2011 Louisville Guitar Competition Winners

2011 Louisville Guitar Competition Winners

The Louisville Guitar Festival & Competition was held May 26-30, 2011. The competition was open to competitors of all ages, and had three rounds of free choice music.

The winner received a $1,000USD prize and an invitation to perform at next year’s festival. In addition, this years winner was also invited to give two concerts in Poland: at the Selisian Guitar Autumn Festival and Competition in Tychy and another at the Academy of Music in Katowice.

The Competition Winners

First Prize: Brendan Evans
Second Prize: Zhivko Nikolov
Third Prize: Jeremy Collins
Fourth Prize: Gideon Whitehead
Honorable mention: John Marcel Williams

Brendan Evans Classical Guitar
Brendan Evans

Listen to Winner Brendan Evans Play

Live Recordings by Brendan Evans

Comments

  • Phil

    The winner received a ‘can of beans’.

    Seriously… what kind of “competitions” are these??

    Have a look at the
    Parkening Guitar Competition
    Concurso de Guitarra Infanta Cristina (Toledo Spain)
    Koblenz International Guitar Competition
    Guitar Competition Karl Scheit
    Certamen Internacional de Guitarra Clásica “Andrés Segovia”
    Michele Pittaluga International Classical Guitar Competition

    for some real guitar competitions, where there is some real competition.

    Higher prizes and more prestigious competitions attract better players and have a higher level.
    Prizes often include concert engagements, CD recordings, high value guitars (which I know that prize-winners often sell, for Euro 6000), in addition to the prize-money.

    • Christopher Davis

      So, because this competition doesn’t meet your arbitrary standards for good prizes I should ignore it?

      I’m in the business of information aggregation. And while I understand you think the Louisville Competition is BS, I doubt everyone feels the same way. There’s a lot of competitions around the US exactly like this one: not huge international affairs, but smaller regional events. They are just as important, and, in fact, the competitors do use them as spring boards to bigger things. Brendan will be at the Koblenz festival competing this year.

      • Phil

        Point taken. Yes smaller competitions also have their worth.

        I’m hoping you’ll report on the bigger competitions as well (such as Koblenz, Parkening, Michele Pittaluga, Certamen “Andrés Segovia”, Tarrega competition, Karl Scheit, Concurso de Guitarra Infanta Cristina, Printemps de la Guitare, Certamen “Miquel Llobet”, Concours Robert Vidal, Mottola guitar competition, Forum Gitarre Wien, etc.) or do you want your blog to represent a US-centric small local view only??

        • Christopher Davis

          It’s a matter of getting the information. I’m able to cover US competitions because people are open to actually providing me with information on the winners. Beyond actually getting an email response, I’m limited to the information I find online. And since most competitions don’t update their websites frequently, It’s hard to get info.

          These things happen. It doesn’t bother me that this blog is, so far, a US-centric thing. Its just the way things have gone so far. But I do get plenty of hate and borderline hate comments from European guitarists complaining about the things I cover news-wise.

          -CD

          • Peter

            Newswise my roommate (doctoral student) just provided you with the results of the Heinsberg guitar competition. 😉

            Regards from a music-students-residence from mainland Europe!

          • Pierre

            Christopher Davis wrote: “It doesn’t bother me that this blog is, so far, a US-centric thing. Its just the way things have gone so far. But I do get plenty of comments from European guitarists complaining about the things I cover news-wise.”

            Your websiteblog is called
            classicalguitar.ORG

            I think guitarists can rightly expect to get European guitar news and information, as well. Otherwise you could have used the url classicalguitar.US instead.

          • Christopher Davis

            .org domains are open registration. Also keep in mind that this site isn’t a non profit. It’s not really even a for profit. It’s me volunteering my time. If you would like to contribute and ensure that all the European guitar news is covered, please, get in touch.

        • Warren

          Wow, that’s an incredible performance by Aguirre. This is a really very very high level: Real virtuoso who not only has good technique but also stunning musicality. Ricardo Gallén also does a stunning performance of this work, which I find even better!

          Definately two of todays top performers!
          PS: they’ll both be at Koblenz 2011.

  • Justin

    Frankly I look forward to competitions like this. I did not have a chance to go to college to study guitar. Right now I’m married with 4 small children. 10 years from now, I’ll probably be in a position to compete in one of these competitions, but will most likely never be in a league to compete in something like GFA, or Parkening competition.

  • brendan

    how about that picture…by the way Phil guitarists can use “can of beans” to strengthen the wrists.

      • Learn Guitar Chords with LG2

        Hahaha! I agree with you Brendan, it sure is a help!

        And oh the picture looks really good too.

        Anyway, I think that competitions, may it be prestigious or not, still is one very good means to show peoples talent. Didn’t we forget, that big things come from small things. For me, what really matters is how we share music to all. And how we make music that is powerful enough to impact the whole world. =)

        Once again, Congratulations to Brendan! Kudos!

    • Christopher Davis

      I’ll gladly approve them when you use a real name. Your optimized anchor text won’t matter anyway: my comments links are nofollowed (like every other blog in the world now-a-days).

  • Matt Ryals
    Matt Ryals

    Wow, there certainly are a lot of douches on here telling you what to do. Pretty funny