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Sila Godoy, said to be the most accomplished new world classical guitarist in the generation following Agustín Barrios, was born in Villarrica Paraguay on December 4 1919.

As child Sila had the advantage of growing up in a rich musical environment. His mother and his uncles were talented musicians who exposed him at an early age to the piano, violin, mandolin, harp and tropical guitar. Sila soon began to play each of these with a precocity that amazed his elders. By this time the guitar had become his lifelong obsession as he began interpreting the traditional masters of classical Spanish guitar, Francisco Tárrega and Fernando Sor.

Having set his course, Sila left his home of Villarrica at the age of 16, carrying two guitars and a small satchel of his music, to accept a scholarship at the National Music Conservatory in Asunción, Paraguay. At the age of 22 he was requested by the President of Paraguay to play in a special command performance. By age 24 he graduated from the conservatory as a professor of music theory and musicology.

Following graduation he was awarded a grant to continue his musical education in Buenos Aires, where he remained for nine years under the tutelage of Consuelo Mallo López. During these years Sila concentrated on refining his technique into the virtuosity admired today.

In 1959, the world master Andrés Segovia invited Sila to study in Spain, with all expenses paid, at his renowned classical guitar school at Santiago de Compostela. For three years he sudied and traveled with Segovia.

In 1963 Godoy, at the personal invitation of President John F. Kennedy, first visited the United States to do a concert tour. During this trip he was featured as a broadcast soloist on the Voice of America and played with such notable American guitarists as Charlie Byrd, Sophocles Papas and Richard Pick. In subsequent US tours he has played in most major cities and in 1977 volunteered to tour Kansas, Paraguay's "sister state" where he also taught master classes at Wichita State University. More recently he has toured Japan (1980), Australia (1983), and has made numerous appearances in the Latin American nations.

Besides being a consummate performer Godoy is a composer in his own right. He has a considerable body of compositions to his credit such as "Ekstasis" and "4 pieces for classical guitar", both published in Buenos Aires.

Perhaps his masterpiece, however, is the composition "Jana Szenes". This composition containing six pieces following the aesthetics of Arnold Schoenberg was written in 1945 to honor the Jewish heroine, Jana Szenes, who was executed by the Nazis for her activities to help her people in Hungary in 1944.

At present Godoy, known as "El Maestro" by his aficionados, resides in Asunción, Paraguay, where he performs, teaches and writes.

External links

• Text source

Danza Paraguaya (Agustín Pío Barrios)

• Paraguayan classical guitarists
• 1919 births
• Living people