Evenings on Grič: A Musical Journey Through Spain with Zlatko Josip Grgić

For more than four decades, Evenings on Grič has been a hallmark of Zagreb’s cultural life during the summer months. When the city’s concert halls close their doors at the end of the season, classical music lovers make their way to the Upper Town, where one of the oldest summer music festivals — Evenings on Grič — takes place in the atrium of the Klovićevi Dvori Gallery.

On the third day of the festival, July 13, young guitarist Zlatko Josip Grgić will perform a solo concert at Klovićevi Dvori entitled A Musical Journey Through Spain and Spanish Cities. With his playing style and the deep emotion he conveys through the guitar, Zlatko will take the audience on a journey through the history of Spanish music.

Surrounded from an early age by some of the world’s best guitarists — including Leo Witoszynskyj and Tommy Emmanuel — Zlatko was taught by his father, a guitar professor. In his performances, he emphasizes emotion, authenticity, and expressiveness, continuing the tradition of the old Spanish and Catalan guitar school. This lineage leads directly through professors Leo Witoszynskyj and Luise Walker to the great guitarist Miguel Llobet, a student of Francisco Tárrega.

While attending the Vatroslav Lisinski Music School in Zagreb, Zlatko regularly performed at the school’s gala concerts. In early 2017, he received the Distinction Award at the international competition Dr. Jovan Jovičić in Novi Sad. Later that same year, through a collaboration with renowned restorer Gabriele Lodi, he performed at the Museum of Violins in Cremona on the 200th anniversary of the birth of Antonio de Torres, at the opening of an exhibition of Torres guitars.

He also recorded Serenata Española by Joaquim Malats for a documentary about Antonio de Torres currently being produced by Spanish television, featuring some of the world’s greatest guitarists.

In December 2018, Zlatko gave a successful concert in Barcelona on the famous Torres guitar La Invencible (“The Invincible”) — the only guitar listed as a national treasure of Spain. On that occasion, the Spanish nicknamed him Torres’ Whisperer.

In 2019, he performed on the same guitar in the crypt of St. Peter’s Church in Vienna — the first time the guitar had ever left Spain. The goal of this concert was to symbolically connect the Spanish and Viennese guitar schools, a connection first made by Miguel Llobet and Luise Walker. Back in 1924, Llobet brought a guitar made by Santos Hernández from Madrid to Vienna for Luise Walker. Walker later passed the guitar on to her student Leo Witoszynskyj, who then passed it to Zlatko’s father, and finally to Zlatko himself. Today, Zlatko Josip Grgić performs on this very guitar, a living embodiment of the rich tradition and mutual influence of the two guitar schools. He also performs on an 1890 guitar crafted by Antonio de Torres.

This year, the Evenings on Grič Festival is celebrating its 43rd edition, running from July 11 to 22, featuring seven exceptional musical evenings. As in previous years, the 43rd Evenings on Grič will present leading names in classical music, artists who grace concert stages across Croatia and the world.

With a high-quality program and diverse musical repertoire, the 43rd edition of Evenings on Grič once again confirms its standing among Europe’s premier chamber music festivals, turning Zagreb’s Upper Town into a vibrant hub of art and culture that is not to be missed.

Tickets for all concerts can be purchased online at ulaznice.hr or at the venue one hour before the performance begins.