Classical guitarist Ricardo Gallén was born in Linares, Jaén, Spain on March 12, 1972. He began playing the guitar at the age of four and performed in public for the first time a year later. He began studying classical guitar at the Conservatory of Music in Cordoba, Spain at the age of 10. He continued his studies at the Conservatories of Jaén, Madrid, Granada, and Cordoba. He also attended several universities to study ancient music as well as guitar. Signing to Naxos Records, he released his debut album, Guitar Recital, in 2000. The album became one of the best-selling albums for the label in 2001. Ricardo Gallén began his teaching career and served as a professor at Ramon Llull University in Spain from 2001 to 2006. He also taught at several other schools including Mozarteum University of Salzburg (2004-2009), the University of Extremadura, Spain (2005-2013), and others. In between teaching jobs, he continued to give recitals, either solo, in duets, or with orchestras all over the world. He continued his recording career with albums such as Variations Fanchon, Folies D'Espagne, Tancreddi with Mauro Giuliani (2002), Bach: Complete Lute Works (2013), Sor: Guitar Sonatas (2014), Estampas Latinas (2017), En Silencio (2018), and Guitar Sonatas with Leo Brouwer (2019).
