02 Jan Gerundino Fernández
Gerundino Fernández was born in Almería in 1931.
Being the eighth child of a family with ten children, he started playing the guitar very young, and worked as a carpenter and cabinetmaker until 1956, when he started working exclusively as a guitar maker, and not only making guitars, but also mandolins. His brother, Eladio, provided him with the best wood of that time.
He was awarded plenty of times during his career. For example, he received a prize in the International festival of guitar makers in Ronda (1978), or the award of first prize to the best acoustics in an international contest arranged by UNESCO in Paris, also in 1978.
Married to Josefa Llamas, she died in 1996. He was very affected also from degenerative osteoarthritis and acute deafness, he started leading a bohemian life, always surrounded by his friends in the “peña flamenco El Morato”, in his neighbourhood “El quemadero” (Almería).
He died on the 14th of March, 2006.
His guitars have been chosen by great professionals, as Paco Peña, Tomatito, Pedro Bacán, or Raimundo Amador, who wrote a song to his guitar, “La Gerundina”.