28^th Koblenz International Guitar Festival & Academy “Special Edition” 2020

Dear friends,

during a trying time for everybody, it’s been important to us for the cultural life of our city, as well as the worldwide guitar community, to do all we can to present, albeit a little different than normal, our festival in October. Over the last few months, it’s become clear how important we are to each other through the personal contact and communication that we normally enjoy, and this has helped drive us on to come up with a new and exciting concept for this year’s “Special Edition” festival. We’ve spent the last few months busy planning, developing new ideas, following all the latest developments and working closely with the authorities to be able to offer a safe and hygienic festival for all involved, according to actual official rules and guidelines.

Finally, we are happy to present to you the 28^th Koblenz International Guitar Festival “Special Edition” 2020! Some changes to the original programme, have of course had to be made, but we’ve been able to keep many of our special projects with Barock Vokal, Hochschule für Musik Mainz, MainzMusik, Franz Liszt Academy Budapest, as well as the concerts to celebrate Beethoven Year 2020, marking the 250^th birthday of Ludwig van Beethoven. And of course, we will have many of the world’s leading classical guitarists performing for us. For the full concert schedule click HERE.  

This year’s festival will take place “Live & Online”. We will be working together with a sound and film team, to produce film recordings of all concerts, as well as high quality livestreams. We will be offering an “Online Festival Pass” for the concert livestreams, so that all those from around the world, who cannot be with us this year, will be able to at least have a little of the Koblenz Guitar Festival “feeling” from the comfort of their own homes.

Concerts

With restrictions on audience numbers allowed in the venues, each concert is an hour long and will be performed twice, with an hour interval in between. This will enable us to offer performances for two different audiences.

Competition

The Koblenz Guitar Competition will take place online via Video/YouTube, giving guitarists worldwide and those in countries with travel restrictions, the opportunity to take part.

Masterclasses 

The masterclasses will take place at the Musikschule der Stadt Koblenz, following the hygiene regulations which have already be successfully implemented there. This will allow students to enjoy the unreplaceable experience of live lessons with their chosen teachers.

Luthiers

For the Luthiers we will be able to offer individual rooms in which they can present their instruments, and regardless of the current circumstances keep contact with their customers.

Things are a little different this year, a more intimate festival, but we’re sure it’ll be the same intensive experience that we are accustomed to.

Georg Schmitz, Russell Poyner, Tristan Angenendt and the Koblenz Guitar Festival Team.