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.

So far I have been very impressed with the thoroughness and fairness of the jury of this guitar competition. The other great thing has been the very high quality of the guitars in general. On the second morning we learned the results of the first screening with the following makers having their guitars pass on to the semifinals.

Mario Aracama                                                                                                                     Julio.Baarslag                                                                                                                       Arcadio Marín                                                                                                         Francisco Javier Muñoz                                                                                                    Oscar Muñoz                                                                                                               Marín Nejime                                                                                                                Huang Pan                                                                                                                  Sergio Valverde                                                                                                                 Julia Wenzel

After another day of public trials and deliberation the jury decided on five instruments to participate in the final to be held in the concert hall of the Federico García Lorca centre. The video shows the secretary of the jury announcing the five finalists: Mario Aracama, Oscar Muñoz, Marín Nejime, Sergio Valverde and Julia Wenzel.

In my mind Casa Ferrer is very important in Granada’s history because of the number of makers who started out in its workshops. There is no way there would be so many guitar-makers in Granada if Benito, Eduardo and Antonio Durán had not hired those workers. The latest generation to take the reins of the business is Ana Durán Ferrer and I was lucky enough to find here there on Friday when I went up the hill to check out the Casa Ferrer Exhibition. I was impressed with the layout of the exhibition as well as with the specific pieces in it. Ana walked me through the space and told us some stories and specifics which I appreciated greatly.

This exhibition not only treats the origins of the history of the Casa Ferrer but also the pre-history. It seems that the bandurria played by Benito Ferrer was made by Antonio del Valle and when it collapsed under the tension of the metal strings he took it to José Ortega for advice. Thus began a collaboration which gave Benito the knowledge he needed to start his journey as a guitar-maker.

Flamenco and Classical guitars ready to be evaluated by the jury. Yesterday afternoon we heard all 17 guitars and the jury had some time as well to examine the workmanship and aesthetics of the guitars. They will continue their labour today and announce which guitars will be passing on to the second phase. The photo below shows jury members on the right and participants on the left with representatives from the Granada town council. There are five guitar-makers from the province of Granada participating, two from Málaga, three from Madrid, one from Barcelona, one from Sevilla and the international participants include a maker from Portugal, one from Germany two from China and one from Japan. The quality of the guitars is quite high overall and in the listening tests I heard a very few sub-par instruments and two or three that seemed a head above the rest, mostly in terms of the beauty of the sound. It is exciting to see so many makers and to meet Illustrious members of the guitar world like Manuel Caceres, Edmund Blöchinger and Pepe Romero. The guitars were played by Florian Blöchinger (classicals) and Luis Mariano (flamencos).

The Granada Guitar Festival is coming to a close with the Ferrer exhibition, the guitar making competition this week and next week a final guitar concert. The list of contestants in the Antonio Marín Montero competition has finally been published and it looks like there will be some fine instruments vying for first prize. The following was posted on the Festival’s facebook page and at the bottom is a list of the contestants.

Este fin de semana es muy importante para la European Guitar Foundation, el Festival de la Guitarra de Granada, y creemos , humildemente, que para la guitarra en general.
Hemos creado el 1er Concurso Internacional de Construcción de Guitarras Antonio Marín Montero.
Ante un nombre de trascendencia histórica en la guitarra como es el del Mtro. Antonio Marín, no podíamos hacer un concurso que se quedara a medias, y los concursantes que asistirán, avalan nuestro trabajo.
Recibiremos concursantes de China, Japón, Alemania, Portugal y España. 17 en total.
El jurado, es de una categoría difícilmente igualable, y que asegura el más justo y estricto resultado posible.
David Collett, Presidente de Guitar Salon international de Los Ángeles. El mayor dealer de guitarras de colección y de alta calidad del mundo. Edmund Blöchinger, uno de los nombres referencia indiscutible de la guitarrería . José Miguel Moreno, considerado uno de los mejores intérpretes de instrumentos históricos en el mundo y luthier de reconocido prestigio. Julio Castaños, reconocido profesor e intérprete especializado en la música antigua y que está, en la actualidad, reconocido como uno de los grandes luthiers de instrumentos históricos. Manuel Cáceres, guitarrero referencia mundial de la escuela de Madrid, seguidor y colaborador de Arcángel Fernández, y por tanto continuador de la escuela de Marcelo Barbero. José Marín Plazuelo, uno de los guitarreros referencia de España y de la escuela de Granada, colaborador del Mtro. Antonio Marín y Presidente de este jurado, del que es secretario Esteban Ocaña, concertista internacional y profesor de piano y presidente de Artmusic. Los grandes concertistas Luis Mariano y Florian David Blöchinger, serán los encargados de hacer sonar los instrumentos para el jurado.
Queremos desear a los 17 consursantes la mayor de las suertes. Hemos hecho este concurso para ellos, y vamos a poner todo el esfuerzo en que gane quien más lo merezca. Agradecemos a todos nuestros colaboradores y patrocinadores, en especial al Ayuntamiento de Granada, la ayuda determinante que nos han prestado para realizar este evento único en el mundo. Único porque no hay otro concurso de guitarreros de éste nivel, y mucho menos con un jurado de ésta categoria.
Un fuerte abrazo a todos, y muchas gracias a los miembros del Jurado y concursantes por el gran esfuerzo que habéis hecho para poder estar aquí , en honor al Mtro. Antonio Marín Montero.
Atte. Vicente Coves