Miloš Karadaglić: 'A career is merely a side effect of what I do'

Many remember how refreshing it was on first hearing guitarist Miloš Karadaglić, whether his early recordings, radio performances or interviews. However new this exciting and different approach may seem to the outside observer, Karadaglić (who goes by the stage name Miloš) has spent most of his life working on this fresh ethos, arriving at his trademark attitude via strong beliefs and passion, not impulsive whims, nor as any recording company's marketing ploy.

Between Australian and USA concert dates, Miloš arrived at our Zoom meeting from cycling on a grey day in London rain. A brief chat about our preferred method of transport around the capital soon turned to music.

Enquiring about his career path so far, I mentioned touring, recording, teaching, publishing as well as radio and television work where his encouragement of young and amateur musicians has been particularly articulated. ‘There are a lot of questions there!’ Miloš smiled with a promise to try to answer fully, tackling my implied nuances perceptively, eloquently and courteously. ‘Something about the word 'career' makes me uncomfortable. Rather I am following my instinct and my passion – a career is merely a side effect of what I do, which is music. Performing concerts around the world is my passion’. In this role he feels ‘responsible for inspiration and influence, also as a refuge and partnership in a complex world’.

His route towards a worldwide concert diary eschewed the well-trodden path of competitions and, perhaps, their resultant specific demands upon players. Studying at the Royal Academy of Music from the age of 17, he continues to live in London, keeping close links to Montenegro where he was born in 1983. The Miloš Karadaglić Foundation now provides opportunities there, via donations with no political or governmental ties. These principles seem to reflect the independent musical life of the organisation's founder. It can be easily forgotten that Miloš, one of the world's most prominent and respected classical guitarists, spent ‘eight or nine years as a teacher’ while also working hard towards his current musical profile.

When studying Play Guitar with Miloš (Schott) with students, teachers experience a different approach – both inviting and fervent – from the outset of book Level 1 of the four-volume series. Miloš commented ‘I try to expose methods to a wider audience’ adding, characteristically: ‘this is not the only way to do this.’ A pleasurable gravitas encourages pupils to play with passion, enjoying every moment of their learning journeys. His conclusion, shared by many guitar tutors, that ‘some books had become very dry’ illuminates his view of the instrument and its place in the musical and wider world.

©Andy Earl/Mercury Classics

Though more visible and audible now than when my generation of guitar and lute players started, the guitar has been a small community within classical music (itself just one part of a musical universe available to today's listening public). Miloš feels that, while beautiful in its own way, the guitar world was a comfortable niche ripe for a shake-up. He was ready to ‘break the glass ceiling’. In a previous interview with Miloš for CM some years ago, I mentioned such players as Laura Snowden. He seems driven to have made changes: ‘opening doors’ and is ‘encouraged by colleagues doing what they are doing’. It is clear there are new ways now of being a classical guitarist, and new ways to hear that. Enquiring if his generation were all pursuing a similar path, perhaps outside the mainstream of the music industry, I was given a forthright ‘no: they are following their own paths – within the music industry’. Miloš entirely embodies this philosophy, choosing to take his own unique path, break new ground and do things in different ways than have been tried previously.

His UK tour, with the Arcangelo Ensemble (visiting Norwich, Middlesborough, Sheffield, Bradford and – after Dublin – Warwick from 14 January to 9 March 2024) takes in the wonderfully guitar-friendly space of London's Cadogan Hall and features many pieces from the new album Baroque, including Boccherini's Fandango. Having included this work on his first recording Mediterráneo (2011) – ‘as a bonus track I think’ – I was surprised to find it on an album entitled Baroque. Already ahead, Miloš interposed ‘perhaps Rococo’. Or early classical? ‘Why not?’, accompanied by a knowing smile, preceded a perceptive challenge that baroque was more a way of performing than anything else, and that any music could be included here and played thus.

This latest album seems a culmination of a musical journey so far. The programming exudes great care. The opening slow, concise Aria (Scarlatti's D minor sonata K.32), encourages (almost demands) us to take our time and listen, its beauty and soft drama avoiding any meaningless virtuosity. More serene surprises, such as a scordatura Handel Menuet (played in its original flat key) where virtuosity serves content, are interspersed with vibrant choices.

Did this perhaps result from his new partnership with Sony Classical, meaning the next albums might be 'Rococo'...'Classical'...'Romantic'? A wry smile. ‘No’, then serious passion about the organic journey from Deutsche Grammophon to Decca to Sony Classical: ‘I had wanted to do this album for a very long time and the final result is exactly the album I wanted to do. It is important to know the right time to try something else, you owe it to yourself, and this can happen at a certain age’ ...brushing his hand through his hair again, this time not wiping away residual raindrops but to comment upon a few grey hairs.

Concerning how he inspires others and being a role model, he found one anecdote I related ‘beautiful’, and our conversation is littered with comparable words: ‘expression’, ‘emotion’, ‘passion’. Another, appropriate to describe the man and artist: delight.

Miloš's tour with the Arcangelo Ensemble will run from 14 January to 9 March 2024, you can find more information, including tickets, here.