The 9th Annual Texas Guitar Competition and Festival returns to UT Dallas March 5-6.

This two-day event allows guitar students to attend master classes and the general public to enjoy concerts by internationally recognized guitarists.

The top four contestants in the competition vie for more than $6,000 in prize money. Past finalists have come from such countries as Uruguay, Finland, Yugoslavia and Australia.

Key events, all at the Conference Center, include the following:

  • Competition Finals, Friday, March 5, 8 p.m. Free. 
  • Concert by Michael Craddock, Saturday, March 6, 4 p.m. Free. 
  • Concert by William Kanengiser and the Festival Guitar Orchestra, Saturday, March 6, 8 p.m. $25. 

More Information

Festival Web site

Arts Events

Tickets for the Saturday evening performance (or call 972-883-2552)

Kanengiser, who headlines this year’s festival, has toured extensively in North America, Asia and Europe as a founding member of the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet.

He will perform the solo component of classical guitarist Shingo Fujii’s Concierto de Los Angeles and will be accompanied by the Festival Guitar Orchestra, conducted by Dr. Enric Madriguera, the Russell Cleveland Endowed Professor for Guitar Studies at UT Dallas. Orchestra members include performers from UT Dallas, area colleges and universities and international guest players.

Craddock, who will perform on Saturday afternoon, studied music at the University of North Texas, where he was the first guitarist to complete the Doctor of Musical Arts Degree.  He also has served on the Texas Christian University faculty.

An interest in early music led him to study the lute and related historical, plucked instruments with lutenist Hopkinson Smith at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Switzerland. He has performed as a soloist and member of several ensembles in Europe and the United States.