Laura Lootens’s Shape of My Heart, released by naïve classiques on 9 October 2026, places guitar originals alongside transcriptions of piano music and songs. Its repertoire follows connections between Romantic keyboard writing, the guitar’s own nineteenth- and twentieth-century literature, and later popular melody.
A programme shaped by arrangements
Chopin supplies several points of reference, with arrangements by Jerzy Koenig and Tariq Harb. Barrios is represented by Mazurka Apasionada and the two familiar waltzes from Op. 8. Sérgio Assad appears both as composer, through the seventh of his Preludios Chopinianos, and as arranger of John Field’s Notturno in B-flat major.
The programme also includes Mertz’s Élégie. Roland Dyens’s arrangements bring in Hymne à l’amour and La Chanson des vieux amants, before Lootens’s own arrangement of Sting and Dominic Miller’s title song. The album’s accompanying announcement identifies that song as a favourite dating back to her teenage years. Album announcement and complete track list.
From Albéniz to a broader recital
The release follows Lootens’s 2023 Albéniz recording and Diabolico, issued in 2025. Her official biography records first and special prizes at the 2022 Andrés Segovia International Competition. She began studying with Franz Halász at fourteen, entered the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich the following year, and later joined its faculty after completing her master’s degree.
That recording background gives the new programme a clear place in her discography: after an album devoted to Albéniz and the contrasting repertoire of Diabolico, this recital brings several composers and arrangers into the same solo-guitar setting. Artist biography.
Information checked 1 November 2026.
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