Texas Guitar Competition and Festival: Schedule
23rd Annual Texas Guitar Competition and Festival
March 6 – 8, 2025
This unique Texas competition, designed to showcase outstanding classical guitar students, awards over $8,200 in cash prizes to the winners. Over the three-day event, students compete and attend master classes and concerts by internationally recognized guitarists.
We hold a Youth Competition for ages 11-18 as well as the main Adult Competition for college-level students.
View our past competitions for photos and lists of winners.
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Note: The University of Texas at Dallas will not take custodial responsibility of minors while participating in the Annual Texas Guitar Competition and Festival. Custodial responsibility will remain with teachers K-12, parents, legal guardians, and chaperones.
Schedule of Events
March 6 to March 8, 2025
View the event program
Information about parking and directions
Thursday, March 6:
Semi-finals of the Adult Competition (not open to the public)
1:00 p.m.
University Theatre
Pre-concert: A tribute to Enric Madriguera
7:00 p.m.
University Theatre
Concert: Dr. Bryan Burns, SMU
7:30 p.m.
University Theatre
Concert: Sohta Nakabayashi, 2024 Texas Annual Guitar Competition, first place winner
8:00 p.m.
University Theatre
Friday, March 7:
Master Class for competitors, with Sohta Nakabayashi
10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Master Class for competitors, with David Russell
2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Meet-and-greet for competitors
4:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Preconcert: Winner of the 2024 CIGA Junior Alhambra Youth Guitar Competition
7:00 p.m.
University Theatre
Adult Competition Finals
7:30 p.m.
University Theatre
Saturday, March 8:
Youth Competition (open to parents and teachers only)
10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Various Locations
Vendor Fair
12:00 p.m.
Jonsson Performance Hall
Lecture: Dr. Bryan Burns
2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Jonsson Performance Hall
Vendor Demonstration
3:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Jonsson Performance Hall
Pre-concert: the Festival Youth Orchestra
7:00 p.m.
University Theatre
Concert: David Russell, co-presented with the Allegro Guitar Society
Followed by the Award Ceremony at the end of the concert to announce the winners for both the adult and youth competitions.
7:30 p.m.
University Theatre
Registration
Featuring Performances by
Dr. Bryan Burns
Bryan K. Burns, D.M.A., has performed, lectured, taught and adjudicated throughout the United States and abroad. The foundations of his guitar playing were developed under the tutelage of many fine guitarists, most notably the founder of the guitar department at the Meadows School, Robert Guthrie. As his love for the 19th-century guitar repertoire began to blossom, Dr. Burns sought out the Italian masters to further his interpretive understanding of their rich musical heritage. His studies with Matteo Mela and Lorenzo Micheli, both in festivals and privately, have had a tremendous impact on his musical and artistic development. His post-graduate work with Eliot Fisk at the New England Conservatory focused primarily on Baroque repertoire.
Dr. Burns holds three music degrees from the University of North Texas, as well as an Artistic Graduate Diploma from the New England Conservatory. He has won numerous prizes and awards in the field of music, both on the concert stage and academically, and has given concerts and lectures both in the U.S. and Europe, appearing as a featured soloist for several guitar societies and music festivals. As an expert in guitar pedagogy, Dr. Burns has published two treatises on the topic. Most recently, he has lectured extensively on his dissertation research pertaining to musical rhetoric and the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. In addition to his teaching post here at SMU, Dr. Burns enjoys serving as the director of classical guitar studies at Booker T. Washington High School for the Visual and Performing Arts in Dallas, Texas.
Sohta Nakabayashi
The first-place winner of last year’s Texas Guitar Competition and Festival, Sohta Nakabayashi was born in Tokyo (Japan) in the year 2000 and began studying guitar at the age of three, with teacher Takayuki Azuma. In 2004, he met the guitarist Manuel Babiloni on one of his tours of Japan, who became his reference teacher and with whom he maintained constant contact through regular meetings, both in Spain and Japan, until his sudden death, in 2015. Currently, he studies the Superior Degree of Guitar at the Royal Conservatory of Music of Madrid (RCSMM), with Professor D. Miguel Trápaga. he has won over 10 awards in various international competitions among them, 1 Prize and Public Prize at “Uppsala international Gitarrfestival” (2022, Sweden), 1 Prize at “Alhambra CIGA junior”(2022, Spain), 1 Prize IX Concurso de Guitarra“Juan Crisóstomo de Arriaga” (2021, Spain), 1 Prize and Public Prize at competition “Ciutat d’Elx” professional category (2021, Spain), 2 Prize at Tallinn Guitar Festival V International Classical Guitar Competition(2022, Estonia), 2 Prize at professional category XXl Concurso Internacional de Guitarra José Tomás-Villa de Petrer (2022, Spain), 2 Priza and the Embassy Prize of Spain, in the International Spanish Music Competition(2017, Japan), 3 Priza in Albania International Guitar Competition( 2022, Albania).
David Russell
Classical guitarist David Russell is world renowned for his superb musicianship and inspired artistry, having earned the highest praise from audiences and critics alike. In recognition of his great talent and his international career, he was named a Fellow of The Royal Academy of Music in London in 1997.He won the GRAMMY award for his CD AIRE LATINO in the category of best instrumental soloist in classical music. David Russell has an Honorary Doctorate in Music by the University of Arizona in Tucson in 2014 and was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the Guitar Foundation of America in 2018.
David Russell spends his time touring the world, appearing regularly at prestigious halls in main cities, such as New York, London, Tokyo, Los Angeles, Madrid, Toronto or Rome. Concert-goers everywhere are in awe of his musical genius and inspired by his captivating stage presence. His love of his craft resonates through his flawless and seemingly effortless performance. The attention to detail and provocative lyrical phrasing suggests an innate understanding of what each individual composer was working to achieve, bringing to each piece a sense of adventure. A prolific recording artist, his collection includes seventeen CDs with Telarc International.
The New York Times wrote about his performance: “… Mr. Russell made his mastery evident without ever deviating from an approach that places musical values above mere display. It was apparent to the audience throughout the recital that Mr. Russell possesses a talent of extraordinary dimension”.
Upon hearing play in London, Andrés Segovia wrote: “My congratulations on your musicality and guitaristic technique”.