Today sees the start of the Classical Guitar, Andrés Segovia competition in La Herradura, ending on the 27th.
As its title indicates, the XXXIII Certamen Internacional de Guitarra Clásica Andrés Segovia, is now in its 33rd year, making it the most well established festival of its kind.
As in recent years, the competition will be held in the auditorium of the Centro Cívico, and the young, hopefuls are Irina Alexandrova, Giulia Ballare, Riccardo Calogiuri, Cho Deion, Markos Destefanos, Josué Fonseca, Gabriele, Omar Jammoul, Laura Lootens, Agustín Nazzetta, Emilio Pérez, Joaquim Santos Simoes and Markio Topchii.
Each year the work of a famous competitor is chosen for the participants to perform; this year this musical act of homage is to the Italian composer, Mario Castelnovo-Tedesco, marking the 50th anniversary of his death.
As mentioned above, the competition starts on Tuesday the 23rd at 13.00h with the presentation of the judges panel and for the order of appearance to be chosen by raffle.
The competition has three eliminatory stages: the first stage sees each guitarist perform a piece of his or her choice which should not last more than 15 minutes.
The second stage (semi-finals) again requires the performance of a piece of their choice not lasting more than 20 minutes, together with an obligatory piece entitled, Capriccio Diabólico (homage to Paganini), Op. 85a (1935), by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (1895-1968).
The third and final stage will be the obligatory piece, Guitar symphony and orchestra Nº1 in D Minor (dedicated to Andrés Segovia] (op. 99 – 1939), by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco.
As far as prizes go, the First Prize is 10,000 euros and a guitar valued at 5,200 euros by the Granada Luthier, Aarón García Ruiz (www.aaron-garcia.com). The winner will also perform at this year’s Festival Internacional de Música y Danza, Ciudad de Úbeda.
The Second Prize is 4,000 euros and a guitar worth 3,250 euros, made by the La Herradura Luthier, Stephen Hill.
The Third Prize is 2,000 euros and chance to perform at the Real Sociedad Económica de Amigos del País in Jaén.
Finally, there is the Leo Brouwer, 700-euros cash prize for the best performance of the Capriccio Diabólico obligatory piece, while Juventudes Musicales will award 400 euros to the youngest competitor that gets past the first elimination stage.
Here follows the programme
Tuesday the 23rd at 13.00h = as explained above.
Wednesday the 24th at 18.00h = first stage.
Thursday the 25th at 19.00h = first session of second stage.
Friday the 26th t 19.00h = second session of second stage.
Saturday the 27th at 19.00h = Final stage – participants accompanied by the Orquesta Universidad de Granada.
Saturday 27th at 22.00h = having finished the deliberation of the judging panel, prize awarding will commence after which the winner will perform a piece of his or her own choosing.
(News: Herradura, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)