{"id":2683,"date":"2015-09-30T15:28:57","date_gmt":"2015-09-30T22:28:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/?p=2683"},"modified":"2015-10-01T09:18:17","modified_gmt":"2015-10-01T16:18:17","slug":"west-dean-guitar-fest-is-another-winner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/west-dean-guitar-fest-is-another-winner\/","title":{"rendered":"West Dean Classical Guitar Fest Is Another Winner"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

The 24th West Dean College International Classical Guitar Festival and Summer School, held in rural West Sussex, England, from August 15-21, was once again a grand success from all accounts. This was the third year it was helmed by festival director Andrew Gough <\/a>(following many years with John Mills in that position), and as always the week-long celebration of classical guitar combined top-name international talents with serious pedagogy for (and performances from) talented up-and-coming guitarists.<\/p>\n

Indeed, the summer school aspect of the West Dean festival is perhaps its most important component. \u201cIn terms of numbers, we average between 50 and 60 students for the summer school each year,\u201d Gough says. \u201cTherefore each tutor’s ensemble groups have between eight and 12 students, and usually around 35 to 40 students play in the guitar orchestra.<\/p>\n

\"guitar
The guitar orchestra in action<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cOver the past three years,\u201d he continues, \u201cwe\u2019ve been able to help young students\u201416- to 24-year-olds\u2014to attend the festival with bursaries [known as \u201cscholarships\u201d in the U.S.]. This year we held raffles to raise bursary funds for our 25th anniversary festival next year, 2016. We were thankful for the support from all the sponsors\u2014including Classical Guitar<\/em> magazine\u2014especially to those who gave the raffle prizes this year: Kent Guitar Classics and Stephen Eden Guitars gave one of their \u201cCadenza\u201d model guitars; Jose Ramirez and the Classical Guitar Centre, Birmingham [UK], gave a selection of strings and books; and the D\u2019Addario Foundation, which is our main sponsor, gave financial support, strings, and other merchandise.\u201d<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s bursary winners\u2014all advanced guitar students\u2014were Hugh Millington, Zoe Barnett, Georgina Dadson, Alex Roche, Simon Pearce, and Berxwedan Kockaya. All performed\u00a0in a recital during the festival’s “Open\u00a0Day.” Kockaya is also a member of the Alma Guitar Quartet (with three fellow students of the Birmingham Conservatoire), who were showcased in the festival\u2019s Young Artists\u2019 Performance Platform.<\/p>\n

\"arctic
The Arctic Trio at Sussex Barn<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The nighttime recitals, at the historic West Dean Church or at Sussex Barn Auditorium, featured American David Leisner<\/a>, the UK\u2019s Amanda Cook<\/a>, the Arctic Guitar Trio <\/a>from Norway, Morgan Szymanski <\/a>(originally from Mexico), and Polish sensation Marcin Dylla<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"david
David Leisner performing in St. Andrew’s Church, West Dean<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Other notable highlights were lectures on topics ranging from the life of Boris Perott (creator of the Philharmonic Society of Guitarists in London, and first teacher of Julian Bream), stage-craft and performance techniques, sight-reading, Australian composers Richard Charlton and Phillip Houghton, and more; a showcase for luthiers, and master classes by Leisner, Cook, and Dylla.<\/p>\n

Gough promises that next year\u2019s 25th anniversary festival, August 20-26, 2016, is certain to be a special week, as well, with appearances by such\u00a0notables as Berta Rojas, Ben Verdery, Irina Kulikova, the Aquarelle Quartet, and many others.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"amanda
Amanda Cook in concert<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Chris
Chris Stell of the Eden Stell Duo leading an ensemble at West Dean<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  The 24th West Dean College International Classical Guitar Festival and Summer School, held in rural West Sussex, England, from August 15-21, was once again a grand success from all accounts. This was the third year it was helmed by festival director Andrew Gough (following many years with John Mills in that position), and as always the week-long celebration of classical guitar combined top-name international talents with serious pedagogy for (and performances from) talented up-and-coming guitarists. Indeed, the summer school […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":2701,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-stories"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/arctic-trio1.jpg?fit=1920%2C1308&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2683"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2683\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}