The International Jury shall consist of the following figures from the world of music:
Micaela Pittaluga (Italy), President of the International Guitar Competition "Michele Pittaluga" in Alessandria (Italy)
Daughter of Michele Pittaluga, the Founder of the Alessandria international guitar competition, Micaela Pittaluga is the President of the Pittaluga Competition and has been the head of the Organising committee since 1995. She studied performing arts, music and architecture (Degree in Architecture University of Florence) and is now devoted to holding the guitar competition every year and the guitar composition competition every two years. She officially represents the Alessandria competition at the annual meetings of the WFIMC (World federation of International music competitions) , and for next three years she is elected as member of the Executive Committee.
Mrs Pittaluga travels widely taking part in guitar festivals, competitions and concerts, attending to the competition and to the promotion of the young prize-winners and guitar performers.
She was from 2003 to 2008 President of the board of Directors at the Vivaldi Conservatorium of Music in Alessandria and in her town she promotes musical events, like founder and co-artistic director of FARELAMUSIC@ cultural society. Micaela Pittaluga, PHF Rotary of Alessandria (Paul Harris fellow), isPresident incoming of the Alessandria Soroptimist Club, member of the Unifem Group (United Nations Development Fund for Women), and UNESCO club of Alessandria.
www.pittaluga.org
Oscar GHIGLIA (Italia), Soloist and Professor of the Musik-Akademie der Stadt de Basel (Switzerland)
Born of an artistic family - his father and grandfather both famed painters, his mother an accomplished pianist – O.G. had to choose between a path strewn with brushes and colours and a world cut into harmony and melody. Though his early choice produced a few hundred water colours and a number of oil paintings, he soon realized music was his way. For this decision he thanks his dad, who one day made him pose for a painting showing a guitarist... For this he had to hold his father’s guitar, a companion to his artistic musings in front of his forming works. This painting was the start to a lifetime of disciplined dedication to music. Graduated from Santa Cecilia’s Conservatory of Rome O.G. began soon his apprenticeship beside the great Master Andres Segovia, who was his major influence and inspiration during his formative years. Later O.G. “inherited” Segovia’s glorious Class in Siena’s Accademia Chigiana and spread his own teaching around the five continents in a sister vocation to his concertizing.
O.G is proud of having founded such strongholds of guitar teaching as the Guitar Department at the Aspen Music Festival (Colorado, USA) as well as in the Festival de Musique des Arcs and the “Incontri Chitarristici di Gargnano”, of having been artist in residence, or visiting professor in such centers as the Cincinnati, San Francisco Conservatories, The Juilliard, the Hartt School and the Northwestern University of Evanston, Ill. In all these centers and else where Ghiglia has been nurturing talents and forming or perfecting young artists musical outlook and interpretation.
Composers as Giampaolo Bracali and, Franco Donatoni, among others have written and dedicated important works to Oscar Ghiglia.
Besides touring as a solo performer O.G. has played and recorded with such names as singers Victoria de Los Angeles, Jan de Gaetani, Gerald English, John mc Collum; flutists as J.P.Rampal, Julius Baker; ensembles as the Juilliard String Quartet, the Emerson String Quartet, the Cleveland String Quartet, the Quartetto d’archi di Venezia, the Tokyo String Quartet; violinists as Giuliano Carmignola, Franco Gulli, Salvatore Accardo, Regis Pasquier; violist as B. Giuranna, P Zuckerman; cellists as K. Adam, A Roman, L.Varga; guitarists as E. Fisk, S.Fukuda, L Guerra, Antigoni Goni, Elena Papandreou. O.G. was a founding member of the the International Classic Guitar Quartet (with, in different turns: Benjamin Bunch,.O. Koga, Anders Miolin, S. Schmidt, Andreas v.Wangenheim,)
Presently, after his last CD: “Manuel Ponce’ Guitar music”, the” Stradivarius” label released a new CD of J.S Bach lute works.
After retiring from Basel Switzerland, where he held the professorship in guitar at the Musik-Akademie der Stadt Basel from 1983 till 2005, his teaching continues, year long in Greece to a select group of pupils flocking in periodically from the four corners of Europe.
In June 2008 a selected group of former students of his have celebrated Oscar Ghiglia’s 70th birthday, in a festival held in the Mannes School of music of New York, including concerts, lectures and master-classes, called “THE GHIGLIA LEGACY”.
An analogous celebration took place in 2009, in Ithaca, N.Y.
Founder of the International Guitar Competition of Gargnano (Italy) O.G. boasts a very high number of first prize winners among his students, in competitions around the world.
Since 2010 he makes his home in Thessaloniki Greece.
María Esther GUZMAN (Spain) International Soloist and Professor of the “Amadeus” Special Music School.
María Esther comes from a long line of musicians on her mother’s side, the Guervós family, a surname going back to her great–grandparents, from the Netherlands, the first one of them come to Spain with Charles I’s Chapel of Music, giving rise to a musical tradition that has continued generation after generation, which extends to the present day.
Continuing the dynasty, María Esther, who was born in Seville, made her presentation in public at the age of four in the Lope de Vega Theatre, at eleven years old she won the first prize awarded by Spanish state radio and television (RTVE). At the age of twelve she played for the Maestro Andrés Segovia, who praised her playing and offered her advice.
She studied at the Higher Conservatory of Music in Seville, under America Martinez, where she graduated in 1985, winning the Extraordinary Award. She perfected her musical education with A. Carlevaro, L. Brouwer, A. Diaz and D. Russell, among others. She has won 6 National and 13 International first Prizes. She was also awarded with “Young Andalusian Musician” Culture Prize in 1994. RITMO Prize, awarded by the magazine of the same name, for her recording of the works of Julian Arcas. In 1988 she was honoured by the JJ.MM of Seville for her “Silver Anniversary” in music.
As a tireless traveller, her presence is requested by the most important stages in Europe, Asia, and America, where she takes master classes and performing both as a soloist and with orchestra, under the direction of teachers such as E.G. Asensio, L. Brouwer, C. Metters, O. Alonso, C. Florea, Pedro Halftter, Adrian Leaper.
As well as her activity as a soloist, she regularly collaborates with many groups playing chamber music, and she forms a duet with flutist Luis Orden, and the guitarist Takeshi Tezuka.
She has been annually touring and recording in Japan since 1988. She has recorded 25 CDs, 1 LP, 4 videos and 1 DVD. She has premiered pieces by Maestros M. Castillo, J. García Román , Joaquin Rodrigo, Tomas Marco, Carlos Cruz de Castro, Zulema de la Cruz and Javier Jacinto.
She has been named Numerary Member by the Royal Academy of fine Arts of St. Isabel of Hungary in Seville.
She is a teacher at the “Amadeus” Special Music School in Seville.
www.mariaestherguzman.com
Lazhar CHEROUANA (France) 1º Prize at the Seville International Guitar Competition “Spanish composers”.
Born in Vienne in 1988, at the age of 6 he starts his guitar career with the help of the professor Raphael Vaccaro. Later on he enters the National Conservatory of Lyon where he undertakes his studies with the well-known Peruvian artist and professor Jesus Castro finalizing them with a gold medal for unanimity. He after continues gaining more knowledge in the Real Superior Conservatory of Music where he obtained his diploma with honors.
At present his is developing his career in the Mozarteum of Salzburg as well as in the Klagenfurt Conservatory (Austria) in Marco Tamayo’s class. In addition to this, he regularly receives advice from Judicael Perroy in Paris.
He has also received lectures from Eduardo Fernández, Alirio Díaz, José Miguel Moreno, René Bartoli, Ricardo Gallén, Ignacio Rodes, Gerard Abiton, José Luís Rodrigo, Hubert Käppel y Leo Brouwer.
He has been given a scholarship by the Filamonica Society of Lyon for doing the “Music in Compostela” course. He has won the first award for unanimity in Cezeriat, a second award won for unanimity in the BArtoli contest as well as the grant-award Hazen-Hosseschruders in the International meeting “City of Majadahonda”
He has been graduated with honors from the festival Andrés Segovia, where he won the Segovia Prize of the Music Festival in Compostela, the second prize in the contest of Elche and the first prize in the youth contest José Tomas de Petrer in 2009. In 2010 he wins the first professional competition prize “Jose Tomas”, Fiuggi and the first contest of Seville as well as the regional and national contests and lastly the European final which the Lion's Club organizes.
He has several recordings for the French television and has performed in cities like Lyon, Santiago de Compostela, Budapest, Marrakech, Salzburg, Bologna, Madrid, New York and Paris.
www.lazharcherouana.com
Francisco Bernier (Spain), Soloist and Professor of the Conservatory of Music in Seville (Spain)
First prize at the prestigious International competition “Michele Pittaluga” in Alessandria (Italy).
Considered by the critic as one of the world’s leading classical guistarist of his generation, Francisco Bernier, has gone getting along the years a full career of successes and prizes that have carried him to perfom in over 30 countries around the globe and on such prestigious stages as the Salle Cortot and the Théâtre Mogador in Paris, the Salle Corum in Montpellier, the Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux, Oji Hall in Tokio, Kyoto Concert Hall, the Hermitage Museum of Saint Petersburg, Teatro Maestranza in Sevilla, Teatro Comunale de Alessandria, Merkin Hall in New York, Hall of the O.E.A (Organization of American States) in Washington o the Zellerbach Hall in San Francisco.
Finalist in the Concert Artist Guild of New York and recipient of more than twenty international prizes including the “Michele Pittaluga” Competition, Mr Bernier has performed with many orchestras like the Camerata of Saint Petersburg, Orchestra Simphony of Manchester, Orchestra Symphonic of the Mediterranean, Orchestra Symphonic of the Vallés, Orchestra Symphonic of Huelva or the Berkeley Symphony of San Francisco conducted by Kent Nagano.
He began his musical studies at the Conservatorio Superior de Música in Seville with teachers Juan Carlos Rivera and Serafín Arriaza. In 1994 he moved to France to continue his musicals studies at the Ecole Normale "Alfred Cortot" in Paris under the direction of Maestro Alberto Ponce. He received the Superior Diploma of Execution and Concert Performer by unanimous decision and with the jury’s congratulations.
From 1998 to 2002, Francisco continued his excellent formation at the Hochschule für Musik of Cologne (Germany), at the Université du Québec in Montréal (Canada) and at Conservatoire National Supérieur de Paris (France). He also attended master classes with Alvaro Pierri, Roland Dyens, Leo Brouwer, David Russel, José Tomas, Oscar Ghiglia and received advice from composers, orchestra conductors and musicians from other disciplines.
Francisco Bernier has recorded 5 Cds, the first of them under the sponsorship of the Ministry of Spanish-INAEM and in prestigious labels like Mandala-Harmonia Mundi or Déclic-Radio France and has taken part in numerous radio and TV recordings: for the Deutsche Welle, Cadena Ser, R.T.V.E, R.A.I, Radio France International, Radio Clasica, Radio Classique, France Musiques or Nippon NHK. The last CD was recorded in September 2009 in Canada with Naxos Company with great success.
His interest by contemporary music has carried to him to be in contact with composers of our time like Zulema de la Cruz, Carlos Cruz de Castro, Naomi Sekiya, Paola Brino, Arnaud Dumond, Joseba Torre, Cesar Camarero, José Manuel López López or Luís de Pablo, between others. For his interest for the contemporary music he is also member of the Zahir Ensemble.
Francisco Bernier is also Laureates of the Foundations like Meyer, Beracasa and BNP-PARIBAS (France) “la Caixa” Foundation (Spain) or Emma Contestabile Foundation (Italy).
Francisco teaches now at Seville "Superior" Conservatory of Music and in the University of Seville. He is also the Artistic Director of the Seville International Guitart Competition and Festival.
-Absolute Excellence! La Stampa
www.franciscobernier.com
Graham WADE (England) Musicologist and founder of the EGTA.
A graduate of Jesus College, Cambridge, and Fellow of Trinity College of Music, London, Graham was formerly Head of Strings and professor of guitar at the City of Leeds College of Music and Tutor in Guitar to the Universities of Leeds and York. His publications include biographies of Andres Segovia, Joaquin Rodrigo and Gina Bachauer, books on guitar history, and aspects of musical form. An Advisory Editor and contributor to The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, he has been appointed as General Editor for a series of paperbacks on music for a leading American publisher. He has been an external examiner in guitar at the Royal Welsh College of Music, the Royal Scottish Academy of Music, the Dublin Conservatoire, and the Leeds College of Music, and has been an adjudicator for several international guitar competitions and music festivals in Germany, Ireland, Greece, and Spain, and the United Kingdom.
Graham Wade has written programme notes for Andres Segovia, Julian Bream, and John Williams, and liner notes for various leading record companies including Naxos, Deutsche Grammophon, EMI, ASV, Nimbus, Teldec, Chandos, Aurophon, etc. Between 1990 and 1995 he was founder-editor of the European Guitar Teachers’ Association Journal (EGTA UK). He is internationally acknowledged as one of the foremost writers on the classical guitar.
From the 1960s onwards he fulfilled many performing engagements throughout England, as well as playing recitals in Spain, Scandinavia, Holland, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Kuwait, Canada, etc.
In 2002, Graham Wade was awarded the Schott Gold Medal for his contribution to Rodrigo studies. In 1986 he gave lectures on the Segovia course at the University of Southern California, and in 1994 was Guest Speaker at Cordoba Guitar Festival on the art of Andrés Segovia. In 1998 he spent some time at Brigham Young University, Utah, to research his biography of the pianist, Gina Bachauer. He has given seminars at universities and colleges world-wide including USA, Canada, Austria, Germany, Spain, Greece, Hungary, Holland, New Zealand, and the Czech Republic, as well as the Royal Academy of Music, Royal Scottish Academy of Music, Royal Welsh College of Music, Royal Northern College of Music, Trinity College of Music, London, the London School of Economics, the Institute Cervantes, Leeds University, and many British classical guitar societies, etc. He has tutored and lectured at many summer schools including Esztergom, Hungary, Ingesund, Sweden, Zwolle, Holland, Mikulov, Czech Republic, Cordoba Guitar Festival, Spain, Complutense University Summer School, Madrid, University of Southern California, Winona, Minnesota, Corfu Guitar Festival, Greece, and Derry Guitar Festival, and most British summer schools including Cannington, West Dean, EGTA conference, Burton Manor, Brant Broughton Summer School, Bath Festival, etc. His further travels and researches have taken him to Russia, China, Mongolia, India, Australia, North and West Africa, the Middle East, the Caribbean, South America and the Falkland Islands.
www.egta.co.uk/content/graham_wade1
