3nsambl3

Our History

Since mid-2011, the 3nsambl3 guitar trio came together with the purpose to form an original repertoire, based on unique and unpublished compositions, arrangements and transcriptions, as well as fostering improvisation (in spite of this characteristic being more often associated with jazz projects). In this context, we have worked on original music (particularly the Frippeanas homage to Robert Fripp - as well as Diferencias sobre El Papelero de Pérez Prado, by Guillermo González Phillips) as well as arrangements of pieces by Frank Zappa, Egberto Gismonti and Hermeto Pascoal (among others).

At the beginning of 2012 , we received an invitation from our colleague Maestro Ernesto García de León, to assemble and record his works written at that time for quartet (having an impressive catalogue of works for our instrument). In this way we decided to integrate him to our project changing the trio´s name (3nsambl3) onto the one of the quartet: 3NS4MBL3. Alongside the new and prominent member, our group undertook the task of recording a CD for trio (Santo Antonio), and the CD that contains the integral works for quartet by Ernesto García de León: Fantasía Tropical (both published by Ediciones Pentagrama).

The history of the characters wich make up this group is interwoven in a tradition which is intimately linked to its final aim: Fernando Mariña and Ernesto García de León had worked as a duo (Dúo García de León-Mariña), touring nationally and internationally, whose work was documented in the CD "Los Espiritus de la Selva" (released by PENTAGRAMA), in which they played music for guitar duo written by García de León, as well as significant improvisational segments. In 2010, Guillermo González Phillips and Fernando Mariña recorded the 3nsambl3 CD "Música Mexicana para Guitarra" with guitarist Gabriela Alvarado (who left the group and is now based in Belfast, Ireland), also released by PENTAGRAMA, which features Guillermo González Phillips' "Frippeanas", works by other Mexican authors, as well as improvised tracks. Guillermo González Phillips has also participated since 1983 as a guitarist and composer in the improvisation and collective creation workshop BANDA ELÁSTICA, with whom he recorded 3 LPs and 7 CDs in which individual and collective creation is intertwined with improvisation into the final result.

The addition of the young Mexican guitarist Jesús Serrano (replacing Gabriela Alvarado) not only endowed the project with new blood and energy, but also increased its creative potential considerably due to his virtuosity, which has led him to win first awards at national and international guitar competitions. He also allowed the group to be technologically independent, since his studies in audio engineering and recording gear have let him record the group ("Santo Antonio" and "Fantasía Tropical", this last one as a quartet with Ernesto García de León) with outstanding results. And since the final weeks of 2016, 3nsambl3 has the pleasure to welcome as a member the young Mexican guitarist Eduardo Aguilar who is standing in for Jesús Serrano whose professional and academic life do not allow him to be with us in the immediate future.

To sum up, the aim of 3NSAMBL3 is, on the one hand, to raise awareness on the work of authors who are not often played in a classical music environmet, and on the other, to reclaim the playful character in a type of music which has been unfairly drawn away from the taste of a general public by encasing it in a sheath of artificial and pompous solemnity.

Guillermo González Phillips, January 2015/2017.

On november 2009, 3nsambl3 performed a debut concert during a cicle of guitar concerts held by the teachers of Academia de Guitarra de la Escuela Superior de Música (ESM) del Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes (INBA). Since then, they have performed at Facultad de Estudios Superiores Acatlán, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM); XXXV and XLII Festival de Jazz de la ESM, 2010 and 2015; Ciclo de Guitarra 2010 and 2013, Carlos Chávez Hall, UNAM; IX International Festival "Guitarra sin Fronteras" in Chihuahua, Mexico, 2011; the city of Amecameca, Mexico; at the opening of the 6th. Festival de la Memoria Documental Iberoamericano, Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico, 2012; 2nd. Festival de Guitarra de Radio UNAM, Mexico, 2012; XIV Encuentro Internacional de Guitarra del Centro Nacional de las Artes, Mexico, 2012; Museo Nacional de Arte of Mexico celebrating 85 years of the life of poet Enrique González Rojo Arthur, 2013; I and II Festival Internacional de Guitarra Real de Catorce, San Luis Potosí, Mexico, 2015 and 2016; Museo Universitario del Chopo of UNAM; Universidad Autónoma de la Ciudad de México celebrating 87 years of the life of poet Enrique González Rojo Arthur, 2015; XXVII Feria Internacional del Libro of Museo Nacional de Antropolgía e Historia of Mexico, 2015; 40th. Aniversary of Museo de la Caricatura of Mexico, 2015; Cicle "La Guitarra" of Ediciones Pentagrama, 2015; VIII Encuentro Internacional de Guitarras de Cartago, Costa Rica, 2016; Public Lybrary of San Miguel de Allende, Mexico; IV International Guitar Festival "A Cuerda Viva", 2017 in El Salvador, among others...

"When I started as a professor at Academia de Guitarra of Escuela Superior de Música de Bellas Artes (October 2008) I had the pleasure of meeting Maestro Fernando Mariña and Gabriela Alvarado (student from the same institution) who performed that same year at Encuentro Internacional de Guitarra as a guitar duet. Fernando effusively told me about his interest in the minimalism trend of electric guitar represented by Robert Fripp (guitarist and leader of the legendary King Crimson). So I promised him to compose a duet in that orientation. After a few days he gave me his consent for the piece and asked me if I would be interested in joining the chamber music work that he and Gabriela were developing and, at the same time, he proposed me to write more pieces but for a trio by the time being. From such anecdote emerged my incorporation to 3nsambl3 and the creation of ten musical pieces up to now which represent an approach to Robert Fripp's musical field, but for classical guitar". Guillermo González Phillips, January 17th, 2010.

"For me, the question was how to continue playing chamber music constantly after 6 years of performing with the Dúo García de León-Mariña. The following first experience after that was a duet concert along with Victor Pellegrini, my teacher, under the sponsorship of XXVIII Foro Internacional de Música Nueva Manuel Enríquez. Unbelievable and unforgettable, but impossible to establish ourselves as a duet. Later on there came experiences with Gabriela Alvarado, my pupil at Escuela Superior de Música of INBA. They were also excellent but, suddenly, I asked myself: why again a guitar duet? And at the same time I had the opportunity of meeting and becoming a friend of Maestro Guillermo González Phillips. So 3nsambl3 made its first performance on Wednesday November 11th, 2009 at 222 Hall in Escuela Superior de Música of INBA, campus CNA. On that occasion we played 6 out of 10 pieces that Guillermo had composed and a trio by Ernesto García de León. What will become afterwards belongs to a history which is about to be written...". Fernando Mariña, January 19th, 2010-February 27th. 2014.