{"id":13402,"date":"2019-07-22T11:30:04","date_gmt":"2019-07-22T18:30:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/?p=13402"},"modified":"2019-07-22T11:32:30","modified_gmt":"2019-07-22T18:32:30","slug":"mateusz-kowalski-wins-eurostrings-competition-in-london","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/mateusz-kowalski-wins-eurostrings-competition-in-london\/","title":{"rendered":"Mateusz Kowalski Wins EuroStrings Competition in London!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hearty congratulations to Polish guitarist Mateusz Kowalski<\/a>, who was victorious in the finals of the 2nd annual EuroStrings<\/a> Guitar Competition, held July 21 at King’s Place in London. You gotta love the internet: I was able to watch the finals on a sunny morning in the comfort of my home in Northern California thanks to a livestream of the event, and, for what it’s worth, I agreed completely with the judges’ ultimate decision! Young Mr. Kowalski, (b. 1995) was spectacular during his half-hour program, which included Barrios’ Contemplaci\u00f3n, <\/em>Ponce’s short Scherzino Mexicano<\/em>, the interesting and challenging modern set piece for the competition\u2014Nicolas Kahn’s Les Arcanes<\/em>, winner of last year’s EuroStrings Composition Contest<\/a>\u2014and most exciting of all, the concluding version of Giuliani’s Rossiniana No. 1<\/em>, which was truly breathtaking! For his efforts, Mateusz takes home \u20ac8,000, and he will also be booked for a number of concert dates next year in Europe, the U.S., and China.<\/p>\n

I felt the other three finalists also acquitted themselves very<\/em> well: Yuki Sato<\/a> of Japan excelled on Regondi’s Deuxieme Air Var\u00ede<\/em>, Giulia Ballar\u00e9<\/a> of Italy was strongest in my view on Turina’s Sonata, Op. 61<\/em>, and Italy’s Simone Rinaldo<\/a> was particularly dynamic and powerful on Ginastera’s Sonata, Op. 47<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Streams of the various rounds of the competition can be accessed through the EuroStrings Facebook page<\/a>!<\/p>\n

Here is Mateusz Kowalski’s performance of the Giuliani piece mentioned above, from the 2017 Concours d’Antony in France:<\/em>
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