PARIS -- French classical guitarist Alexandre Lagoya died in Paris Tuesday aged 70, his family announced. Lagoya and his French wife Ida Presti, who died in the United States in 1967, formed a world renowned classical guitar duo. After his wife's death, Lagoya forged a solo career while teaching many young guitarists in Paris. Born on June 21, 1929 in Alexandria, Egypt of a Greek father and an Italian mother, Lagoya discovered the guitar at the tender age of seven.

"It was a shock, the revelation of my life," he remembered later. At 13 he gave his first public concert in Alexandria. By 15 he was already teaching guitar and music. "To me the guitar is the most human of instruments," he once said, "you hold it against your heart". His career really took off in France, after he arrived here in 1950, subsequently taking French nationality.

In 1952 he married Presti. In 1969 he began teaching in Paris' Music Conservatory, and continued to do so until 1994. Lagoya, who garnered many gold records, turned the guitarist from accompanist to concert virtuoso. His career took him to the most famous concert halls in the world, and at the height of his powers he was giving 100 concerts a year with a repertoire stretching from contemporary music to the great classics.

Lagoya considered himself a student of the world. "I was brought to be familiar with all nations, all languages, all cuisines and all religions," he would say. The guitarist was also a keen sportsman; a former amateur boxer who exercised daily. He even told his students that it was better to do some physical exercise to strengthen the arms and the fingers than spend eight hours a day practising the guitar.

He was awarded the French Legion d'Honneur in 1994. (AFP)