GUITARS INTERNATIONAL
is pleased to present the twenty-fourth annual
Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival®
in cooperation with the fifth annual
James Stroud Classical Guitar Competition
hosted at and with support from the
Cleveland Institute of Music
June 6 - 9, 2024
 

CICGF® Concert Reviews and News


[One of] two of the most important annual American classical guitar events
(Classical Guitar Magazine)
Every year, the James Stroud Classical Guitar Competition provides audiences with a look at some of the most talented young musicians aged 13-18 that our nation has to offer. And the competition’s fifth edition did not disappoint. On the evening of June 9 at the Cleveland Institute of Music’s Mixon Hall, the competition’s four finalists went toe-to-toe over the course of an hour that was as much a joyous celebration of music as it was an entertaining competition...
You will not hear many classical guitarists with a better feel for emotion, atmosphere, pace, and tone than Petra Polácková. The talented Czech musician showcased all of these talents and more for the audience at the Cleveland Institute of Music’s Mixon Hall on Sunday afternoon June 9. The performance, the penultimate event of the Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival, spanned four exhilarating Czech works. On this particular afternoon, golden sunbeams streaked in through Mixon’s floor-to-ceiling windows, drenching the stage with a light that underscored the otherworldly quality of Polácková’s playing. One would be hard-pressed to find a more musically exhilarating way of closing out this magnificent series...
Filling a void in the Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival when a scheduled artist developed visa complications, University of Colorado Boulder professor Nicolò Spera stepped in with his 10-string guitar and a stimulating program that was technically and mentally challenging — both for the guitarist and his Mixon Hall audience — on Friday, June 7. The extra strings on that instrument added range and resonance to Spera’s program, which began and ended with famous works from the passacaglia family, with a contemporary piece at its center...
Jason Vieaux, a guitarist with an uncommonly clean technique and broad palette, made a fine opening act for the Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival at the Cleveland Institute of Music’s Mixon Hall on Thursday, June 6. He was joined in the second half by violinist Mari Sato, an ideal chamber music partner. Vieaux’s ability to bestow tonal and dynamic nuance gave refreshing variety to every piece, and his cleanly articulated rhythms added panache and polish...
From Thursday, June 6 through Sunday, June 9 the Cleveland Institute of Music will host the 24th edition of the Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival. Presented by Guitars International, the Festival features a rich mix of recitals, master classes, and lectures by eminent guitarists, bracketed by the fourth annual James Stroud Youth Competition. In a telephone conversation earlier this week, founder and artistic director Armin Kelly said, “It’s a lot of work and a lot of worry, but I love it...”
The presentation of young and emerging artists has always been a priority for the Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival. And for Festival followers it’s an opportunity to be made aware of young guitarists, and then watch them mature as musicians.
The best chamber music performances are the ones where the synergy of the players is so captivating that you simply sit back, relax, and let yourself get lost in the music. Such was the case when the Patterson-Sutton Duo — Kimberly Patterson (cello) and Patrick Sutton (guitar) — made a return visit to the Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival on Sunday afternoon, June 4.
On Thursday, June 1 at the Cleveland Institute of Music’s Mixon Hall, guitarist Jason Vieaux opened the 2023 Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival with a sparkling display, mixing assured technique with an impressively broad guitar ethos. In a program stretching from Albéniz to Metheny, Vieaux acquitted himself with ease and authority, setting a high bar for every festival recital to follow.
On Sunday, June 4, after all the professional classical guitarists have played their recitals at the Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival, the next generation of artists will take over Mixon Hall at the Cleveland Institute of Music.
When I telephoned Armin Kelly, founder and artistic director of the Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival, to hear details of their 23rd trip around the Sun from June 1-4 at the Cleveland Institute of Music, he was deep into proofreading the 40-page festival program — and worrying as all presenters of international artists do about what could possibly happen to his best-laid plans this year.
Early in June, the Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival stepped into the in-person performance void with a live-streamed concert by Jason Vieaux and Colin Davin. Building on the success of that performance, festival director Armin Kelly has invited the two artists to broadcast another live concert on Saturday, November 14 at 2:00 pm. This time they will adapt solo violin and cello music by Johann Sebastian Bach for the classical guitar...
After weeks of watching online streams of archived concerts and ad hoc performances from quarantined musicians’ living rooms and bedrooms, it was thrilling to be able to advertise, preview, and report on two real-time webcasts last Friday and Saturday that embraced high production values and addressed the persistent issue of how to compensate musicians for online services. Saturday afternoon’s joint recital by Colin Davin and Jason Vieaux was sponsored by the Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival...
While the Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival won’t be happening onsite at the Cleveland Institute of Music as usual, that doesn’t mean you should clear the Festival from your calendar entirely. On Saturday, June 6 at 2:00 pm (Eastern Time), CICGF will offer a live-streamed concert featuring two mainstays of the Festival: Jason Vieaux and Colin Davin, who co-head the guitar department at CIM in addition to sharing numerous honors between them as performers...

By Blair Jackson

The James Stroud Classical Guitar Competition will boast the largest award purse of any U.S. youth contest

Over the past two decades, the Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival has evolved into one of the U.S.’s major guitar gatherings, consistently drawing top guitarists from around the world for concerts and other guitar-related events. From June 4–7, 2020, the fest, which takes place at the Cleveland Institute of Music (CIM), will mark its 20th anniversary, and an exciting new addition to the week’s festivities is the inaugural staging of the annual James Stroud Classical Guitar Competition for U.S. residents ages 14 to 18 who are not currently enrolled in a university-level college degree program. With a top prize of $10,000 ($5,000 for second place, $2,500 for third, and $1,000 for fourth), the competition (June 4–7) is the most lucrative annual classical guitar event for its age group in the country, and as a result it is sure to attract top players every year: It is certain to become a showcase for the next generation of talented U.S. guitarists...
A rare sensitivity emanated from the stage of CIM’s Mixon Hall on June 8. The source was Jason Vieaux, playing a carefully crafted program of music mostly from the 1700s during the Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival.Both beautiful and beautifully played was the brief Scarlatti Sonata, K. 208, which opened the program. It also provided a peek at Vieaux’s facile technique, which he would display more as the evening went on...
During the years of covering the Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival, I have had the pleasure of hearing recitals performed on Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and modern instruments as well as the lute. But somehow, a theorbo recital had not crossed my path. That was until Saturday, June 8 in CIM’s Mixon Hall when Elizabeth Kenny (England) presented “Theorbo Fantasy: old and new music for the long-necked lute.” I was captivated from beginning to end...
If it’s the beginning of June, it’s time for classical guitarists from around the world to gather at the Cleveland Institute of Music for the annual Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival. And as we have come to expect, the 2019 edition, which ran from Thursday, June 6 through Sunday, June 9, artistic director Armin Kelly assembled an outstanding lineup of performers, clinicians, and lecturers...
Guitarist Colin Davin explored the relationship between old and new on his opening recital of the 19th Annual Cleveland International Guitar Festival on June 6, pairing Steve Reich’s Electric Counterpoint with David Crowell’s Point Cloud (a Cleveland premiere) and two Bach transcriptions. The two-time prizewinner of the Guitar Foundation of America International Competition, who currently teaches at the Cleveland Institute of Music, presented an evening of utmost musicianship at Mixon Hall...
Necessity is the mother of invention, and when guitarist Lynn McGrath needed to figure out how to simultaneously play the music and recite the poetry of Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, she found a way to do it. On Friday, June 7 at 6:30 pm in Studio 113 at the Cleveland Institute of Music, Lynn McGrath will present a lecture recital titled “Guitar With Spoken Word.” The program features selections from Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s Platero y yo (Platero and I). The free event is presented as part of the Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival...
On Saturday, June 8 at 4:00 pm in CIM’s Mixon Hall, Kenny will present a program titled “Theorbo Fantasy: old and new music for the long-necked lute,” featuring the music of Kapsberger and Piccinini, as well as works by James MacMillan and Benjamin Oliver. The program will also include the world premiere of Nico Muhly’s Berceuse with seven variations, written for Kenny. The concert is part of the Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival. Tickets are available online...
When given her choice, guitarist Xuefei Yang likes to present programs that represent a variety of musical styles. “The guitar is such a diverse instrument, and I think of myself as a diverse player as well,” Yang said via Skype from her home in the U.K.On Friday, June 7 at 7:30 in Mixon Hall at CIM, Xuefei Yang will present a program that ranges from traditional Chinese music to 21st-century works. The concert is presented as part of the 2019 Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival...
For the 2019 edition, which runs from Thursday, June 6 through Sunday, June 9, Founder and Artistic Director Armin Kelly has invited an outstanding lineup of performers, clinicians, and lecturers. The Festival will feature twelve participating artists and ensembles, five concerts, two premiere performances, nine master classes, two youth ensemble performances, three lectures, and one guitar demonstration concert...
From ClevelandClassical.com June 18, 2018

For the past seventeen years, the Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival has brought some of the world’s finest classical guitarists, lutenists, lecturers, composers, teachers, and guitar makers to the Cleveland Institute of Music. The eighteenth season, which ran from June 8 through 10, featured thirteen artists and ensembles, five concerts, nine master classes, and three lectures. Here are our impressions of the artists who provided enthusiastic audiences with top-notch performances of a range of diverse and entertaining repertoire...
Featured Artists: Jason Vieaux (USA), classical guitar - Grammy Award Winner and CIM Guitar Department Head; Ricardo Gallén (Spain), classical guitar; Duo Melis (Spain & Greece), classical guitars; Antonis Hatzinikolaou (Greece), classical guitar - Julian Bream Prize Winner; Nigel North (England), lute - Gramophone Award Winner and CICGF Artist in Residence; Colin Davin (USA), classical guitar; Estelí Gomez (USA), soprano - Grammy Award Winner; Julien Labro (France), bandoneon; Petra Polácková (Czech Republic), classical guitar - CICGF Artist in Residence; Joshia de Jonge (Canada) master guitar maker; Cleveland Bella Corda Ensemble (USA), classical guitars; The Cleveland Suzuki Guitar Ensemble (USA), classical guitars.
From ClevelandClassical.com June 15, 2017

The 17th Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival got off to an auspicious start at the Cleveland Institute of Music on Friday evening, June 9 with a beautifully structured recital by Jason Vieaux. Originally scheduled for Mixon Hall, the performance was moved to Kulas Hall because of the demand for tickets. In cases like that, it’s nice to have a second venue right across the lobby. Any doubts about how the sound of a solo guitar would fare in the larger space were immediately put to rest by Vieaux’s sonorous performance of Fernando Sor’s Mes Ennuis at the top of the program. The piece is nominally about boredom, but not in Vieaux’s expressive hands. A strong, beautifully articulated reading of J.S. Bach’s “BWV 998,” three movements originally conceived for lute or harpsichord — or maybe Lautenwerk — showed Vieaux’s keen sense of structure and, in the fugue, his skill at layering voices...
From: ClevelandClassical.com June 7, 2017

“Guitar and harp is such a rare, unique combination,” said guitarist Colin Davin in a recent conversation. “To the extent that there’s an epicenter for that kind of duo, it might be Cleveland. Jason Vieaux and Yolanda Kondonassis have performed and recorded an album together, and in the past few years, some of the students here have formed guitar and harp duos. We like to think we’re starting something that will catch on.” On Sunday, June 11 at 7:30 pm in the Cleveland Institute of Music’s Mixon Hall, Colin Davin and harpist Emily Levin will close out the 2017 Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival with a duo recital featuring a world premiere by Dylan Mattingly and a recent work by Will Stackpole, with the Duo’s own arrangements of works by Maurice Ravel and Manuel de Falla as bookends...
From: ClevelandClassical.com June 7, 2017

When David Russell last performed in Cleveland in March of 2014, James Flood wrote in ClevelandClassical.com that the celebrated guitarist produced “just the right tone color for a given phrase or, in some cases, a single note, all done with such naturalness it’s as if his fingers instinctively know just where to go.” On Saturday, June 10 at 8:00 pm in Mixon Hall, Russell will return to Cleveland for his debut performance on the Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival. He will also present free public masterclasses on Friday, June 9 at 3:00 and Sunday, June 11 at 4:30 in CIM’s Studio 113...
From: ClevelandClassical.com June 5, 2017

Needing an encore for a concert the next day, guitarist Jason Vieaux woke up in Boston to a mild earthquake, turned on the TV to an Obama-Romney presidential debate, and thought to himself: Everybody Wants to Rule the World. Ten minutes later, his guitar-accordina arrangement of the popular Tears for Fears song was born. He and Julien Labro would rehearse it the next morning for fifteen minutes before playing it live on WGBH and performing it that night in Roxbury. “We thought it’ll really get it ready for the concert if we play it live on the radio,” Vieaux said with a laugh during a recent conversation. “It was kind of crazy, but things happen that way. It came out of professional necessity” ...
From: ClevelandClassical.com May 23, 2017

Beginning on Friday, June 9 and continuing through Sunday, June 11, Guitars International will present the seventeenth annual Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival at the Cleveland Institute of Music. “I cannot believe it’s the 17th season,” CICGF founder and artistic director Armin Kelly said during a recent telephone conversation. “Over the years I’ve learned a lot about what to do and what not to do, but it was a steep learning curve.” Kelly noted that the Festival has grown beyond what he had ever imagined possible...

From: Clevelandclassical.com June 28, 2016

Following Colin Davin’s May 2013 performance at the Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival, ClevelandClassical.com wrote: “Davin is in his twenties, and it is rare to have such a young guitarist achieve the level of sophistication and refinement that was on display throughout his distinguished program.” On Sunday, June 5 in Mixon Hall, Davin, who performed the entire recital from memory, brought the 2016 Festival to a marvelous conclusion with a performance that again displayed the guitarist’s brilliant technique and musical elegance...
From: Clevelandclassical.com June 14, 2016

Most classical guitar recitals are one-player-on-the-stage affairs, so SoloDuo’s excellent recital on the evening of Saturday, June 4 in Mixon Hall at CIM was a double-your-pleasure, double-your-fun occasion. Italian guitarists Matteo Mela and Lorenzo Micheli wowed and delighted a sold-out crowd with intelligent and probing performances of arrangements of music by Domenico Scarlatti, Vincenzo Bellini, J.S. Bach, Claude Debussy, and Astor Piazzolla...
From: Clevelandclassical.com June 14, 2016

The audience in the Cleveland Institute of Music’s Mixon Hall witnessed a beautiful solo classical guitar recital on Sunday afternoon, June 5 by renowned Spanish virtuoso Ricardo Gallén, as part of the Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival. Gallén’s audience, an appreciative mix of professional guitarists, students, and the public, heard a program of Classical works played on a small-but-penetrating Bernhard Kresse copy of a Johann Georg Stauffer romantic guitar, and music by living composers played on a larger modern guitar by Paco Santiago Marin of Spain...

From: Clevelandclassical.com June 3, 2016

“I’ve been attending these concerts at CIM since I was in middle and high school — before it was officially a festival,” Bay Village native and CIM faculty member Colin Davin recalled during a telephone interview from his home in New York. “I grew up on this Festival and it was where I learned to really love the classical guitar community.” On Sunday, June 5 at 7:30 pm in CIM’s Mixon Hall, everything will come full circle for Colin Davin when he brings the Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival to conclusion with a recital of Spanish music by de Falla, José, Mompou, Tárrega, Torroba, and Turina...

From: Clevelandclassical.com May 24, 2016

Whether one sees it as one of the final events of the spring season or the first event of the summer, attending the Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival is always a wonderful way to enjoy the blossoming University Circle while hearing many of the world’s finest classical guitarists. Beginning on Friday, June 3 and continuing through Sunday, June 5 at the Cleveland Institute of Music, the 16th annual festival will offer an impressive line-up of recitals, premieres, master classes, lectures, and exhibits celebrating the classical guitar...
From: The Rochester Guitar Club June 17, 2015

The City of Cleveland, Ohio via The Cleveland Institute of Music in cooperation with Guitars International hosts one of the most significant and wonderful Classical Guitar Festivals in the Country. Centered in the heart of University Circle, the campus of the Cleveland Institute of Music is a breeding ground for Classical Guitarists of the highest caliber. I was once again given the opportunity to enrich myself in the world of master classes, lectures, workshops and concerts in the world of Classical Guitar. Hosted in cooperation with Guitars International, the fifteenth year of the Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival blossomed into an enriching learning experience that will stay with me for a very long time. This year’s event was four days long instead of the usual three days from previous years. It was by far an event worth attending...
From: Clevelandclassical.com June 2, 2015

The number of recitals during the fifteenth edition of the Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival at the Cleveland Institute of Music increased to six. ClevelandClassical correspondents attended the recitals by Jason Vieaux and Yolanda Kondonassis, Ricardo Gallén, Paul Galbraith, and Antonis Hatzinikolaou, all of which attracted large, enthusiastic audiences to Mixon Hall between May 28 and May 31....
From: Clevelandclassical.com May 27, 2015

The 2015 edition of the Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival will wrap up on Sunday, May 31 at 7:30 pm in Mixon Hall at the Cleveland Institute of Music with a recital by Pavel Steidl. We reached him by telephone at his home near Prague...
From: Clevelandclassical.com May 27, 2015

On Friday, May 29 at 8:00 pm in Mixon Hall at the Cleveland Institute of Music, Ricardo Gallén will present a recital featuring Bach’s complete works for the lute as part of the Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival. We reached him by Skype at his home in Weimar, Germany, where he is professor of guitar at the Hochschule für Musik “Franz Liszt”...

From: Clevelandclassical.com May 27, 2015

Deemed a “master guitar maker,” Canadian luthier Joshia de Jonge has gained international acclaim for her acoustically and aesthetically stunning instruments. On Saturday, May 30 from 11:30 to 12:45 pm at the Cleveland Institute of Music, Studio 113, De Jonge will lead a workshop entitled The Art of French Polishing, in which “participants will be taught through demonstrations and hands-on exercises how to apply shellac finish to wood surfaces using traditional French polish technique.” This event is open to the public and free of charge. De Jonge graciously agreed to an interview...

From: Clevelandclassical.com May 27, 2015

On Saturday, May 30 at 4:00 pm in Mixon Hall at the Cleveland Institute of Music, Paul Galbraith (Scotland) will present a recital as part of the Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival. Galbraith’s program will feature Bach’s “Allemande” from the Lute Suite in E minor, BWV 996 and Cello Suite No. 5, BWV 1011 and No. 1, BWV 1007. The program also includes Mozart’s “Allemande” from the unfinished Suite in C, K. 399 and the Piano Sonata in F, K. 570.
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From: Clevelandclassical.com May 27, 2015

On their debut recording Together, celebrated harpist Yolanda Kondonassis and Grammy Award-winning guitarist Jason Vieaux take listeners on a beautiful sonic journey that will mesmerizes from the first note to the last. On Thursday, May 28 at 8:00 pm in Mixon Hall at the Cleveland Institute of Music, Kondonassis and Vieaux will perform all of the music from the album in a recital presented as a part of the 2015 Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival...

From: Classical Guitar Magazine - May 12, 2015

One of the largest and most prestigious annual American guitar events—the Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival—is set to take place at the Cleveland Institute of Music from May 28-31. This marks the festival’s 15th year, and once again it truly lives up to its “International” tag...

From: Clevelandclassical.com May 22, 2015

CICGF will present recitals and master classes by Antonis Hatzinikolaou (Greece); Nigel North, lute (England); Jason Vieaux and harpist Yolanda Kondonassis (USA); Paul Galbraith (Scotland); Ricardo Gallen (Spain); Duo Melis (Susana Prieto, Spain, and Alexis Muzurakis, Greece); and Pavel Steidl (Czech Republic)...

From: clevelandclassical.com - May 27, 2014

Italian Guitarists Matteo Mela and Lorenzo Micheli formed SoloDuo ten years ago. Their performances have received world-wide acclaim from New York’s Carnegie Hall to Seoul’s Sejong Chamber Hall, from Kiev’s Hall of Columns to Vienna’s Konzerthaus.
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From: clevelandclassical.com - May 27, 2014

As the joke goes: A young musician stops a man on a New York sidewalk and asks: How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, the man replies. On Friday, May 30 beginning at 6:45 pm in Studio 113 at the Cleveland Institute of Music, Brad DeRoche will give a lecture titled “Acquisition of Expertise on the Classical Guitar: The Effects of Mindset, Willpower, Goals, and Practice in the Quest for Mastery.” Free and open to the public, the lecture is presented by the Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival.
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From: clevelandclassical.com - May 27, 2014

From clevelandclassical.com May 27, 2014On Sunday, June 1st at 7:30 pm, Jason Vieaux, guitar, and Julien Labro, bandoneón, will close out the 2014 Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival with a dynamic recital at Cleveland Institute of Music’s Mixon Hall. Vieaux and Labro, who have been collaborating for the past four years, will perform a varied program consisting of works by Brouwer, Gnatalli, Metheny and Piazzolla. In a recent conversation, Vieaux, who is the head of the CIM guitar department, described the formation of their musical duo. Vieaux, who describes himself as a jazz enthusiast, heard Labro playing accordion with his group Hot Club of Detroit four years ago at Cleveland’s Nighttown.
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From: clevelandclassical.com - May 29, 2013

Though packed with lectures, panel discussions, exhibits and master classes, Classical Guitar Weekend, sponsored by Guitars International, centers around a series of solo recitals by international artists. This year’s fetival — the thirteenth — featured Cleveland’s own Jason Vieaux, assisted by three instrumentalists from the Cleveland Institute of Music, the debut of Korean guitarist Jiyeon Kim, the American artist Colin Davin, the Belgian guitarist Raphaëlla Smits in her fourth appearance at the festival, and British-born artist Jonathan Leathwood. The five players offered the Mixon Hall audiences a wide range of repertory to ponder and enjoy...
From: clevelandclassical.com - May 21, 2013

On Thursday, May 23rd beginning at 8:00 pm in CIM’s Mixon Hall, Classical Guitar Weekend kicks off its 2013 edition with a recital by Jason Vieaux that features the music of Paganini, Piazzolla, Ponce, and Sor. Vieaux, who heads the Cleveland Institute of Music’s Guitar department and serves on the faculty at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, will be joined by hi CIM colleagues violinist Jinjoo Cho, violist Jeffrey Irvine, and cellist Melissa Kraut...

From: clevelandclassical.com - May 21, 2013

Belgian guitarist Raphaella Smits will be making her fourth visit to Cleveland for this year’s Classical Guitar Weekend to play a solo recital in Mixon Hall at the Cleveland Institute of Music on Saturday, May 25 at 4:30 and to conduct a master class on Thursday, May 23 at 2:00 pm. A frequent visitor to our shores, Smits has made some 95 solo and educational appearances in the US during her distinguished career, which includes having been the first woman to win Spain’s prestigious Certamen Internacional de Guitarra Francisco Tarrega Competition...

From: clevelandclassical.com - May 21, 2013

Hailed as “the real thing, a player with a virtuoso’s technique, a deeply expressive musicianship, and a probing imagination” by the
American Record Guide, guitarist Colin Davin is quickly emerging as one of today’s most dynamic young artists. His recent recital appearances include Alice Tully Hall, the Metropolitan Museum of Art (on historic instruments from the museum’s collection), New York Philharmonic Ensembles at Merkin Hall, and venues in Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, Austin, and Cleveland...

From: clevelandclassical.com - May 21, 2013

“Jonathan Leathwood is a genius,”w
rites Therese Wassily Sabaof Classical Guitar [UK]. One of the few guitarists to perform on six-string and ten-string guitars, Leathwood’s innovative programs are a mix of modern and traditional works. His recent recital appearances have taken him to Italy, the UK, Germany, Turkey, France, Belgium, Holland, and the United States. On Saturday, May 25 beginning at 8:00 pm in Mixon Hall, Jonathan Leathwood presents a recital featuring the works of J.S. Bach, de Falla, Gerhard, Goss, José, and Lindberg. Additionally Mr. Leathwood will give a master class on Friday, May 24 from 1:30 until 4:30 in CIM studio 113...

From: clevelandclassical.com - May 29, 2012

The twelfth annual Classical Guitar Weekend was distinguished by four outstanding concerts by Pavel Steidl, Gaëlle Solal, SoloDuo and Jason Vieaux with soprano Jung Eun Oh; three excellent and informative lectures by luthier Bernhard Kresse, guitarist Jonathan Fitzgerald and record producer Alan Bise; and record audiences showed up for performances, talks and master classes over a three-day span from June 1-3 at the Cleveland Institute of Music. For the first time, Classical Guitar Weekend took on the air of a real festival chock full of delights for guitar enthusiasts as well as for music lovers in general, for which artistic director Armin Kelly deserves an up-front round of applause...
From: clevelandclassical.com - May 29, 2011

The eleventh annual Classical Guitar Weekend, sponsored by Armin Kelly's Guitars International, brought five internationally recognized artists, guests, and a master luthier to the Cleveland Institute of Music from Friday, May 20 through Sunday, May 22. The featured artists gave individual recitals and master classes, and Geza Burghardt gave a lecture about the traditional Spanish Method of Guitar Construction. The weekend was educational - and entertaining - for the guitar professional and the guitar curious alike...
From: clevelandclassical.com

Last Friday, Saturday and Sunday, Guitars International, in cooperation with the Cleveland Institute of Music, presented the 10th annual Classical Guitar Weekend. For the 2010 edition, the organizers once again put together a lineup of outstanding performers and clinicians including Daniel Lippel, Duo Melis (Susana Prieto and Alexis Muzurkis) as well as Nigel North, renaissance lute, and for the first time had a luthier included as part of the activities in the person of Italian master guitar maker, Andrea Tacchi, who also presented a lecture on the evolution of the classical guitar...
From: clevelandclassical.com

The first of four artist recitals in last weekend's Classical Guitar Weekend -- presented by Guitars International in cooperation with the Cleveland Institute of Music -- brought not a guitarist but the lutenist Nigel North to the stage of Mixon Hall for an all John Dowland program...
Two years ago it began snowing on Friday afternoon. It was late March. I was driving Jonathan Leathwood and 'cellist Rohan de Saram to a local church in Cleveland for their sound check, and the rental seemed to handle well enough. By 7:00 that evening it was coming down hard, but I felt confident we could make the hall; after the concert, well that's what cabs are for. By Saturday noon the snow was piling up at the rate of 2" an hour; we ended up breaking trail from Glidden House through knee-high snow carrying Nigel North's lutes and music to Mixon Hall at the Cleveland Institute of Music...
I went to the Classical Guitar Weekend in Cleveland, Ohio last weekend and all I can say is "wow." I got there on Friday night in time to see Nigel North on the lute play an all Dowland program in the Cleveland Institute of Music's wonderful new Mixon Hall, a great 250 seat acoustically great setting...
This past weekend I traveled two hindred thirty-six miles to University Circle, where the Cleveland Institute of Music is located, to attend the 10th annual Classical Guitar Weekend. I was amidst 4 of the world's finest classical guitarists and top CIMu guitar students. I attended master classes,lectures and recitals during the entire weekend while absorbing some of the area's interesting local attractions. Staying at the Glidden House, which is located next to the CIM, allowed me to walk to all the events. As a result, I never had to start my car the entire weekend. It was very exciting to be around the plethora of students who are seriously studying guitar, and see how enthusiastic they are about their playing...
2024 CICGF program book
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