The Granada school of Guitar-makers (La escuela granadina de guitarreros) is centuries old but has only been called by that name since 1987 when the first association of makers was established. There were three foreigners out of 15 total founding members of that association. This ratio has remained more or less constant in the Granada school since then and the 20 per cent that come from elsewhere have been an integral part of it. The latest additions are russian, syrian, argentinian and italian and we hope they will continue the Granada tradition and add to it. I am thinking about this these days because the original association has been decreed by the regional government to be incorrectly constituted and has been dissolved. A new association has been founded and hopefully I can post news about it very soon. Another reason I am coming back to this topic is that the most visited post on this blog is an article which Evaristo López Valentí wrote about the foreigners in Granada. Read it here in English and here in Spanish.

Back in June a representation of the Granada School of Guitar-makers had a round table discussion about some of the problems facing artisans today. I was part of the panel and so couldn’t get any pictures but a friend recently sent me one. From left to right you see Francisco Hervás, specialist maker of early stringed instruments and guitar-makers Jesús Bellido, René Baarslag, José Vigil, Daniele Chiesa and John Ray. It would be good if we could do this sort of thing more often, not only talk together about the problems affecting us but also to let the public know what those problems are.

Another guitar made by Rolf Eichinger has become available, this one is in Italy as far as I know. It has a few well-repaired cracks on the top which were repaired by Rolf. If you are interested in this guitar I can pass on the contact to you.

I hadn’t planned to attend the last concert of the Granada Guitar Festival but in the end I am very glad I did. Alexei is an excellent player and I enjoyed his programme very much. The Tarrega and the Rodrigo were particularily good. An excellent, very musical player and also technically very perfect. We enjoyed a drink afterwards and celebrated the success of the Festival. Alexei plays a french-made double-top guitar but was asked by a Granada maker (Pavel Gavryushov) to play two pieces on his guitar and kindly did so. Today Manuel de Falla auditorium, tomorrow the world. Viva la escuela granadina!

Sergio Valverde of Mecina Bombarón (province of Granada) has won the gold medal in the Antonio Marín international guitar-making competition. Two silver medals were awarded: Julia Wenzel of Germany and Oscar Muñoz from Cajar (province of Granada) as a testament to the unexpectedly high quality of the instruments submitted for judgement. The Competition was a huge success as was the entire festival which ends on November 3 with a concert by Alexei Khorev. I took this photo on the first day of the judging and as luck would have it the future winners were standing together. From left to right: Oscar Muñoz, Sergio Valverde and Julia Wenzel.