// Festival Welcome

Welcome to the 10th anniversary edition of the Guitar Festival of Ireland. It is fantastic to have reached such a milestone in the festivals history. This is due to the huge ongoing public support for the events and our festival sponsors over the years, most notably the Arts Council, Waltons Music and Waltons New School. The first festival grew from the need to stage an event that would highlight and help to develop our rich guitar heritage and also to provide otherwise unavailable educational opportunities. It was first hosted in 2004 and over the years the GFI has grown to become one of the most popular cultural events of its kind.

Since its beginnings the GFI has been transformed from a genre-based festival to a more eclectic series of events that now spans the boundaries of an incredibly diverse instrument. Never afraid to take chances the festival team have, to date, produced an impressive array of the best in live guitar music with ground-breaking collaborations from internationally acclaimed musicians as well as from innovative new artists from home and abroad.

And with that in mind we have planned an electrifying programme of events for 2013 including a special festival commission, with the support of the French Embassy in Ireland, for 16 guitars from the multifaceted guitarist/composer Roland Dyens which will be performed by a group of energetic young musicians directed by Marion Hyland from the Royal Irish Academy of Music and aptly named GuitaRIAM. Mr. Dyens will fly in early to open the entire festival with his own special brand of guitar performance on Thursday 2 May. You can also expect a unique performance from the great Paraguayan guitarist Berta Rojas who was part of the festival’s very first programme back in 2004. Ms. Rojas returns to Ireland to the delight of her many fans here.

Blood, Water and Lunch with Rodrigo, the Moynihan/O’Leary duo play the National Concert Hall performing a special song cycle written for them by esteemed Irish composer Ian Wilson along with many other beautiful works by Rodrigo, Brouwer and more. Also look forward to a rare performance from the Feeley-Burley Guitar Duo in Marlay Park House with a very intriguing programme. Other highlights include an all Italian night with mandolin and guitar in the National Concert Hall. Presented in association with the Istituto Italiano di Cultura-Dublin the Real Duo are the real deal direct from Italy with all the trimmings.

Looking for a night of passion, seduction and sensuality? Well the true spirit of Argentine tango comes to the National Concert Hall with dancers, bandoneon, voice and guitars on the final night of the 10th Guitar Festival of Ireland giving us all something to talk about for the next year. This is one you won’t want to miss! I hope you can make some or all of the events on offer and I promise you will be in for a good night’s entertainment!