Alberto Ponce was born in Madrid in 1935.
His father was his first teacher.
At an early age he attended the Municipial Conservatoire in Barcelona where, as well as
the guitar, he studied the piano, harmony and chamber music.
He left the Conservatoire with distinction and at this time met a person who was to be a
a capitol influence in his career: Emilio Pujol.
The great catalan musician requested him to come to the Conservatoire in Lisbon.
After three years studyng there Ponce followed him to the Accademia Chigiana in
Siena. There he mainly pursued his interest in the music of The Spanish Golden Age.
In 1961 Nadia Boulanger asked him to come to Conservatoire in Fontainebleau.
In the same year he was appointed by the director Alfred Cortot to teach the guitar at
the Ecole Normale de Musique in Paris, where his teaching methods without precedent
were used to create one of the most prolific schools of contemporary guitar.
For many years Ponce was the only guitarist to devote the main part of his time to the
early and contemporary music which was often negleted. In doing so he made an
extensive contribution to the present renewal of interest and to the appearance of new
composition (first performance of the guitar works of Mauriche Ohana, dedicatee of
many works by Chayne, Dyens, Ravier, Ruiz-Pipò).
Alberto Ponce was guitar teacher at the Paris Conservatoire.