by Daniel Hathaway
Born in the Czech Republic and now teaching in Weimar, Petra Polácková has become one of the most revered performers at the Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival. Her choice of repertory and her elegant playing using three different instruments on Sunday afternoon, June 7 in Mixon Hall made for a splendid finale to the 2026 Festival.
Polácková began her program,“The Art of Polyphony” with two works by Luys de Narvaez, playing Cancion del Emperador with beautiful tone and phrasing and heartfelt ornamentation, and O Gloriosa Domina with wonderfully transparent passages of counterpoint.
She followed with a trio of works by John Dowland. Farewell was distinguished by seamless flowing lines, A Fancy with gorgeous technique, and Fantasia with perfectly controlled tremolo.
Almost too soon, J.S. Bach’s Prelude & Fuga, BWV 997 closed the first half of the program. The complicated lines of the Prelude flowed easily and clean phrases and unblemished tone followed the great opening statement of the fugue.
Polácková tucked a program within a program into part two. “Love, Life, and Death” included the hushed trills of Jeremy Collins’ lovely, heart-warming Elegy. Federico Moreno-Torroba’s passionate Nocturne and charming four-movement suite, “Castles of Spain,” led to her mesmerizing realization of J.S. Bach’s great Chaconne.
In her sensitive hands, that movement from the composer’s solo Violin Partita No. 2 sounded as if it had originally been conceived for the guitar.
The ovation Polácková received demanded an encore, but what could possibly follow the Chaconne? Her choice of a little sentimental song by Johann Kasper Mertz, simply presented, couldn’t have been more appropriate.
One more event was to follow: the final round of the James Stroud Competition for young guitarists brought four talented performers to the Kulas Hall stage for fifteen minute performances each on Sunday evening to determine rankings for prizes.
The judges for the ultimate round took about half an hour to award the following:
First Prize $10,000: Ruqi Jiang
Second Prize $5,000: Micah Montgomery
Third Prize $2,500: Tae Kim
Fourth Prize $1,250: Justin Chen
Best Performance of the Competition Set Piece $500.00: Catalina Wert
Published on ClevelandClassical.com June 16, 2026
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