This past weekend (March 2-3) I exhibited several guitars at the first ever Orange County Classical Guitar Competition and Festival held at Chapman University. A fun weekend capped off with Jonathan Kellerman playing my 1852 Torres replica, autographing my copy of his guitar collection book, "With Strings Attached", and finishing the weekend with a wonderful concert by Manuel Barreuco.
I exhibited 3 guitars, a Romanillos model, a Torres model, and my recently completed 1852 Torres replica with mahogany coffin case. Without question, my 1852 Torres was well received...and played by numerous people, including the 2017 GFA winner, Tengyue Zhang, who gave a concert on Saturday night.
Actually my mahogany coffin case probably received as much attention as did the guitar!
Here is a short cellphone video of Kayla Harrell from the Vanguard University guitar program playing a segment from Fernando Sor's "Variations on a Theme by Mozart". A lot of background noise...sorry about that.
Another cellphone video - Vanguard University guitar program student, Michael Cruz, playing an excerpt of Andrew York's "Sunburst" on my 2017 Romanillos-style guitar, "Valseana". Pardon the noise and poor acoustics of a busy hallway...and a squeaky automatic door that opened every time someone walked by!
The vendor fair was populated with ~18 luthiers as well as string makers, publishers, and other vendors. The small lutherie guild of which I am a member, Stringed Instrument Makers of Southern California, simscal.com, was well represented with luthier exhibits by Paul Micheletti, myself, Monica Esparza, and Chris LaBonte.
Jeff Cogan, who heads up the guitar program at Chapman University, showed his award-winning documentary film on the legendary French luthier, Daniel Friedrich. Jonathan Kellerman had a very interesting lecture which addressed his large guitar collection. He played my 1852 Torres replica (unfortunately no photos of that! :-( ).
All in all a very good guitar weekend!
