What a time we had two Saturdays ago (April 20th, 2013) when Ana Vidovic returned to our International Concert stage for our series finale performance.  The sold out crowd had guests from Canada, Mexico and all over the US, and Ana delivered a simply stunning performance – like she always does!

Just FlamencoAustin on May 16th is left before we begin our 2013 Summer Series with York, Assad, and Garibay!

About 100 guitarists from Texas and Oklahoma joined us all day for our eighth annual Guitars Galore ensemble festival.  They rehearsed together in the morning, played for each other all day, and then opened our evening concert with a phenomenal pre-show performance including ACGS Education Director Travis Marcum’s GuitarCurriculum.com arrangement of Sor’s “Variations on La Folia” and the world premiere of “Koi, Out to Sea” by Brownsville’s Kristina Avila, who won this year’s annual ACGS Composition Competition.

I’d like to say a huge thank you to Arlen Nydam for the expert photography you’ll see in this post!

Here I’m about to introduce Kristina to our audience – and present her with her award – right before the large ensemble performance.  Look at all those guitarists!  They sounded fabulous.

 

 

The Guitars Galore Festival Ensemble was conducted, as it has been each year, by Dr. Michael Quantz.  Dr. Quantz is professor of guitar at the University of Texas at Brownsville, and is one of the nation’s leading advocates for high-quality secondary guitar education.  I am proud to call him a dear friend and close colleague.

 

 

Ana’s concert began with Sor’s famous “Introduction, Theme & Variations on a Theme of Mozart”.  She was brilliant.

 

 

The program also included works of Barrios, Albeniz, and Bach – I was particularly excited to hear her play the Bagatelles of William Walton – having only heard her play those in the past on her NAXOS recording from 2000.

 

 

Here we are after the concert!

 

 

Ana’s autograph line was as long as any I remember.  It lasted for 45 minutes.  Most people had her autograph their programs, but several had her sign guitars and cases!  Arlen put together this fabulous montage!