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Jason Vieaux takes a trip down memory lane at Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival (June 6)

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by Stephanie Manning

More than five minutes after the scheduled 7:30 start time on June 4, Mixon Hall still buzzed with conversation. The first concert of the Cleveland International Guitar Festival had drawn a large crowd to the Cleveland Institute of Music, and the room’s murmur quickly morphed into applause with the arrival of the evening’s headliner, guitarist Jason Vieaux.

At this event, Vieaux is often a doubly-familiar face, recognizable both by frequent Festival attendees and by general Cleveland audiences. To kick off the 2026 event, he brought a program that he called “a trip through memory lane,” bringing together pieces he learned as a teenager but hadn’t formally performed in years.

Importantly, Vieaux made sure that he wasn’t simply blowing the dust off old interpretations, but revisiting beloved pieces with new maturity in life and in playing. [Read more…]

Italian guitarist Nicolò Spera: an afternoon of new music

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by Mike Telin

“The first thing I do before I contact a composer to ask them to write a piece is listen to their music. If it doesn’t speak to me, why would I spend the money and the time?” Italian guitarist Nicolò Spera said during a recent Zoom conversation. “And if it does speak to me, I think it can speak to anyone.”

On Sunday, June 7 at 1:00 pm in Mixon Hall at CIM as part of the Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival, Spera will present a program of new works, four of which will be world premieres. Jonathan Leathwood will present a pre-concert lecture at 11:30 am. Tickets are available online.

Spera said that all of the composers on his program have two things in common — a dazzling imagination and a sense of refinement. “I find that I’m drawn to music that has this inner elegance, which to me carries depth. And all of these composers only write what is really important. If something is there just to show off, then it doesn’t become part of  their music. So this program isn’t meant to be a statement about new music, it’s just very beautiful, genuine music that happened to be written in the last few years, or in some cases, in the last few weeks.”

Spera will open his program with the world premiere of Roxana Panufnik’s Canto. The guitarist said that he was aware that Panufnik was extremely busy and that getting her to write a piece for one instrument might be difficult. But while looking through her catalogue he discovered Canto for solo viola. “I looked at it and I loved it so I thought I would ask her if she thought it could work on guitar and with her approval, I would like to play it. We worked together on the transcription and she liked it and I love it. So that’s how it happened.

[Read more…]

Hao Yang and Helen Zhibing Huang celebrate Chinese culture at the Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival (June 5)

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by Stephanie Manning

The opportunity to hear rare repertoire is exciting enough. But hearing it performed so beautifully made the evening of June 5 truly special.

As part of the Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival, guitarist Hao Yang and soprano Helen Zhibing Huang presented a lovingly curated program that blended their Chinese heritage and Western musical training. At the centerpiece was a collection of songs set to Chinese poetry — providing a look into this gorgeous repertoire.

Both performers grew up in China before coming to study in the U.S., and each spoke about their personal connection to this program. “We’re so grateful we get to connect to our culture through this beautiful music,” Huang told the audience in the Cleveland Institute of Music’s Mixon Hall. [Read more…]

Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival: recitals by Alan Mearns, Laura Snowden & Petra Polácková (June 7 & 8)

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by Daniel Hathaway

Northern Ireland-born guitarist Alan Mearns, now based in North Carolina, gave the first of three very different recitals I heard at the Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival. He performed on Saturday afternoon, June 7 in Mixon Hall at the Cleveland Institute of Music.

Following the plan he described in an interview, his solo recital largely featured transcriptions and arrangements of works not originally intended for the guitar, a topic he addressed in a lecture conversation with Jonathan Leathwood the day before.

The gist of that session, Mearns said, was that arrangers are really re-composing pieces that should sound as native as possible on new instruments, but need not slavishly include every note of the original. [Read more…]

Irish guitarist Alan Mearns to make Guitar Festival debut this weekend

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by Daniel Hathaway

When I asked Armin Kelly, the founder and artistic director of the Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival, who he would recommend that I speak to for a preview article this time around, he didn’t miss a beat.

“I think you will find Irish concert classical guitarist, composer, poet, and songwriter Alan Mearns a particularly interesting, well-spoken artist to interview. This will be Alan’s first time to perform in Cleveland, and he will be taking part in a pre-concert discussion with Jonathan Leathwood in a lecture entitled Beyond Transcription, A Conversation with Alan Mearns, on Thursday, June 5, from 6:00 to 7:15 pm, and playing a solo recital on Sunday at 3 pm.

“Alan’s transcriptions of Bach and other composers have electrified audiences and critics far beyond the confines of the classical guitar world. His approach is a fundamentally imaginative one — perhaps not surprising from such a multi-faceted artist. His transcriptions seek to recreate the excitement of the original music in terms of the guitar.”

[Read more…]

Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival: Armin Kelly reflects on 25 years at the helm

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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. [Read more…]

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

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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. [Read more…]

Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival: Nicolò Spera plays on ten strings (June 7)

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by Daniel Hathaway

Filling a void in the Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival when a scheduled artist developed visa complications, University of Colorado Boulder professor Nicolò Spera stepped in with his 10-string guitar and a stimulating program that was technically and mentally challenging — both for the guitarist and his Mixon Hall audience — on Friday, June 7.

The extra strings on that instrument added range and resonance to Spera’s program, which began and ended with famous works from the passacaglia family, with a contemporary piece at its center.

At the end of his “Mystery” Sonatas — fifteen little suites for violin and continuo based on the Joyful, Sorrowful, and Glorious Mysteries of Christ represented by the beads on the Rosary — Heinrich Ignatz Franz Biber added a postlude in the form of a passacaglia for solo violin based on a four-bar descending bass figure. [Read more…]

Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival marks its 24th season this weekend at CIM

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by Daniel Hathaway

From Thursday, June 6 through Sunday, June 9 the Cleveland Institute of Music will host the 24th edition of the Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival. Presented by Guitars International, the Festival features a rich mix of recitals, master classes, and lectures by eminent guitarists, bracketed by the fourth annual James Stroud Youth Competition. In a telephone conversation earlier this week, founder and artistic director Armin Kelly said, “It’s a lot of work and a lot of worry, but I love it.”

Considering the festival’s many moving parts, only one complication arose this time around that required quick action on Kelly’s part. “We did have one concert artist we were hoping to bring this year, who a week or two ago informed us that their U.S. visa had been denied. Fortunately, we had another guitarist who lives in Colorado we were planning on bringing next year who we were able to move up to this year.”

That problem having been solved, I asked Kelly what particularly excites him about this year’s lineup. “Obviously, the festival reflects my taste,” he said, “but the individual refinement of our artists is, I think, quite special.” [Read more…]

Festival season in Cleveland gets underway

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by Daniel Hathaway

The early onset of summery weather even before May has run its course heralds a shift in Northeast Ohio’s classical music activity from concert series to festivals — six of which will launch in the next few weeks.

Local 4 of the American Federation of Musicians will present the fourth edition of She Scores, a celebration of music written by underrepresented composers, from May 30 through June 2 (Thursday through Saturday at 7 and Sunday at 4) in Mixon Hall at the Cleveland Institute of Music. In a preview article, Mike Telin writes, “what began with performances of works by 16 composers has now blossomed into a four-concert series featuring works by 31 living composers who identify as female or nonbinary.” Emily Laurance will give a pre-concert lecture an hour before each performance. Admission is free.

Encore Chamber Music’s 9th annual Music and Ideas Festival gets underway on June 2, and continues through June 24. [Read more…]

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