Joaquin Clerch was born in Cuba on August 8th, 1965. He received the prestigious artistic award "La Orden por la Cultura Nacional" from the Cuban government. He studied guitar, music, and composition in Cuba and completed his education at the University of the Arts in 1989. Later, he continued his studies at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg, where he studied guitar with Eliot Fisk and early music with Anthony Spiri and Nikolaus Harnoncourt. He completed his studies in Salzburg with honors in 1991 and received the Austrian Federal Ministry of Science and Research's appreciation award for his remarkable artistic achievements. In the same year, he started his international teaching career as an assistant to Professor Fisk at the Salzburg Mozarteum, and then became a lecturer at the Munich Academy of Music. He has been a Guitar Professor at the Robert Schumann University of Music in Düsseldorf since 1999. He is known for being one of the leading guitar teachers, and many of his students have received international awards and prizes at the most important competitions. They are now considered among the top guitarists worldwide and teach at conservatories and music academies around the globe.

          Joaquín Clerch has won several major guitar competitions, including the Andres Segovia in Granada, Heitor Villa Lobos in Rio de Janeiro, Printemps de la Guitare in Charleroi/Brussels, and the ARD competition in Munich. His guitar playing has taken him to essential concert halls around the world such as Concertgebouw / Amsterdam, Palacio de la Musica / Barcelona, Theatre Royal de la Monnaie / Brussels, Alte Oper / Frankfurt, Semperoper / Dresden, Auditorio Manuel de Falla / Granada, Teatro Nacional / Havana, Cemal Resit Rey / Istanbul, Kölner Philharmonie / Cologne, Brucknerhaus / Linz, Auditorio Nacional de Musica / Madrid, Münchener Philharmonie / Munich, Radio France / Paris, Beijing Concert Hall / Beijing or Konzerthaus / Vienna.  As a soloist, he has performed with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de España, the Orquesta Nacional de Cuba, the Filarmónica de Bogotá, the Stuttgart Philharmonic Orchestra, the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, the Orchestre Nacional du Capitole de Toulouse (under the direction of Michel Plasson) and also with the Orquesta Filarmónica de Gran Canaria under the direction of Adrian Leaper, with whom he made the world's first recording of the two guitar concertos by Leo Brouwer and Carlos Fariñas (El Concierto de la Habana, 1998, and Concierto, 1996), both dedicated to him. Leo Brouwer and Carlos Fariñas were Joaquín Clerch's teachers and are undoubtedly among the most influential composers in the history of Cuba.  Alongside his concert activities, Joaquin Clerch is also active as a composer. Schott Music Group publishes his compositions for guitar under the Edition Chanterelle label and can also be heard on the Naxos label.  Duo-phon records and MDG have released his recordings of his guitar concertos.  He has received significant prizes for his CD recordings, including the Echo Prize for the CD Classica Cubana and the Cuba Disco Prize for recording the complete guitar works of Carlos Fariñas.