Last night saw the last in the series of presentations at the Caja Rural exhibition. Some of the best guitar-makers in Granada met to publicly condemn false labelling, unethical behaviour, appropriation of what should be universal heritage and abuses of government recognitions for personal gain. A very few supposed professionals are giving all of us a bad name and need to be stopped. As Daniele Chiesa said last night, the prestige and fame of Granada; it’s ablility to support so many guitar-makers is a very fragile thing. If we don’t protect it it might come tumbling down.

The video loop at the exhibition includes the video “Guitarrero” by dc Chavez filmed mostly at the workshop of Bernd and Lucas Martin. Juan García Fernández spends a few hours a week working onsite at the exhibition. French polisher Javier Campos will be there for a few days as well. The other local paper finally got round to writing something about the exhibition and so yesterday was probably the busiest day of all.  The Andalucian public TV Canal Sur channel also visited yesterday and today they should be showing what they filmed on the local news.

The guitars in this month’s guitar exhibition in Granada include some very interesting historic guitars, some of which are being exhibited for the first time in public. Benito Ferrer, José Pernas, Manuel de la Chica, Nicolás del Valle, Agustín Caro, and as a testament to the most famous apprentice in Granada, Antonio de Torres. In the photo above you can see from left to right the del Valle, Pernas and Caro. In previous posts you can see de la Chica, Torres and Ferrer. We also expected a Juan Ortega, the maker who taught Benito Ferrer but in the end it didn’t come. I was asked to mention that this guitar is for sale. The owners of the Manuel de la Chica and the Nicolás del Valle are also interested in selling. I hope these importante elements of Granada’s history stay close to home.

Here is a moment from David Martinez’s excellent concert last night. He is a real virtuoso. Aarón García Ruiz presented an excellent lecture on the history of the Granada school including very convincing proof that it was indeed José Pernas who taught Antonio de Torres guitar-making. His plea for a guitar museum in Granada was also very well argued. In this picture you can see a few of the information panels in the background. There is one panel of the photographs of the guitar-makers but the rest were made by members of the Asociación para el Estudio de la Guitarra RCSMVE and trace the history of the guitar. Check times and dates for upcoming events at the exhibition in yesterday’s post.