Yesterday Vicente Coves of the European Guitar Foundation presented the first Festival de la Guitarra de Granada. Members of the guitar community in Granada have long believed that the number of great makers past and present in this city have made it deserving of a festival as important as that of Córdoba. As a matter of fact the book “The Granada School of Guitar-makers” came out of a failed attempt to create a festival such as this one.

This initiative is to be applauded and we should all work together to make it a success. Activities will take place in July and August and October. In addition to the concerts shown below, highlights of the festival include well-deserved hommages to Antonio Marín and Eduardo Ferrer; both very important in encouraging the number and the quality of the guitar-makers working here today. A guitar-building contest will be celebrated as well with an international jury.

The links below don’t yet have much more information but hopefully they will soon include  the complete programme.

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I am lucky enough to have as my friends and/or clients some of the great spanish guitarists and teachers. I met Javier Somoza while I was working with the 1924 Santos Hernández guitar for my article in Roseta published last year as he was executive editor for that issue. We finally got to have a drink and a meal together at the Madrid presentation of the journal. He played two pieces on the original guitar at that time and told me that he had plans to record this cd. The guitar is an excellent example of perhaps the best maker Spain has ever produced and the recording certainly does it justice. The music is well-chosen and very well played.

I am pleased to see that the cd (available starting today!) has excellent distribution and can be bought in most european countries. I am not sure if Brilliant has U.S. distribution but I am betting that they do. In searching for these links I see that in some countries it will be July 7th before the cd is available.

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Of course I need to mention that I have included a copy of this guitar in my catalogue and it is selling very well.

Juan José has just won second prize at a guitar competition in Bilbao. Congratulations! I made this guitar for him last year and I am very pleased to see that it is serving him well. What a great young player. Competitons are very stressful and difficult to face but if you have the stomach for it you can use them as a springboard to launch your career. Good luck with the next one you decide to participate in.

Closing night at the exhibition Granada, ciudad de la guitarra was a great success. Some people had to be turned away at the door because of the 100 person capacity limit on the hall. I had heard that Edson Lopes was a great guitarist but he exceeded expectations and delighted everyone in the crowd. It is always a pleasure to attend a guitar concert where the audience is not made up exclusively of guitar-makers and guitar players. He played a varied programme including Carulli, Sor, Turina and Moreno Torroba. My wife and I had the pleasure afterwards of sharing a meal with him and his son along with Jose Luis Vigil and Marcus Toscano. Thank you maestro for a great evening.

Manuel de Falla Cadiz, 1876) was a cornerstone of the intellectual community in Granada and obviously a very relevant composer and pianist. However, his friendship and correspondence with Miquel Llobet and Andrés Segovia make him that much more important for guitarists and guitar-makers. He was also a driving force behind the acceptance of Andalusian folk music as a cultural form on a par with more intellectually recognised forms of music. It was this bent that led him to organise the “Concurso de Cante Jondo” in 1922 in Granada.

I have often noted this aspect of Granada; it is very often non-granadinos or adopted granadinos that manage to raise support for projects like this. For some reason, a local is held back by his peers when he tries to do something good for the city whereas the “outsider” does not incite so much jealousy. Still, there must have been more going on in Falla’s day judging from the quote on the wall at his house (the museum). It says: ” In Granada I feel like I am at the centre of the world, as if Granada were a little Paris”.

Falla’s house has been kept exactly as it was when he died in accordance with the wishes of his surviving sister. A lovely, well kept piano and a Benito Ferrer guitar are part of his legacy althought the guitar is not displayed. So many artists die without the recognition they deserve so it is refreshing to see at least this one case where the family and the town  council took steps to preserve his legacy. Perhaps the more important aspect of his legacy is the Archivo which is kept in the Auditorium building and recieves visiting scholars from all over the world.