“Emerging Guitar Talents” – 2019

The 7th edition of the „Emerging Guitar Talents” will take place between 7-9 June 2019 at Arts School no. 5 in Bucharest.

The competition will contain two sections: „Hobby” and „Performance”.

The „Hobby” section is organized by classes ranging from preschool and grade 0, passing through grades 1-12 and reaching the „Open” category, with no age limit.

The Performance section is organized by age categories: A category (8-11 years old), B category (12-15 years old) and C category (16-23 years old).

Substantial prizes provided by PC GARAGE (www.pcgarage.ro) will be awarded during the competition. Awards include IT and electronic products such as: mobile phones, tablets, TVs, home gadgets, selfie sticks, headsets, keyboards and other IT accesories.

We are glad and honored to be able to offer such awards with the help of our sponsors who are joining us each year in recognizing the work of young artists in their musical affirmation.

The guitar maker Samuel Zamfir de Souza (www.atelierdesouza@gmail.com) will make a special guitar for this edition of the competition, which will be handed to the 1st prize winner in the „Performance” section, C category.  Samuel’ s guitars are done with great care at details and have the characteristics of those instruments made by a luthier with wonderful vocation.

The musical shop „Rapsodia” (www.magazinulrapsodia.ro) will offer a guitar such as the Grand Prix of the „Hobby” section.

We would like to thank our partners: Telegraf Print (www.papetaria.ro), Tecnoservice Equipment (www.tecnos.ro), Totunik (www.totunik.ro), Suprasoft (www.suprasoft.ro), Arts School no. 5.

It is a great pleasure to observe a growing interest in classical guitar in Romania, both from the participants and from those involved in thier preparation and support. Through the passion and dedication of those who know the benefits of studying this instrument and the beauty it can reveal, the guitar can become, in time, an ambasador of Romanian and universal culture, both inside the country and abroad.

Samuel Zamfir de Souza – 2018 Luthier of the “Guitar Talents” Competition

The guitar maker Samuel Zamfir de Souza will award a special guitar for the 6th edition of the International Guitar Competition “Guitar Talents”, June 8-10, 2018. We are glad to have him with us and we invite you to read a few lines written by Samuel:

“When I first learned how to play acoustic guitar at school, I had already started dreaming about making my own one, someday.

This never happened for over 15 years. I grew up in a small Scottish village on the North East Coast of Scotland. 

Farming, fishing, whisky making and the Oil and Gas industry were what defined the region. Although I always knew that I could build a guitar, being a luthier was not something that in my mind I associated with the real world. It belonged to times past and places far away.

At the beginning of 2016, when my son turned 2 and with another child on the way I told my wife that this is the year that I will make my first guitar.

I only had a book to learn from, but had sourced some very good Romanian spruce and maple. A couple of months later I had indeed accomplished my dream of a lifetime. I had built my first guitar. In October of the same year I went to Spain to do a course, learning how to build Spanish guitars using the traditional methods. The course was and still is run by master luthier Pablo Requena, to whom I am indebted for passing on solid construction techniques and his rigorousness when it comes to details.

The process of building a guitar is a very long one with many steps. If you are focused on creating the best possible guitar, you push yourself to your limits, but it’s immensely fulfilling to take each piece of wood, one of a kind in quality and aesthetics, and to give it a specific purpose; when I can inlay the beautiful rosette, bring the neck, top, back and sides together, when the guitar is first strung up and I hear its unique sound, the amount of job satisfaction I get is indescribable. Then there is also the knowledge that what I have created can now go on in the care of the player’s hands and may well be with the same player for a lifetime, and then go on being played for many more lifetimes – this is really a humbling feeling. And how humbling it is to represent a craft that carries the passion, experience, trials and errors, and successes of great masters such as Antonio de Torres, Hermann Hauser and Daniel Friedrich”.

The prizes of the Guitar Talents competition 2018

The prizes of the Emerging Guitar Talents competition will be very special also this year. PC GARAGE will offer prizes in a total amount of approximately 3500 EURO consisting of mobile phones, tablets, video cameras, TVs, laptops, products that are extremely popular with children and adolescents. Supporting young performers by PC GARAGE is a proof of active involvement in various projects designed to bring about a positive change in the cultural and artistic field.

IT excellence is thus doubled by supporting and stimulating excellence in the music field, having the joy of rewarding with extraordinary prizes the work of those who are among the laureates of the Emerging Guitar Talents competition.

In addition to that, the guitar maker Samuel de Souza will offer a guitar worth 1500 EURO especially built-up for the 2018 edition of the „Emerging Guitar Talents” competition.

The ICon Arts Academy will grant a 420 EURO scholarship (2000 lei) to the ICon Arts Festival 2018 and a payed recital of 100 EURO (500 lei) in the series of concerts in Bucharest entitled “Resounding cartography”.

Special prizes in amount of 1000 EURO consisting of classical guitars, guitar accessories and office suplies will be awarded by the Association “Deschideri spre viitor”.

This project, which was born out of the desire to cultivate beauty through music, has been well defined with the help of exceptional people with a long-term vision. We are, thus, thankful to our financial supporters: PC GARAGE, TELEGRAF PRINT SRL, TECNOSERVICE EQUIPMENT SRL, ICON ARTS, RAPSODIA SHOP, TOTUNIK, SUPRASOFT. The sixth edition of the contest finds us in an ascending trend, with an energetic team eager to offer both the enthusiasm and the professionalism necessary for the organization.

We are happy to state that together we can feature Bucharest as an European capital of classical guitar.

 

Duo Kitharsis in recital at the “Guitar Talents” laureate’ s gala – June 10th 2018 

This year, Duo Kitharsis, made of Alexandra Petrisor and Dragos Horghidan, will perform a recital at the concert of the laureates’ gala “Guitar Talents” – 10th of June 2018. The repertoire will be made up of Romanian music to mark the Romanian Centenary of the Great Union in 1918.

Duo Kitharsis was formed in Bucharest in 2009 and features guitarists Alexandra Petrisor and Dragos Horghidan.

After graduating successfully from the Music Interpretation Faculty of the National University of Music in Bucharest, at Lect’s guitar class Cătălin Ştefănescu-Patrascu, starting from 2013, Duo Kitharsis continues their master studies at the Conservatoire of Strasbourg, at the class of one of the most famous guitar duoes in the world, Duo Melis – Alexis Muzurakis and Susana Prieto. In June 2016, the two graduated from the Academy of Music of Strasbourg, with the mention “Excellent”.

Besides recitals performed on some of the most important Romanian scenes such as: Romanian Athenaeum, Radio Hall, Sutu Palace, Cantacuzino Palace, Mogosoaia Palace, Peles Castle, duo Kitharsis played in one of the most popular classical music festivals: “George Enescu” International Festival in 2011.

In 2015 Duo Kitharsis recorded their first CD containing works by composers Jean Philippe Rameau, Mauro Giuliani, Dusan Bogdanovici, Manuel de Falla and Astor Piazzolla. The CD, which includes both original works written for two guitars and own transcriptions, enjoyed great success among music lovers.

Duo Kitharsis was invited to perform in concerts on international stages in Germany, France, Italy and Poland.

Entry to the concert on the 10th of June 2018, 5 pm is free.