by Daniel Hathaway with Mike Telin
For a quarter century, the Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival has brought some of the brightest stars in the classical guitar world to Cleveland for a weekend of concerts, masterclasses, and lectures. We caught up with Festival founder Armin Kelly on Zoom, who reflected on his 25 years as artistic director.
CC.com: Congratulations on 25 years. What inspired you to start a festival in the year 2000?
Armin Kelly: Even though I’m a dealer in fine classical guitars, my musical training was as a performer. Although I never really pursued that, I certainly studied hard for 10 or 15 years.
John Holmquist was then head of the Cleveland Institute of Music’s guitar department — he was a friend, and we started talking. He had a little stipend from CIM to bring artists in, and I was thinking that it’d be nice to start my own small series, maybe a couple of concerts a year. John had a graduate student who was interested in helping with something like this, and we decided to merge our efforts. And so we made a proposal to the then administration at CIM, and they were supportive but wary, as they should have been.
It didn’t start off as a festival. We did one concert in the fall and one in the spring. It was a learning process for all of us, and it occurred to me that it might be more efficient and not much more work to just join the two concerts together. I think we added a third concert at that time. And so we started doing a festival in March during CIM’s spring break.
We had artists come in for that festival and we housed them in Glidden House, a lovely facility right next to CIM. A wonderful camaraderie developed amongst the artists and out-of-town festival attendees and it just grew from there. It got bigger and bigger.
Because March is an iffy weather time in Cleveland, we were always worried about a storm. And it finally happened — there was a horrendous snowstorm one year. Somehow, we only had to cancel one concert, but it was hard. It was also fun. Everyone, thank goodness, took it as a challenge. There was a lot of camaraderie. I remember going into a concert that Nigel North was about to give, thinking the hall would be completely empty, but Mixon Hall was almost filled. And I thought, boy, people are loyal supporters and Nigel is such a trooper. He was calmly playing while giant chunks of snow were falling off the back of the roof into the garden. It was quite a sight, and a lot of fun. But we persuaded the then administration that it might be wiser to move this event to June.
CC.com: You mentioned that there was a grad student then who was interested in helping.
Tom Poore is a very accomplished and successful guitar teacher in Cleveland, and he’s still with us, writing very erudite and enjoyable program notes, which are a tremendous addition. I’m not familiar with another classical guitar series, certainly not in the United States, that has program notes of this level.
CC.com: We were just looking through our archives, and the list of artists and the many different styles of playing that you have brought in over the years is really impressive.
We’ve had a number of very fine assisting artists. I’ve tried to keep it diverse so it’s not just solo concert after solo concert. We have presented guitar and flute, guitar and harp, guitar and soprano, guitar and cello, guitar and violin. But the classical guitar has great potential, and that’s only increasing.
CC.com: You’ve also brought in lecturers and many luthiers over the years, too, so you’re hitting all aspects of the classical guitar, and that’s really interesting.
We’ve had a number of fine lecturers. I’m very fortunate to have Jonathan Leathwood, who’s a genius. He’s giving five lectures this year, and they’re the gold standard for classical guitar lectures and interviews. Most of his lectures have been prior to the concerts, and last about an hour and 15 minutes. Everyone who’s attended them has found them fascinating. Sometimes there are introductions to the music that will be played. Sometimes they’re on another related topic. But Jonathan brings a whole new definition to what a lecturer should be, and there’s often quite a bit of interaction with the audience.
CC.com: Over 25 years, you must have presented a long list of artists.
Now, the list in our program book has gotten so long that we can’t get all the names in there and still use a font that’s large enough for people to read them. Recently, I was going through that list and I was really happy and pleased to see how many artists made their Cleveland debuts at the Festival.
CC.com: Is there anyone you feel like you discovered?
There’s Petra Polácková, and thank God for YouTube. She was a student in Austria when I stumbled across a video of her playing the Bach Chaconne. It was an amateur video, but I watched and it was the finest performance of the piece on guitar I’d ever heard. I contacted her immediately. She later told me that when she received my email, she thought it was probably spam and she almost deleted it. Instead, she printed out my invitation and took it to her teacher, who said, are you crazy? That’s the best guitar festival in the United States. Get back to them right away!
So a little over 10 years ago, Petra came for the first time and we were so impressed that I did something I had not really done before: I made her a regular. I’m so happy because she was just awarded a top position at one of the most important conservatories in Europe, So she’s come a long way.
CC.com: You’ve recently added a youth competition to the festival.
I attended one of the first at the Guitar Foundation of America and I was so taken with seeing these kids marching out in their formal wear and sitting down with great composure and playing beautifully. It made me reevaluate my feelings about competitions, so seven years ago when James Stroud came to me and said he was interested in starting a youth competition, I thought I would really like to give this a try. The interest has been tremendous. Seeing kids playing at this level has brought even more national excitement to the festival. The kids have an opportunity to participate in all the diversity of the festival, and they bring their own enthusiasm, art, and energy with them.
CC.com: It feels like a natural fit, not forced in any way.
I appreciate your saying that. We certainly try. And Jim and I know that you can’t make kids go to lectures or concerts, but we can try and encourage them.
CC.com: Are the challenges of running a festival any different today than they were in 2000?
It’s more expensive, which is always a worry in our case, because we’ve expanded so much. They’re wonderful if they go well and very frustrating if something goes wrong.
As everyone’s aware, the problem of getting proper visas for artists has gotten worse and worse. Fortunately, all of our foreign artists have been able to do that. We did lose one duo earlier in the year who we were hoping to have. They’ve been to the United States many times, but there’s been a slowdown on processing visa applications, and they finally had to say, we’d love to come, but you can’t count on us. They’re on my list for next year.
Then there’s always the challenge of getting people to come. We do everything we can to get word out about the festival, and we have many repeat people from the Cleveland area and around the country who attend. But it’s always a worry. Is anyone going to show up?
Prior to COVID, we started making what I call performance videos, and we’ve continued since then with the assistance of First Baptist Church of Greater Cleveland, who have very generously allowed us to use their beautiful sanctuary. We have a wonderful recording engineer and videographer who’s been making these videos. It’s expensive to create three or four of them a year, but that’s helped bring the festival not just national, but worldwide attention.
CC.com: Final question: How did you get hooked on the classical guitar in the first place?
It was a totally unexpected, emotional experience. At the school I attended, we had chapel every day. Sometimes someone would speak, but one day an upperclassman played classical guitar. I was 15, and It was the first live performance of classical guitar I ever heard. I broke out in goosebumps. I was just enthralled. I remember speaking on the phone to my grandmother, who I adored, and telling her about the experience. She was so sweet, and said, “Honey, if you feel that way, we’ve got to find you a classical guitar teacher.”
That was easier said than done, because other than the East Coast and West Coast, where there were some successful teachers in the mid-60s, it was slim pickings. I didn’t really get to work with strong teachers until after I graduated from high school.
When I was much younger, probably about 8 or 9 years old, my father came home from work and he had a recording with him. He said, I bought this recording. This man apparently plays piano music on the guitar. Would you like to listen to it? It was a recording of Andres Segovia. We didn’t know who he was. My father put it on, and we sat in the living room and listened to it. I, in all my brilliance, said after a while, Well, it’s nice, but I think it’s sort of boring. My father didn’t say anything more, and he stopped the recording and put it away.
I remember exactly where he put it. After that experience in chapel, I went running home and grabbed it and put it on the record player. I wore that recording out, listening to it over and over.
Published on ClevelandClassical.com May 30, 2025
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