South African guitarist Derek Gripper is the kind of musician who makes painstakingly difficult technique sound like the product of effortless musicianship and adventurous curiosity. Though he trained a classical violinist, he is perhaps best known for transcribing music played on the 21-stringkorainstrument from West Africa and arranging it for guitar. Last year, he presented aTEDx talkabout his work and we strongly encourage you to check it out. This week, we chatted with Derek about his journey from violins to guitar, sojourn full of detours to places like India and Mali and composers like Bach and Toumani Diabaté.

William Kanengiser:I’m sitting here with the great maestro Pepe Romero, discussing his All-Bach recital on January 10 that will kick off the 2014 New York Guitar Festival. Pepe, quite a few years ago, you did a series of All-Bach recitals; is this one at the Brookfield Place Winter Garden the first one in a long time?