Here Abel García Ayala plays Hommage pour le tombeau de Debussy on my Torres copy at the Antonio de Torres festival in Badalona. Abel is an excellent player and will be scooping up all of the prizes at festivals this year.

The guitar pictured is of course a copy of the “Cumbre” made by Antonio de Torres which represents the pinnacle of the craft. I know of a few who have made copies but the perfection and fidelity of this one to the original are incredible. I got to hear the guitar in concert also and it is a great-sounding instrument. The maker is Abel García López from Paracho, Mexico. If you have any preconceived notions about the quality of the guitars made in Paracho you can forget them now. Although I understand that there are many makers in the area who work extremely quickly and cheaply, Abel is at the other extreme completely of the guitar-making spectrum. He is now on my list of world-class makers. I spent some time with him this weekend at the International Guitar Days in Badalona and really enjoyed his company where his guitar was the star of the show.  Here is the poster for the event.

I will give you the answer tomorrow.

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The Associació de la Guitarra de Badalona holds a guitar festival every year but none so ambitious as this one. This year it coincides with the 200th anniversary of the birth of Antonio de Torres Jurado, often touted as the “father of the modern guitar” or the “Stradivarius of the guitar”. Don’t miss this festival with its concerts:

Antonio López Palacios

Cuarteto Terpsicore

Abel García Ayala

Carles Trepat

Lectures by experts in their fields and a fascinating exhibition of careful replicas of Antonio de Torres’ guitars. I will be lecturing at 5pm on Saturday and my Torres copy will be exhibited with 7 others. I don’t know if there will be auditions of the replicas but here is mine.

One of the best lutherie schools in the world is the Cmb at Puurs (Belgium) and part of what makes them great is their commitment to research and dissemination. As I have mentioned before their role in the Leonardo Guitar Research Project is vital to its success. Another great iniciative is the Cordefactum festival which is usually held every two years, the first having been held in 2004. The focus is on different instruments each year and this year once again the guitar takes centre stage. Lecturers, players and builders come together to share their knowledge and experiences. The lineup over the years has been quite impressive: Rolf Eichinger, Bruno Marlat, Paul Fischer, Andrea Tacchi, Daniele Chiesa, Pavel Steidl, Fabio Zanon, Fernando Espí and Rafael Aguirre. This year I have been invited to speak about the Granada school of guitar-making and will be speaking on Sunday at 1:30pm. For those of you wishing more information please visit the site here.

I am looking forward to hearing some of the guitars made with non-tropical woods, meeting some old friends, catching the concerts and lectures and of course trying some strong Belgian beer.