Three years ago, Miloš Karadaglić was at the pinnacle of his career

Miloš Karadaglić was at the pinnacle of his career. He had been performing for a decade in some of the world’s finest venues, including a solo recital at Royal Albert Hall in London – the first ever for a classical guitarist. His debut album topped classical charts around the world, he had a recording deal with Deutsche Grammophon, and his subsequent albums were hugely successful, leading The Telegraph to dub him “classical music’s guitar hero.”

Then, in late 2016, Miloš was suddenly struck down by a debilitating hand injury that left him unable to play. It was a crushing blow.
 
“I developed a repetitive strain-like hand injury, which quickly spiraled into bigger issues,” Miloš said. “There were moments I thought, and was told, I would never be able to play again.”

A pending international tour was canceled.

“It took time and a huge support network to heal and recover,” he said. “I needed to rest, rebuild my self-belief and re-evaluate my relationship with music and the world I was part of. It was the most important lesson of my adult life and I now feel much stronger and better than ever before."

Now, after nearly two years off, Miloš is back.

His newest recording (his fifth studio album), Sound of Silence, is the first since Blackbird, the Beatles album he released in 2016, just before his injury. Like his previous recordings, it has been getting rave reviews. The title is a very poignant reference to his period of enforced artistic quietude, and it includes both classical guitar pieces as well as his interpretations of modern hits like the Simon and Garfunkel title track, Radiohead’s Street Spirit, and Leonard Cohen’s Pale Blue Raincoat.

But it is on the stage, performing live, where Miloš is most in his element. As he told an interviewer, “When I play, I always feel like I’m going to so many danger zones and so many hot spots... it’s like a car race, there are always these curves, little twists and turns that really make your head spin.”

You can see and hear Miloš tear up the track at Festival Boca on March 1 in Mizner Ampitheater.