{"id":12626,"date":"2019-03-26T15:17:31","date_gmt":"2019-03-26T22:17:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/?p=12626"},"modified":"2019-03-26T15:17:31","modified_gmt":"2019-03-26T22:17:31","slug":"parkening-international-guitar-competition-announces-its-15-competitors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/parkening-international-guitar-competition-announces-its-15-competitors\/","title":{"rendered":"Parkening International Guitar Competition Announces Its 15 Competitors!"},"content":{"rendered":"

The highly prestigious Parkening International Guitar Competition<\/a><\/strong>, set to take place May 30\u2013June 1 on the campus of Pepperdine University in Malibu, California, has just released its list of the 15 guitarists who will compete for a gold medal and $30,000 first prize this year. The distinguished list of players, ranging from 19 to 29 years old, no doubt includes some names you are familiar with:<\/p>\n

Bokyung Byun<\/strong>, 24,\u00a0California, USA;\u00a0Riccardo Calogiuri<\/strong>, 29,\u00a0Italy;\u00a0Javier Garc\u00eda Verdugo<\/strong>, 25,\u00a0Spain;\u00a0Samuel Hines<\/strong>, 27,\u00a0Minnesota, USA;\u00a0Alec Holcomb<\/strong>, 23,\u00a0Indiana, USA;\u00a0Junhong Kuang<\/strong>, 19,\u00a0Maryland, USA;\u00a0Beiyan Liu<\/strong>, 20,\u00a0China;\u00a0Christopher Mrofchak<\/strong>, 27,\u00a0Florida, USA;\u00a0Cody Noriega<\/strong>, 26,\u00a0California, USA;\u00a0Alex Park<\/strong>, 26,\u00a0California, USA;\u00a0Miguel Checa Paz<\/strong>, 20,\u00a0Spain;\u00a0Sergey Perelekhov<\/strong>, 21,\u00a0Russia;\u00a0Andrea Roberto<\/strong>, 23,\u00a0Italy;\u00a0Marko Topchii<\/strong>, 28,\u00a0Ukraine; and\u00a0Tengyue Zhang<\/strong>, 25,\u00a0China.<\/p>\n

Judging the competition will be\u00a0Mia Bongiovanni<\/strong>, Assistant General Manager of Media and Presentations for the Metropolitan Opera;\u00a0Charlotte Lee<\/strong>, President and Founder of Primo Artists;\u00a0Steve Schoen<\/strong>, former Vice President of Sony Music Masterworks and Sony\/BMG;\u00a0David Thomas<\/strong>, recording producer; and\u00a0Pablo S\u00e1inz Villegas<\/strong>, professional guitarist and winner of the 2006 Parkening International Guitar Competition.<\/p>\n

Three of the competitors will advance to the final round on\u00a0Saturday, June 1\u00a0to perform a concerto with the Young Musicians Foundation Debut Orchestra before a live audience in\u00a0Pepperdine’s\u00a0Smothers Theatre. The gold, silver, and bronze medalists will be announced at the conclusion of the final round.<\/p>\n

In addition to the Parkening International Guitar Competition,\u00a0Pepperdine\u00a0will present the\u00a0Parkening Young Guitarist Competition<\/strong>\u00a0on Tuesday and\u00a0Wednesday, May 28\u00a0and 29. The ten competitors, ages 17 and younger, are\u00a0Hilbert Chen<\/strong>,\u00a0Maggie Grether<\/strong>,\u00a0Joseph Malvinni<\/strong>,\u00a0Mira Morales<\/strong>,Evelyn Nguyen<\/strong>, Garrett Podgorski<\/strong>, Nikolas Rejto<\/strong>, Eric Wang<\/strong>, Darren Wu<\/strong>, and\u00a0Hui Chan Yun<\/strong>. All are from California except Rejto (Australia) and Yun (South Korea).<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>About the Parkening Competition:<\/strong> The PIGC\u00a0honors the lifetime commitment of guitar virtuoso and Distinguished Professor of Music\u00a0Christopher Parkening\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/strong>to fostering musical excellence in young artists. The competition, which debuted in 2006 and usually takes place every three years (this marks the first time it has been four years), offers the largest prize purse of any classical guitar competition in the world, with competitors vying for cash awards that total in excess of\u00a0$65,000. The 2019 Parkening Competition is made possible by a generous grant from\u00a0Howard and Roberta Ahmanson, as well as\u00a0Frank Marshall\u00a0and\u00a0Kathleen Kennedy.<\/p>\n

Past winners:<\/strong> 2006: Pablo Villegas<\/strong> (Spain); 2009 Emanuele Buono<\/strong> (Italy); 2012: Petrit\u00a0\u00c7eku<\/strong> (Kosovo), 2015: Meng Su<\/strong> (China).<\/p>\n

For information about purchasing tickets or other matters click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Here are videos of three of the talented competitors:<\/em>
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