilient... and ambitious." He laughs. "And very stubborn." From 2010 to 2016, Miloš gave hundreds of concerts in major concert halls and at festivals around the world – including the first solo guitar concert at the Royal Albert Hall, which was critically acclaimed. His early albums Mediterraneo and Latino were extremely successful, and his 2014 recording of Rodrigo's concertos with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Yannick Nézet-Séguin led the Sunday Times to call him "The King of Aranjuez." His 2016 album Blackbird – The Beatles Album, which included high-profile duets with Gregory Porter, Tori Amos, Steven Isserlis, and Anoushka Shankar, was met with unanimous approval. However, his soaring career was dramatically interrupted when, at his very peak, he suffered a devastating hand injury that rendered him unable to play. A new album was in development, and a major international concert tour was already booked for the 2017–18 season – now he was forced to withdraw from numerous engagements and studio dates, with no idea if or when he would ever recover. He recalls: "It was a really tough time. I developed a recurring hand injury, similar to overuse, which quickly escalated into bigger problems. I tried every medical avenue to find a solution and keep going, but it only seemed to get worse. It was constantly on my mind until I reached a point where I couldn't even coax a single note out of the instrument. I had to face the fact that I might never play again. The question 'what will I do if I can't be a guitarist anymore' was terrifying. Being a musician is all I've ever known." In September 2017, everything came to a complete halt, with all planned concerts removed from the schedule. "It was all a blur, like a very bad dream... perhaps the lowest point of my life so far. But even as I was contemplating it, I finally started to recover without really being aware of it. I discovered the silver lining." Having the space and time to reflect and (re)evaluate himself during such a fundamental personal and professional crisis proved to be a blessing in disguise. After many months of aimless and frustrated wandering, Miloš finally managed to find the right help to get his playing back on track. In August 2018, Miloš returned to the concert stage fully recovered and strengthened both mentally and physically – and not just any stage, but that of London's Royal Albert Hall, where he gave the world premiere of Joby Talbot's guitar concerto Ink Dark Moon, written specifically for him, to an audience of 6,000. In autumn 2019, he will release his fifth album, titled Sounds of Silence, this time on Decca Classics: a musical treasure trove that includes brand new arrangements of classical repertoire, loving nods to the world of pop music, and collaborations with his musical friends. It is a moving snapshot of an outstanding artist who has fully embraced his extraordinary musical abilities at a crucial point in his life and career. "Sound of Silence is my reflection on that time. It contains both guitar pieces I used to pick myself back up, and the fantastic songs I listened to in moments when I needed to get away from it all. It's a personal musical scrapbook that will always hold special meaning for me." His conclusion: "We all face obstacles in our lives, moments when the foundations are shaken to their core and it seems like there's no way forward. I'd like to imagine that this album will not only be a pleasant journey through great music but also an inspiration for others to find space for reflection in their lives and discover their own way to overcome the challenges and adversities they face every day in this crazy modern world."