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.

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.