Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival to celebrate 25th anniversary at CIM June 5–8

May 22, 2025 by Daniel Hathaway

by Daniel Hathaway

For a quarter century, Armin Kelly’s Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival has brought some of the brightest stars in the classical guitar firmament to Cleveland for a weekend of concerts, masterclasses, and lectures.

As founder and artistic director Kelly writes in his 2025 invitation:

This June we look forward to sharing art music: solo and ensemble, old and new with old friends and new from around the USA and beyond. Featured events include: 6 concerts by internationally renowned guitarists and supporting musicians, performance premieres, 6 lectures, 5 master classes, private lessons, a demonstration of fine concert guitars, and the 6th annual James Stroud National Classical Guitar Youth Competition.

This year’s solo performances at the Cleveland Institute of Music from June 5 through 8 will be given by perennial favorites Jason Vieaux (USA) and Petra Polácková (Czech Republic), plus Alan Mearns (Ireland) and Laura Snowden (England), who will perform both solo guitar & guitar with voice. Other guitar and vocal programs will feature Hao Yang with soprano Helen Zhibing Huang (China), plus the Patterson/Sutton Duo (USA), who will collaborate in music for cello & guitar.

The six concerts will be preceded by lectures by British guitarist Jonathan Leathwood, who — along with the Patterson/Sutton Duo, Petra Polácková, Alan Mearns, and Jason Vieaux — will preside over master classes and other sessions during the Festival.

And surrounding the festival events on both ends, the 6th annual James Stroud Youth Competition will hold its semi-final rounds on Thursday and its final round on Sunday evening.

Visit the Festival website for more information, and watch this space for interviews with some of the participating artists.

Published on ClevelandClassical.com May 22, 2025

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About Daniel Hathaway

Daniel Hathaway founded ClevelandClassical.com in September, 2008, after a thirty-one year tenure as music director of Cleveland’s Trinity Cathedral, where he founded the Wednesday Noon Brownbag Concert Series and Trinity Chamber Orchestra. A graduate of Harvard College and the Episcopal Divinity School, he also studied historical musicology at Princeton and Harvard Universities. Before coming to Cleveland in 1977, he served as head of humanities at the Sunset Hill School in Kansas City and as head of arts at Groton School in Massachusetts. In Cleveland, he has served on the music staff of Cleveland Opera, Great Lakes Theater Festival, and the faculty of Laurel School. As an organist, Hathaway has played recitals in the U.S., England, France, Germany, and Austria. He team-teaches Music Journalism at Oberlin College and Conservatory and is a member of the Music Critics Association of North America.

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This article was originally published on Cleveland.com

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