Classical guitarist Lars Hannibal has been especially noted for cross-genre and cross-cultural experiments, particularly in late in his career. He has often performed chamber music with recorder player Michala Petri, to whom he was married for many years. Hannibal was born on July 15, 1951, in Aarhus, Denmark, and has lived in that city for most of his life. Hannibal played in rock bands as a teen and was enthusiastic about the music of the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and Bob Dylan. He switched to classical guitar after hearing Spanish guitarist Andrés Segovia playing Bach's music but continues to play in Aarhus rock bands from time to time. Hannibal attended the Royal Conservatory of Music in Aarhus, studying guitar, and went on for lute studies in The Hague with Toyohiko Satoh. In 1972, he joined the faculty of the Peter Sabroe National Institute for Social Educators in Aarhus. He has toured the world on various chamber groupings. Hannibal married recorder player Michala Petri in 1992. The couple divorced in 2010 but have continued to perform and record together; Hannibal and Petri have given some 1,500 performances, made many recordings, and formed a recording company, OUR Recordings. Hannibal has also partnered with several other players, including violinists Kim Sjøgren and Tina Chen Yi, and he formed an unusual guitar-trumpet duo with Michael Brydenfeldt. Since the mid-2000s decade, Hannibal has become interested in cross-cultural fusions. At the 2010 Shanghai World Expo, he performed with Chinese musicians, and with Petri and pipa player Yan Jiang, he formed the group Quartet-East Meets West. That has grown into a larger project called Dialogue-East Meets West that promotes artistic interchange between Denmark and China. Hannibal has also collaborated with jazz musicians Palle Mikkelborg, Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen, and Svend Asmussen. Hannibal has a large catalog of collaborative recordings. He and Petri made several recordings for the RCA Red Seal label in the 1990s and early 2000s. In 2006, they launched the OUR Recordings with the album Siesta. With Sjøgren, he has recorded ten albums for the EMI label. His album Memory, recorded in 1999 with Brydenfeldt, reached the top levels of Danish pop charts as well as classical. With Sjøgren, Hannibal released an album of works by Sarasate and Paganini on OUR Recordings in 2020. ~ James Manheim