Canberra Classical Guitar

John Couch and Harold Gretton keep hopes high for an ANU music school hat-trick, Ron Cerabona writes. (from Canberra Times 28 November 2008).

If one of the Canberra-trained classical guitarists John Couch or Harold Gretton wins the 51st Tokyo International Guitar Competition next month, it will be a hat-trick of victories there for graduates of the guitar department of the ANU School of Music. In 2006, Aleksandr Tsiboulski came first, and last year Minh Le Hoang won the 50th Tokyo International Guitar Competition. He will be the featured performer on the 13-concert tour of Japan which was part of his prize. Six other countries, including Italy and Finland, will be represented in the second round, and the finals will take place in Tokyo on December 13 and 14. Continue Reading »

Esa Janara, from Cooma, won a first prize at the Australian National Eisteddfod in Canberra last Saturday.  He took out the 16 and under Classical Guitar section. He was very surprised and delighted with his medal and $150. Esa is a student of Leslie Spencer of Cooma School of Music and a member of Canberra Classical Guitar Society.  He was playing an Alhambra 5P guitar.  Well done, Esa!

The Canberra Times’ writer Philip O’Brien featured Harold Gretton in Times2 on 5 November 2008. Click here to go to the Canberra Times article.

Canberra classical guitarist Harold Gretton recently returned from a summer in Europe where he competed in several international guitar competitions. Not surprisingly, the standard of competition was intense. But what made Gretton stand out from other players was the individuality and freshness of his performance, often flouting current European trends in classical guitar playing. He ended up winning not one but three of the competitions, and his happy dilemma is now what to do with all the guitars he received as prizes. Continue Reading »

“Australia’s Olympic gold medallists get ticker tape parades. But some other international champions prefer picking and plucking to fanfares.”

For the original version of this article, click here to read it on the ANU website.

From an article in ANU Reporter – Spring 2008 – by Celeste Ecuyer

After Beijing, returning Olympians were paraded across the capital cities to the cheers and accolades of crowds of people.

But most people would be hard pressed to name an Australian musician who has become a champion on the international stage.

Then again, if the ‘gold medallists’ from the ANU School of Music guitar department are anything to go by, they’re probably not too bothered by the relative anonymity. Continue Reading »

Multi-talented musician and classical guitar scholar Professor Adrian Walter has been appointed head of The Australian National University’s School of Music beginning in January 2009.  For the full announcement, click here to visit the ANU web page.

An interview in the Canberra Times on 18 October can be viewed by clicking here.

Thanks to Cuong, we have a new discussion forum which is now online and available for you to use.  Once things are running correctly, we’ll discontinue the use of the Google Group discussion group.  The new discussion forum allows for a freer exchange between users without worrying about emailing the entire members list.  Please visit it and let us know what you’d like to see added, changed, etc.  The address is www.classicalguitarcanberra.org.au/forum