Ciro Hurtado is a guitarist-composer from Peru who has been actively performing since the early seventies. His early musical career started during his high school years in Lima, performing in music festivals, theater recitals, weddings, birthdays and even funerals. At this time, Lima was experiencing a revival of traditional music, while the radio air waves were saturated with Rock and Roll. These two forces are the major influences in his musi...

Ciro Hurtado is a guitarist-composer from Peru who has been actively performing since the early seventies. His early musical career started during his high school years in Lima, performing in music festivals, theater recitals, weddings, birthdays and even funerals. At this time, Lima was experiencing a revival of traditional music, while the radio air waves were saturated with Rock and Roll. These two forces are the major influences in his musical style.

He arrived in the USA in 1975 where he studied guitar with private teachers and at the Guitar Institute of Technology. Later he joined Strunz & Farah for a few years performing at the Montreaux Jazz Festival in Switzerland, Vancouver Folk Festival in Canada, Havana Classical Guitar Festival in Cuba, Kennedy Center and a tour of Pere. His participation with them was documented in the audiophile album "Misterio" for the label Water Lily Acoustics.

Ciro is one of the founding members and currently the musical director of the group Huayucaltia. He has toured extensively in the United States and Peru with them, opening the stage for artists such as Jackson Browne, Sting, Holly Near and Carlos Vives. He has recorded and co-produced seven albums with Huayucaltia: "Despertar", "Caminos", "Horizontes", "Amazonas", "Origenes", "Destinos" and "El Tiempo".

As a solo artist he has produced and recorded five albums where he leads a Latin Jazz band comprised of top L.A. musicians featuring notable players such as Justo Almario and Alex Acuna, among many others. His solo effort includes "In My Mind" and "Tales from Home" on ROM Records, "The Magic Hour" (collaborative effort with his wife Cindy Harding) and "Guitarra" under his own label and "Echoes of the Andes" on the Canadian label METACOM. In addition, he has produced and recorded albums for "LA Law"'s Michele Greene, Conjunto Jardin, Rosalia Leon and many other talented artists. Most recently he was awarded the prestigious 2001/2005 Durfee Master Musician Fellowship.

Ciro has scored and participated musically in various feature films and documentaries such as "Baraka", "Dead Women in Lingerie", "Max is Missing", "Hope Street", "Monsters", "Peru: The Royal Tour", "From Wharf Rats to Lords of the Docks".

Ciro's guitar work ranges from the very traditional Latin American genres to the more sophisticated fusion Latin-Jazz idioms. His fine command of the instrument borrows from the classical techniques as well as alternate plectrum picking for high intensity solos. His guitar work is the most contemporary sound heard today on the nylon string guitar.

Passion, a high melodic sensibility, and musical vision are the qualities attributed to his playing. There is no limit to his composition skills, from popular lyrical songs to sophisticated intricate classical oriented works. Pieces written by Ciro evoke motifs, landscapes and exciting elements of South American styles and rhythms, placing him among a select generation of Latin American composers.