We hold our festival each year to provide classes for students of all ages. We also have concerts and hold competitions. We focus on the students and want everyone to enjoy their time with us. Each year we try to change things a little so that there is always something new to do and learn.

Join us in  2021, won't you?

We have several kinds of classes: 

   Private Lessons: 
      Students get at least 3 one-on-one classes during the festival. 

   Master Classes:
      Intermediate & advanced students are eligible to participate in Master Classes provided by our visiting faculty.

   Technique, Theory, Ensemble:
      Various classes & workshops for attendees are provided throughout the week.

Our 2021 concerts are planned to be virtual. 1 or more might be broadcast from the sanctuary of St. Philip Presbyterian Church. The acoustics are wonderful for guitar performances, whether you are watching soloists or ensembles. Some performances will include other instruments, but we always feature the guitar.

2021 Artists

Gabriel Santiago

"Brazilian-born, 2010 ASCAP Young Jazz Composer Award Winner Gabriel Santiago is a Composer/Arranger/ Acoustic and Electric Guitar Player with 10 albums (including CDs and DVDs) released.

Called by JazzTimes Magazine “a young master at both the acoustic and electric guitars” and his compositions defined as “stunners”, Santiago holds a Doctoral Degree in Music Composition from the University of Texas at Austin, where he won the 2013 Outstanding Dissertation Award and the 2010 Eleanor A. Stribling Award for Excellence in Jazz Studies.

His solid background also features studies with jazz masters Pat Metheny, Adam Rogers and Maria Schneider. Santiago has collaborated with a wide variety of artists including Esperanza Spalding, Chris Potter, Stefon Harris, John Clayton, Terence Blanchard, Janek Gwizdala, Carmen Bradford, André Mehmari, Romero Lubambo, Odair Assad, Gilson Peranzzetta and Recording Engineer Master Rupert Neve, being invited to be the first artist to record with Neve’s first ever line of microphones.

Gabriel has been composing music for a wide variety of ensembles (ranging from Symphony Orchestra to Chamber ensembles, Big band to Jazz Combos), styles and medias including Film, TV, and Internet. His music is fresh and carries all of his influences that range from Brazilian Music to Jazz and Classical Music."

René Izquierdo

Cuban-born René Izquierdo is a unique artist and passionate educator whose career has been dedicated to inspiring individuals and connecting communities. Whether passionately performing on stage, devotedly mentoring his students, fundraising, or leading community outreach, René’s multi-faceted approach endeavors to continue creating experiences that enrich people’s lives and add beauty to our world.

Through his “unforgettable versatility, sensitivity and sublime musicianship” (Classical Guitar Magazine), René has firmly established himself as one of the world’s classical guitar virtuosos. He is celebrated for his ability to weave an unparalleled technical command of his instrument with his gift of storytelling, accomplishing an intimate musical experience with his audience.

With over seventy engagements per year, whether as a solo performer, chamber musician, or as a guest soloist with orchestras, he has performed to critical acclaim touring extensively throughout the Americas, Europe, and Asia. He is frequently invited by renowned festivals and institutions, having played at venues such as Carnegie Hall in New York, Manaus Opera House in Brazil, and National Recital Hall in Taiwan.

Self-described as a lifelong learner and explorer, his recording projects reflect his wide-ranging interests. Through his discography, René seeks to expand the guitar repertoire frequently performing new arrangements, lesser-known music of the 20th century as well as world premieres of concertos and new compositions.

As an educator, René is passionate about engaging the mind and the heart. Through his teachings all around the world, he shares his belief that the greatest musicians not only have the technical mastery to communicate effectively but also are deeply curious, and equally adept at analytical and emotional modes of thought.

(reneizquierdoguitar.com)

J. Todd Frazier

Jefferson Todd Frazier is the System Director of Center for Performing Arts Medicine (CPAM) at Houston Methodist Hospital. He has helped the Center evolve into one that embraces the broadest potential of an arts and medicine relationship. CPAM encompasses 1) world-class specialized health care and wellness education for performing and visual artists, 2) purposeful integration of the performing and visual arts into the hospital environment, 3) clinical therapy that utilizes the arts in support of patient and hospital goals, 4) research that harnesses the broadest potential of the arts in therapy, 5) rehabilitation and human performance, and 6) education and outreach that connects the arts in health field across disciplines, inspiring creative thinking and discovery. Frazier has contributed to a wide range of publications and studies in the field of arts, education, and medicine ranging from music therapy for special needs children, to unique music listening applications in stroke and traumatic brain injury recovery, to the relationship of music theory and history of pipe organ construction to the resultant vibrations and resonating harmony of a continuous flow dual pump total artificial heart.

CPAM is the recipient of both the 2017 BCA 10 Award from Americans for the Arts, recognizing the best businesses partnering with the arts in America and the 2019 International Hamilton Arts in Health Award for Arts Building Resilience. Frazier is Immediate Past President of the National Organization for Arts in Health (NOAH) and Founder of American Festival for the Arts (AFA). He received his undergraduate and graduate training in composition from The Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY, and The Juilliard School in New York, NY. As a composer, his love for history inspires many of his works including We Hold These Truths, the first movement of Thomas Jefferson; the Making of America, premiered at the Kennedy Center by the National Symphony Orchestra with soprano Renee Fleming and conductor Christoph Eschenbach, and the University of Virginia Suite, premiered at the University of Virginia on October 6th, 2017 in celebration of the 200th anniversary of the laying of the first cornerstone of the school by Thomas Jefferson. He also wrote Breath of Life, a two-act opera set in a hospital and intended to bridge medical and arts communities through the story of a man’s second chance for life, premiered at Texas Tech University in 2015 with a second performance in 2018 at Texas Tech as part of a medical ethics course at the Southwest Association for Music Therapy Conference in Lubbock, Texas. In 2016 Frazier was awarded the Luminary Award from the Eastman School of Music “recognizing individuals who have given extraordinary service to music and the arts at the community and national levels” and on the occasion of the Juilliard School’s 100th anniversary in 2006, Frazier was recognized as one of 100 distinguished alumni and profiled in the Juilliard Journal’s “A Quiet Revolution: Juilliard Alumni and The Transformation of Education in America Through the Arts.”

Lina Morita

Brazilian pianist Lina Morita made her Carnegie Hall debut in 2013. Her international career has taken her throughout the U.S., Brazil, Mexico, France, and the Czech Republic. Most recently, she has been invited to present solo recitals at Salão Leopoldo Miguez in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Mexico City at the Museo Mural Diego Rivera and at La Escuela de Musica “Vida y Movimiento” del Centro Cultural Ollin Yoliztli. Other venues in which she has performed include the Music Center at Strathmore in Maryland, Atlas Performing Arts Center in Washington DC, and prestigious concert series at the National City Christian Church, the Church of the Epiphany in Washington DC, the Vienna Presbyterian Church in Virginia, and the Bertramka House in Prague.

As a performer and pedagogue, Lina Morita has performed recitals and taught master classes at colleges and universities throughout the United States and has collaborated with renowned musicians such as flutists Susan Milan, Ransom Wilson, Ian Clarke, Jim Walker, clarinetist Mark Nuccio, and cellist Dennis Parker. Her solo and collaborative performances have been featured on Radio MEC FM in Brazil and WRKF 89.3FM in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Her recording The Songs of Keith Gates with soprano Carol Lines was released on Centaur Records in 2012. As a concerto soloist, Morita performed Beethoven Concerto No.4, Chopin F Minor Concerto, Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, Mozart’s “Jeunehomme” Concerto with the Ars Nova Chamber Orchestra in Washington D.C., the Washington Sinfonietta and the Lake Charles Symphony.

Lina Morita received the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Piano Performance and Literature from the Eastman School of Music; the Master of Music degree from Rice University; and the Bachelor of Music degree from Indiana University. Her primary studies have been with True, Robert Roux, Edmund Battersby, and Michel Block. Ms. Morita is currently an Associate Professor of Piano at McNeese State University in Louisiana.

We have always enjoyed providing a solid venue for serious classical guitar performers who want to compete. Our faculty are professionals who know how to judge up and coming classical guitarists.

There are 5 levels of competition:
        •Artist Division
        •College Division (Includes freshmen, sophomores of 2-Year college students)
        •High School Division
        •Middle School Division
        •Small Ensemble Division
 

Consider joining us this year for our Competition!