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Weekend’s Guitar Concerts, Competition Boast International Talent

Juan Carlos Laguna will perform a free concert at 4 p.m. Saturday in the Clark Center.

Juan Carlos Laguna will perform a free concert at 4 p.m. Saturday in the Clark Center.

With several concerts and  a competition that feature contenders from across the globe, the 13th annual Texas Guitar Competition and Festival brings the best in classical guitar to campus this weekend.

“This year’s edition of the competition is the most international to date,” said Dr. Enric Madriguera, Russell Cleveland Professor in Guitar Studies. “Competitors come from Tokyo, Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro and Amsterdam. In the U.S., guitarists from California to Florida are arriving to compete. It’s a wonderful field this year.”

The International Concert Guitarist Competition will be at 8 p.m. Friday in the Alexander Clark Center. The competitions’ finalists will vie for $6,500 in prize money. The Radiant Guitar Ensemble, a Dallas area group directed by Madriguera, will perform a pre-show concert at 7:15 p.m. The ensemble will play selections from the likes of J.S. Bach and Eric Satie. The pre-show concert and the competition are free and open to the public.

On Saturday, internationally renowned classical guitarist Juan Carlos Laguna will perform a free concert at 4 p.m. in the Clark Center.

Born in Mexico City, Laguna studied at the National Music School, graduating with full honors of the highest level, receiving a Gabino Barreda Award and Mexico’s Best Student Award.

Laguna’s concert will be preceded by another short pre-show concert. The Rio Rico Guitar Ensemble will perform at 3:15 p.m. The ensemble features students of guitarist Masatomo Tomikawa, who teaches in the Classical Guitar Department at the Senzoku Gakuen College of Music in Japan. The group will play works by contemporary Japanese composers and transcriptions of traditional Japanese music.

At 8 p.m. on Saturday, the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet(LAGQ) will play pieces from Igor Stravinsky, Franz Liszt and contemporary American composer Ian Krouse, among others, in the Clark Center.

The Grammy Award-winning LAGQ is composed of four accomplished musicians whose programs range from bluegrass to Bach. The group transports listeners with its repertoire of Latin, African, Far East, Irish, folk and American classics.

The winner of Friday’s international competition will be announced after the intermission of the LAGQ concert. Admission is free to students, faculty and staff with a valid Comet Card.

This Story Originally Appeared on UT Dallas News Center