The 2016 Melbourne International Guitar Festival, held over Sept 23-25 at the prestigious Melba Hall, Melbourne University, will see a culmination of the world’s biggest international stars for concerts, workshops, classes and a performance competition.
If this is anything like the 2015 Festival Melbourne is in for a real treat. The Festival’s organisers, Evan Hopkins and Michael MacManus of the Melbourne Guitar Foundation, are just off the charts in terms of the passion, enthusiasm, sense of purpose and professionalism when it comes to the promotion of the classical guitar here in Melbourne and Australia. And they’re not too shabby on the guitar themselves either! Having watched them grow and develop over recent years I have been seriously impressed with their level of dedication and highly professional approach to getting events such as this Festival up and running.
If you’re in Melbourne you should really make a point of getting along and checking out at least one of the four cracking concerts, three masterclasses, workshops, presentations and performance competition that the guys have in store for us.
Building from the inaugural 2015 Melbourne International Guitar Festival, the Melbourne Guitar Foundation (MGF) are making 2016 a year to remember.
This year’s festival, held at the prestigious Melba Hall at Melbourne University on Sept 23-25, will see some of the world’s biggest international stars converge over a 3 day festival of concerts, workshops, presentations, classes and a performance competition.
“A large aim of ours is building community involvement, and making the classical guitar accessible to the general public. Many of our events over this weekend are FREE to attend, so we don’t want anyone to feel left out! Music should be for everyone!” – Festival co-director Michael MacManus
You won’t find steel strings at this festival, as it focuses on the dolce tones of the nylon classical guitar. The performances on show will demonstrate popular Spanish masterpieces, edgy Brazilian rhythms, Irish folk music, European works and a number of world and Australian premieres.
The artists include two of Australia’s most respected instrumentalists, Tim Kain (guitar) and Virginia Taylor (flute), Italian Adriano del Sal, Brazilian Chrystian Dozza, Canberra based Brew Guitar Duo (Matt Withers and Bradley Kunda), and the Victorian Guitar Orchestra.
The performance competition ranges from beginner to the highly competitive Open category. First prize includes $1000 cash and an 8 concert Australian tour. There have been entries from across all of Australia and even as far away as Italy! It promises to be a remarkable showcase of virtuoso talent.
To view the full festival schedule please visit http://melbourneguitarfoundation.com/2016-festival-competition-schedule/
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