Adelaide Guitar Festival strummed its final notes on Sunday, drawing to a close its second annual year of performances, tours and events which entertained thousands in both its city and regional venues.
Ticketed highlights included Thursday evening’s packed-out performance and standing ovation at El Corazón del Flamenco, starring Spanish flamenco star José María Gallardo del Rey and the fiery toe-tapping rhythms of Melbourne-based group Arte Kanela; the sold-out opening night performance of Joe Camilleri and The Black Sorrows, supported by Lecia Louise; and beautiful songs and stories from the road from Fanny Lumsden and Jimmybay in Songs Told of a Land of Gold.
The final weekend included a tribute to legendary Grammy-Award winning musician, Julian Bream, by Paul Nash and the Classical Guitar Society of Victoria; the world premiere of Spectrums of Sound with Nick Sinclair, James Muller, Cameron Deyell and Laurence Pike; and Friday night’s Sketches and Orchestrations, featuring a diverse program of classical music from Adelaide Guitar Festival’s Winter School, Karin Schaupp’s 16-piece Riverside Guitar Ensemble performing a world premiere by Australian composer Gerard Brophy; and Slava and Leonard Grigoryan with an eclectic program encompassing both Bach and Handel works along with a number of original compositions.
Adelaide Guitar Festival’s popular Winter School saw 80 students from ages 11 to early 70s enrol in either the Blues and Roots or the Classical stream, under the talented guidance of tutors Cal Williams Jr, Lecia Louise, Chris Finnen and Chris Parkinson (Blues and Roots); and Paul Svobada, Manus Noble, Andras Tuske and Giuseppe Zangari (Classical).
The 2022 Adelaide International Classical Guitar Competition final, held on Sunday, was won by Adelaide’s Connor Whyte, the first South Australian to win the award since its inception in 2010. Whyte was awarded the $10,000 (AUD) first prize and a coveted Jim Redgate guitar valued at $23,000 (AUD), and a concert engagement at an upcoming Adelaide Guitar Festival. Second prize was awarded to Ziggy Johnston and third prize to Egor Svezhentcev.
The 2022 festival employed 180 individual artists for 322 performances across South Australia, including at schools, health care services, 7 metro venues and 35 regional venues. Total festival attendances at were over 16,000, including at regional venues on the Eyre and Yorke Peninsulas, SA’s Mid North, Kangaroo Island and Adelaide Hills.
These events are such a great way to bring our rural community together. Music is so healing for our souls, which is more important than ever in these otherwise strange times.
Over 2000 people visited the impressive The Immersive Guitar on Festival Plaza, which proved a popular attraction and saw many make their best attempt to play the world’s largest acoustic guitar, using either a slide, bow or baton.
The performance of Foundations of Shred, featuring guitarists Cam Blokland, Simon Hosford and rock band Fair Warning, has been rescheduled to December 3 at the Dunstan Playhouse.
I’m incredibly proud of our 2022 Adelaide Guitar Festival team and artists for delivering this year’s amazing program, celebrating the beauty of guitar music in all its forms.
I congratulate everyone who entered our international Classical Guitar Competition. The judges’ decision was extremely difficult based on the sky-high standards that this competition now commands every year. We’ve had entrants in this competition who began their guitar studies with us years ago in our Winter School, and it’s wonderful to see their progression.
Whether you visited us in a metro or a regional venue this year, thank you for rugging up and coming along to show your support. We look forward to seeing everyone again in 2023!
It was wonderful to see Festival Plaza come alive with guitar fans of all ages, and the sounds of rock, flamenco and classical guitar filling Adelaide Festival Centre’s Dunstan Playhouse, Space Theatre and Her Majesty’s Theatre. We thank our funding and program partners for enabling us to visit more South Australian regional areas than ever before. Here’s to the 2023 Festival, a year which will also commemorate Adelaide Festival Centre’s 50th birthday.
In 2022 Adelaide Guitar Festival was assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, Festivals Australia program and RISE funding body. Adelaide Guitar Festival also proudly celebrates Adelaide’s designation as a UNESCO City of Music.