The Cultural Center of the Philippines and The Guitar Friends will hold the 1st Philippine International Guitar Festival 2010 on January 28-31 at the CCP. With the objective of promoting the Classical Guitar, the festival offers exciting musical performances by outstanding guitarists from the Philippines and abroad.

Maestro Jose Valdez, who is considered to be one of the best guitar teachers in the country, is the director of the Festival. Maestro Valdez, who has 35 years of teaching experience, is a lecturer and professor at the University of the Philippines, Philippine Women's University, St. Scholastica's College, Philippine National University, La Concordia College and St. Paul's College. He is a pioneer of all major guitar courses in most schools in the Philippines. The CCP Encyclopedia of Philippine Arts ranks him as one of the pioneers of classical guitar in the country.

Among those performing in the Festival are Steve Lin, Michael Dadap, Jose Valdez, Perfecto de Castro, Sixto Roxas, Kasilag Guitar Trio, Tabs, UP Guitar Orchestra, Fundacion Centro Flamenco and the winners of the Namcya 2009 Guitar Category. More artists and groups, including the Manila Symphony Orchestra, are expected to be added to the list of performers in the Festival.

Steve Lin is a renowned international artist who has concertized throughout the US, Italy, the Philippines and Taiwan. An award winning guitarist and a recording artist, Lin teaches guitar at the San Jose State University and Northern California School of Music. He has a master’s degree from Yale School of Music and is completing his doctorate at the New England Conservatory under Eliot Fiske.

Michael Dadap has been artistic/music director and conductor of The Children’s Orchestra Society since 1984. He studied at the University of the Philippines, the Mannes College of Music and the Julliard School. As a conductor, he has conducted and collaborated with some of the world’s most renowned concert artists. As an accomplished classical guitarist, he made his Carnegie Hall debut in 1974 and has since performed in numerous concerts internationally.

Lester Demetillo is one of the Philippines' leading classical guitar performers and teachers. He has been on the faculty of the University of the Philippines College of Music since 1980. On the invitation of other Asian universities, he has given master classes in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. He serves as an examiner for the Associated Board of Royal Schools in Indonesia, and continues to give lessons at the Asian Institute for Liturgical Music.As an artist, Lester has performed at the American Colleges in Chicago, Sejong Hall in Korea, Australia's Melbourne Concert Hall and the Chuo Center Hall in Osaka, Japan, among others. In the Philippines, he averages 50 concerts a year.

Critically-acclaimed guitarist Florante Aguilar is considered one of the leading proponents of Philippine harana music in America today. He is comfortable playing traditional western classical music as a virtuoso and also ventures into contemporary music and other genres with ease. But his true love and affinity belongs to the music he grew up with in the Philippines - the music of a bygone era called the harana.

Sixto “Butch” Roxas is a highly respected guitarist currently helping reestablish as well as playing for the UST Jazz Orchestra together with conductor/saxophonist Tots Tolentino. He studied at the famed Berklee College of Music in Boston and took guitar courses in various institutions abroad such as the Schola Cantorum in Paris and in Barcelona, Spain with Maestro Josep Henriquez under a grant from the Agencia Espanola. He is a faculty member of the UST Conservatory of Music.

Perfecto de Castro is hailed as one of the best Filipino guitarists. A graduate of PWU School of Music, he studied with Maestro Jose Valdez. The Laudarra, or the Ten String Classical Guitar, is Castro’s instrument of choice. He has collaborated with composers all over the world to add to the repertoire of the Ten String Guitar. He is a founding member of the Kasilag Guitar Quartet.

The University of the Philippines Guitar Orchestra (UPGO) has proudly distinguished itself as the first Guitar Orchestra in the country. The UPGO is composed of outstanding students majoring in Guitar from the University of the Philippines College of Music, each a promising musician in his own right. The UPGO boasts of a wide range of repertoire that includes works from the renaissance, baroque, classical, romantic, 20th century music periods along with other genres such as flamenco, jazz and popular music, most of which were arranged or transcribed by Lester Demetillo.

Fundacion Centro Flamenco is an organization dedicated to the promotion of the art of flamenco music and dance.

The Guitar Friends, which is spearheading the Festival, is composed of guitar aficionados of varying levels of expertise in guitar performance brought together by their love for guitar and their association with Maestro Jose Valdez, the Festival director. The Guitar Friends support the Guitar Immersion Program of Maestro Valdez and conducts activities such as campus concerts and master classes.

The 1st Philippine International Guitar Festival 2010 will offer master classes and lectures on topics such as “Building a Performing Career”, “Flamenco”, “A Guitarist’s Pain”, “Jazz Improvisation”, “Ensemble Playing” and “Musicality, Intelligence and Technique”. The Festival will also feature booths and displays by guitar makers and manufacturers.

For more information, please contact Jose Valdez, Festival Director - +639175266377 Phil Valdez - +639204982720 Jenny de Vera - +639159213440 and visit http://philguitarfest.blogspot.com and email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it