Renowned guitarists, music educators, adult musicians, and youth contestants gathered to compete and perform at The University of Texas at Dallas’ 22nd Annual Texas Guitar Competition and Festival on Feb. 29 through March 2.
The Guitar Studies Program of The Harry W. Bass Jr. School of Arts, Humanities, & Technology at UT Dallas hosts the three-day competition designed to showcase outstanding classical guitar students and internationally recognized guitarists.
The Guitar Studies faculty announced the winners of the Youth Division I, Youth Division II, and adult competitions after the concert featuring Jonathan Valenzuela and Jeremy Garcia on Saturday, March 2, at 7:30 p.m.
A panel of accomplished musicians, including five UT Dallas educators, lent their expertise as judges for both the Adult Competition and the Youth Competition, evaluating the outstanding performances. The festival awarded over $8,000 in cash prizes to the deserving winners,
Youth Division I Winners:
1st Place: Nyla Choi 2nd Place (Tie): Dylan Watanabe and Logan Chen
Youth Division II Winners:
1st Place: Brandon Kim 2nd Place: Satvik Chawla 3rd Place: Vidita Bhotika
Adult Competition Winners:
1st Place: Sohta Nakabayashi 2nd Place: Dragos Ilie 3rd Place (Tie): Kyle Khembunjong and Jiujiu Wu
Best Performance of Spanish Repertoire:
Sohta Nakabayashi
Martha and John Nye Audience Choice Award:
Sohta Nakabayashi
Award-winning guitarists Ana Maria Iordache and Bokyung Byun were the renowned headliners in this year’s festival.
Iordache is a first-place winner of the Festival Internacional de Guitarra de Madrid, among many other accolades from guitar competitions worldwide.
Byun is the first female guitarist to win the JoAnn Falletta International Guitar Concerto Competition. Most recently, she received the prestigious 2023 Avery Fisher Career Grant.
Beatriz Pinto, Portuguese musician and winner of the Concurso International de Guitarra Alhambra Junior, performed the pre-concert for the finals.
“It has always been a goal of ours to increase the number of women participating and performing in the guitar world. We are pleased to have three very talented young women open our Competition and Festival on Thursday night,” said Associate Professor of Instruction and co-director Dr. Kathryn Evans.
