Guitarist Göran Söllscher to perform Dec. 8

Göran Söllscher, a classical guitarist celebrated for his virtuosity and for a repertoire reaching from the Baroque to the Beatles to the present, performs at Bates at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 8, in the Olin Arts Center Concert Hall, 75 Russell St.

Tickets are $12, available at batestickets.com. A limited number of free tickets for students and seniors are available, also at bit.ly/oacbates. For more information about these two concerts, please call 207-786-6163.

Söllscher’s “smooth, relaxed playing style…ensures a clarity of projection that allows the listener to grasp the essentials of each piece while ensuring ample space for fantasy to work its magic,” writes the International Record Review.

Söllscher has appeared worldwide in recitals and concerts with leading orchestras, and appears frequently on radio and television. His exceptionally wide repertoire includes Renaissance music, standard concertos for guitar and orchestra, and contemporary music, often written especially for him.

Söllscher was born in 1955 in Växjö, Sweden. He grew up in Kalmar on the east coast of Sweden and started to play the guitar at the age of 7.

In 1978, at the age of 23, Söllscher won the Concours International de Guitare in Paris, an international classical guitar competition.

The following year he released his debut album on Deutsche Grammophon, featuring works by J.S. Bach and Sor. He has released more than two dozen recordings, including albums dedicated to Paganini, Tango Nuevo composer Astor Piazzolla, Schubert and Baroque music for 11-string guitar — which he will use in the Bates concert — along with 2007’s Reverie, a collection of popular melodies and rarely heard miniatures that he performs with cellist Jian Wang.