The Scottish guitarist’s Festival debut explores Spanish and British music across five centuries.

Sean Shibe

The Queen's Hall

Glitter and glamour, scandals and minor scandals, the avant-garde and the traditions of different nations: all this awaited the audience that flocked to the Parisian performances of the legendary Ballets Russes, arguably the best ballet company in the world, shortly after the beginning of the 20th century. The important composers, the renowned set designers, the wonderful stories created productions that sometimes still have an impact today. One of the most famous Russian ballets was Stravinsky's Petrushka , and the most exciting evening with a Spanish background was Manuel de Falla's The Three-Cornered Hat - an entertaining story about a miller and his clever wife who have to fend off the inappropriate advances of a civil servant...

Aranjuez

Beethoven Hall

Rodrigo’s beloved complex yet elegant Concierto de Aranjuez finds new expression in the dazzling virtuosity of world-renowned guitarist Raphaël Feuillâtre. Manuel de Falla’s The Three-Cornered Hat is filled with Spanish dance rhythms and rich melodies. Rounding out the program is Clarice Assad’s Baião ‘N’ Blues, a lively fusion of Brazilian rhythms and American blues.

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Spanish Fiesta

Green Music Center

This year, fans of classical concerts can look forward to a very special French-Spanish touch. The focus of the evening is the guitar and with it the grandiose super hit by the Spaniard Joaquín Rodriguez, his Concierto de Aranjuez . The concert was composed in Paris and embodies the Spanish sound with jazz overtones like no other. It is flanked by two very different works of French literature: Ravel's Tombeau de Couperin , a homage to French music of the 18th century, and Bizet's symphonic debut, which is bursting with summery lightness, inventiveness and exuberance. Don't miss it!

STRING JUMPS WITH GUITAR Symphonic Highlights

Documentation Center Nazi Party Rally Grounds

More Music Koblenz Guitar Festival

Rhein-Mosel-Halle

SFCM concerto competition winner Samuel Liang is the youngest guitarist to have won eight guitar competitions, including internationally. As a winner of the SFCM Guitar Concerto Competition, Liang will be playing Joaquín Rodrigo’s Fantasia para un gentilhombre. The remainder of the evening is then dedicated to Mahler’s Sixth Symphony, written in the early 1900s during the peak of his professional life as a conductor. With Mahler’s own labeling of the Symphony as “Tragic,” his friend and assistant, the great conductor Bruno Walter, said of the symphony “The Sixth is bleakly pessimistic: it reeks of the bitter cup of human life.”

SFCM Orchestra with Edwin Outwater

San Francisco Conservatory of Music

A calming meditation, a world-famous Spanish guitar concerto, and Mozart’s classical grandeur combine for one captivating concert.

Mozart Serenity

Lesher Center for the Arts

Don't miss the Juneau premiere of Joaquin Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez, featuring Juneau guitar legend John Unzicker! Mozart's unforgettable Overture to the Marriage of Figaro begins the program, and we finish with Beethoven's absolutely breathtaking Symphony No. 7, a true masterwork not heard in Juneau for decades.

Winter Mainstage Concert - Virtuosity

Juneau-Douglas High School

Melody of Spain

Tchaikovsky Concert Hall

SFCM’s Faculty Artist Series is presented as an annual concert series featuring SFCM faculty in performance. This series showcases our world-class faculty to our community and audience members in personally curated repertoire.

Susanne Mentzer, mezzo-soprano with Guitar Faculty

The Irish mezzo studied at the Royal Irish Academy of Music in Dublin under Veronica Dunne before moving on to the Opera Studio at the Bavarian State Opera from 2016 to 2018. She is a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist for 2023-5, during which time she will debut at major recital venues including Wigmore Hall. She recently sang Wellgunde in Barrie Kosky’s new production of Das Rheingold at the Royal Opera House and will make her role debut as Carmen at the 2024 Buxton Festival. Her programme takes an avian theme.

Niamh O'Sullivan mezzo-soprano; Gary Beecher piano

Wigmore Hall

Join Music in the Round for friendly and welcoming classical music concerts from some of the world’s finest musicians, including brilliant Cast regulars, Ensemble 360 as well as special guests.

Guitar Classics

Cast

Academy guitarists continue their remarkable survey of guitar concertos from different countries and musical traditions composed in the past hundred years, other than Rodrigo’s famous Concierto de Aranjuez. 

Beyond the Aranjuez

Royal Academy of Music

Hailed by The Washington Post as ‘among the most gifted guitarists on the planet’, Marcin Dylla is considered by critics and music lovers alike to be one of the leading classical guitar players. He has cemented that reputation through an extraordinary competition record, claiming no fewer than 19 first prizes at prestigious international contests.

Among his many distinctions is the Gold Medal at the Guitar Foundation of America International Competition (2007) – widely recognised as classical guitar’s most coveted accolade.

Marcin Dylla (guitar)

RNCM (Royal Northern College of Music)

Vibrant musical connection from start to finish. Srul Irving Glick’s “Divertimento for String Orchestra” opens our final Masterworks concert of the season before guitarist Ana Vidovic returns to the WCO stage to perform Rodrigo’s “Fantasia para un gentilhombre.” Inspired by 17th-century Spanish dance music, the work pairs the guitar’s intimate voice with the orchestra in a graceful dialogue. Our evening concludes with Beethoven’s “Symphony No. 7,” a work celebrated for its driving rhythms and sweeping energy. From delicate guitar textures to Beethoven’s exhilarating finale, the program weaves a thread of rhythm, color and expressive energy.

Joaquin Rodrigo

Events

Upcoming events

Dec 4, 2026

Beyond the Aranjuez · Royal Academy of Music

Mar 17, 2027

Marcin Dylla (guitar) · Royal Northern College of Music

2 - 3 Apr, 2027

Masterworks IV - The Spanish Thread · Overture Center for the Arts

Past events

Aug 13, 2026

Sean Shibe · Edinburgh International Festival

May 8, 2026

Aranjuez · Beethoven Orchester Bonn

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