His face is familiar to symphony-goers since he has played with the Bangor Symphony Orchestra for 15 years. Yet, the Bolivian-born cellist has another passion, one few of his fellow musicians know anything about.

Juan Condori, 43, plays guitar in the classical style he learned as a boy in La Paz. He plays in Bangor-area restaurants and for private parties and weddings. He recently has discovered that he can experiment with different musical styles on the guitar that he can’t do on the cello.

“Not many composers write specifically for the guitar,” he explained in the practice room of his Bangor apartment. “But because of the Internet, it is so easy to locate new music … I have some new Celtic music, but you can hear traditional themes in it. I am working on works by a German composer.”

Condori performs only instrumental pieces and holds the guitar almost upright, rather than perpendicular to his body as guitarists commonly do. He plucks and strums the strings with his fingertips rather than using his nails or a pick.

“Andres Segovia brought to popularity playing with the nails,” he said. “I prefer the no-nail sound. I like the tonal quality of playing just with flesh.”

The guitar was the first instrument Condori mastered. Raised by his mother, who was an importer, Condori’s home in Bolivia’s capital was full of musicians and artists. Two of his brothers are fine artists — one a painter, the other a sculptor. As a youngster, Condori took lessons from Pedro Garcia, a renowned Spanish classical guitarist who had fled the fascist regime of Francisco Franco.

As a teen-ager, Condori took up the cello and played with the Bolivian Youth Orchestra. In 1978, he met Julia Adams, a viola player from a chamber music quartet based in Portland. She arranged for Condori to take a two-week seminar at Sugarloaf that summer. He had planned to stay in the United States about three weeks; the musician never moved back to his native land.

Instead, he earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Southern Maine and a master’s degree from Syracuse University. The musician lived for a time in Mexico, but wanted to return to Maine, a difficult place to make a living solely from music. In 1990, four years after becoming a U.S. citizen, Condori settled in Bangor for good.

The guitarist-cellist has pieced together a career that has included performing and teaching as well as work in nonmusical fields. For six years, he worked for the Christian Science Monitor Broadcasting Co., whose tower was located in Greenbush. Today, he works part time in the library at Eastern Maine Medical Center.

“I picked up the cello, thinking it would be my complementary instrument,” said Condori, “but started making my living with the cello. The guitar was neglected for 10 or 15 years until five years ago when I bought a new guitar and started practicing again.”

That new guitar was one a friend made in Brazil. When he began playing that instrument, he discovered that what had held him back was the poor quality of his previous guitar. Condori rediscovered the joy he had felt as a teen-ager playing the new instrument.

“When I started playing again, I wondered how could I have lived without the guitar for all those years,” he said. “But, it is difficult to keep up with my practicing on two instruments. When I am doing good on the cello, my guitar playing pays for it and vice versa.”

Condori also can play a third instrument, but rarely finds time to practice the charango. A 10-stringed instrument made from the skin of an armadillo, it is a Bolivian folk instrument similar to the Baroque guitar. With the lowest note on the middle strings, it has the same characteristics and tuning as that instrument, which was brought to South America by Spanish conquistadors.

It is a melodic instrument used in rhythmic Bolivian folk tunes, strummed very fast. In addition to not having enough time to devote to the charango, Condori rarely plays the instrument because its high-frequency sounds send his dog and cat into a tizzy.

In contrast, when he practices cello or guitar, the two rest quietly, almost reverently, at his feet.

In taking up the guitar again and gathering music from around the globe to play, Condori discovered that ancient and modern music share something in common. Both use the pentatonic scale. Whether it is Celtic music or the folk songs of his native land, the five-note scale can be heard in many different styles.

Condori admits that his music career is a patchwork that includes the BSO, the Harbor Harmony Trio with violinists Arnold Liver and Janet Ciano, his students and nonmusical ventures.

“But, it doesn’t seem that I am crazy doing music in Maine,” he confessed. “People appreciate the arts here and I enjoy the place and the people.”

Juan Condori will perform during the dinner hour at J.B. Parker’s in Bangor on July 15 and 28. For more information, contact the musician at 990-3073 or e-mail Juan.Condori@Juno.com.