Baltic Guitar Festival

ABOUT THE BALTIC GUITAR FESTIVAL

Since 2009, the members of the Baltic Guitar Quartet started organizing the international Baltic Guitar Festival. During their international concert tours and performances in various festivals, the quartet attended a lot of memorable performances, which were never before presented in the Baltic States.
Thus rose the idea to organize a concert series, presenting the world’s best guitar virtuosos, to inspire guitarists and music lovers in general and give the classical guitar a prominent place in the classical music scene it deserves. Since several years a classical guitar festival is taking place in Birštonas Kurhaus, where classical guitar has been heard since the 19th century.
Artists that have performed during the festival are Los Angeles Guitar Quartet (USA), Bandini Chiacchiaretta duo (Italy), Roland Dyens (France), Amadeus Duo (Germany and Canada), Luz de Luna (Belgium), Irina Kulikova (Russia/Holland), Daniel Marques (Brazil), Thibault Cauvin (France), Dimitris Regginos (Cyprus), Paolo Devecchi and Salvatore Seminara guitar duo (Italy), Judicaël Perroy (France), Eden Stell Guitar Duo (UK), Aniello Desiderio (Italy), Raphaella Smits (Belgium), Vladislav Bláha (Czech Republic), Pavel Steidl (Czech Republic), Lukasz Kuropaczewski (Poland), Anabel Montesinos (Spain), Costas Cotsiolis (Greece), Laura Young (Canada), Edin Karamazov (Bosnia and Herzegovina) and others.

FESTIVAL PROGRAM
All activities and concerts take place at Kurhaus (Kurhauzas), B. Sruogos str. 2, unless indicated otherwise.
The concert on June 13th and all other festival events, except evening concerts and Sunday afternoon concert, can be attended free of charge.
To purchase a Festival Participant Ticket, which includes: accommodation, meals and tickets to all events (excluding the competition contestant’s fee), please complete this form.
Classical Guitar Solo and Ensemble Competition will take place on June 14–15th, 2024 in Birštonas Kurhaus and Birštonas Art School.
TICKET to all concerts
June 13th
14:00 Announcement of the winner of the composition competition (on social networks)
19:00–20:00 BALTIC GUITAR QUARTET (Lithuania)
June 14th
9:00–9:30 Registration of the A, B, C, E1, E2 groups to the Classical Guitar Competition:
at Birštonas Art School (Birštono meno mokykla), J. Basanavičiaus sq. 6 for groups A and B
at Kurhaus (Kurhauzas), B. Sruogos str. 2 for groups C, E1 and E2
After the registration for the competition, the duration times of the competition groups may be adjusted.
9:30–10:00 Classical Guitar Competition group A (at Birštonas Art School)
10:15–11:45 Classical Guitar Competition group B (at Birštonas Art School)
10:00–11:45 Classical Guitar Competition group C (at Kurhaus)
11:45–13:00 Break
13:00–14:00 Classical Guitar Competition groups E1 and E2 (at Kurhaus)
14:30–15:00 SAMRAT MAJUMDER (Scotland, India), (BGF 2023 group D laureate)
15:15–16:00 Classical Guitar Competition Award Ceremony (groups A, B, C and E1, E2)
16:00–17:00 Exhibition of different manufacturers’ guitars, Publishing house Auurk ed. (Belgium) and LMIC (Lithuania)
17:00–19:00 Break
19:00–20:30 MONTENEGRIN GUITAR DUO (Montenegro) TICKETS
June 15th
9:00–9:45 Finger aerobics with SAMRAT MAJUMDER (Scotland, India)
10:00–11:15 Classical Guitar Competition group D
11:45–13:00 Classical Guitar Competition group D
13:00–15:00 Break
15:00–16:00 MYRDDIN (Belgium), flamenco workshop
16:30–17:00 Classical Guitar Competition Award Ceremony (group D)
16:00–18:00 Exhibition of different manufacturers’ guitars, Publishing house Auurk ed. (Belgium) and LMIC (Lithuania)
17:00–18:15 Break
18:15–18:45 Concert of the winners of the BGF Competition Group D
19:00–20:30 ZORAN DUKIĆ (Croatia) TICKETS
June 16th
9:30–12:00 Masterclasses for the laureates of the competition
10:00–12:00 Exhibition of different manufacturers’ guitars, Publishing house Auurk ed. (Belgium) and LMIC (Lithuania)
12:00–13:15 Break
13:15–13:45 ROKAS JURKUS (Lithuania), presentation of the publications: “Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis music arrangements for a guitar“
14:00–15:30 ANTOON VANDEBORGHT (Belgium), seminar: “How to nail your sound“
16:00–17:00 MYRDDIN (Belgium) TICKETS
CLASSICAL GUITAR COMPETITION
IMPORTANT DATES
Groups A, B, C, E1, E2
March 15th start of the registration to the competition
May 15th registration deadline
Group D
March 15th start of the registration to the competition
April 24th registration deadline of the first round (video)
May 1st announcement of the results of the first round for group D
May 15th registration deadline of the second round for finalists of the Group D
PARTICIPANTS
The competition is open to classical guitar performers:
Group A (5–10 years) – two pieces, different in style and character (up to 3 min)
Group B (11–14 years) – two pieces, different in style and character (up to 5 min)
Group C (15–18 years) – free program (up to 8 min)
Group D (no age limit):
First round (video) – free program (up to 15 min), more information about the video requirements on the registration form.
Second round (live performance of the finalists during the festival in Birštonas) – free program, containing the compulsory piece – Prélude "La Bienveillante" https://new.auurk.com/book-detail/304 by Suzie Auclair (Canada). Pieces from the first round can be repeated (up to 20 min in total).
Ensemble groups:
Group E1 (5–12 years) – free program (up to 7 min)
Group E2 (no age limit) – free program (up to 10 min)
In Groups E1 and E2, the ensemble must contain at least one guitar.
FEES
Groups A, B, C – 30 EUR
Group D – 60 EUR (to be paid after the announcement of the selected finalists)
Groups E1, E2 – 15 EUR for each ensemble member, with a maximum fee of 60 EUR for each ensemble (in case the ensemble consists of 5 members or more).
The participant fee does not apply to Ukrainian citizens who will be able to present a document proving citizenship, to be shown upon arrival in Birštonas.
REGISTRATION
Those who wish to participate have to register and fill in the form "Registration for the competition".
As a selection of participants in Group D will be carried out, all players have to submit a video link of their work (or works) when registering.
More information in the registration form.
PRIZES
The prize pool is more than 6,000 euros!
The winners of the Competition will be awarded with prizes of Savarez, Knobloch, Midiaudio, Fermata and masterclasses. Masterclasses will be held by Danijel Cerović, Zoran Dukić, Goran Krivokapić, Samrat Majumder, Antoon Vandeborght and the Baltic Guitar Quartet.
Excluding other presents and masterclasses, the main prizes for the winners:
Group D
1 place:
• 1000 EUR
• a concert at the BGF 2025
2 place - Martinez J.Godoy Hauser guitar (worth 1249 EUR)
Group C
1 place - Martinez MCG 128 guitar (worth 1049 EUR)
CLASSICAL GUITAR COMPOSITION CONTEST
The Baltic Guitar Festival International Classical Guitar Composition Contest was established in 2021 to encourage composers to create new works for classical guitar and so broaden the repertoire for the instrument. Contest rules.
Contest participant fee does not apply to citizens of Ukraine.
The winning piece of the Classical guitar composition contest 2023 was Prélude "La Bienveillante" https://new.auurk.com/book-detail/304 by Suzie Auclair (Canada).
PRIZES
The winning composition will be published by Auurk ed. (Belgium), the composer will receive 10 free copies of the piece and 300 EUR.

Sponsors