Adelaide Guitar Festival Kicks Off Adelaide Shows This Weekend

Joe Camilleri and The Black Sorrows, supported by blues and roots dynamo Lecia Louise, herald the start of the 2022 Adelaide Guitar Festival's Adelaide performances with a sold-out evening in the Dunstan Playhouse tonight, as the first of thirteen ticketed shows taking place at Adelaide Festival Centre and Her Majesty's Theatre until Sunday 24th July.

Also opening today, housed on the Festival Plaza, is The Immersive Guitar: the world's largest acoustic guitar that participants can play from inside! Completely free to take part in, please note that registrations ahead of time are essential via the website. The project is a joint creation between performers Karin Schaupp and Vanessa Tomlinson, luthier Jim Redgate, architect Bruce Wolfe and structural engineer Hassan Karampour, and was first seen in Brisbane's Curiocity World Science Festival in 2021 before making its debut in Adelaide. Karin and Vanessa have been this week creating a brand-new commissioned work on the instrument, to be released online on the Adelaide Guitar Festival website next week.

Additional free events include Yamaha Guitars' Come and Try sessions with the latest models available; new handmade treasures from some of Australia's finest luthiers at the Guitar Expo; an historical exhibition of Yamaha guitars stretching from 1966 to the present day at A Tradition of Innovation; and Paul Nash and the Classical Guitar Society of Victoria with a tribute to legendary Grammy-Award winning musician, Julian Bream.

Adelaide Guitar Festival Artistic Director Slava Grigoryan: "We can't wait to welcome audiences to Adelaide Festival Centre over the next ten days. Artists are arriving from all over and we couldn't be more excited. Whatever your preferred style of guitar music may be, we have the perfect performance to suit!

"After an incredible reception at On the Road for our first weekend on Eyre Peninsula, this week in the city we have also welcomed our Winter School - Blues and Roots participants for five days of in-depth study with top-notch guitarist tutors Cal Williams Jr, Lecia Louise, Chris Finnen and Chris Parkinson. Next week we'll welcome the classical Orchestra students for a great week with guitarist tutors Paul Svobada, Manus Noble, Andras Tuske and Giuseppe Zangari. Our youngest participants are aged 11 and our oldest in their early 70s, and their week will culminate in next Friday night's performance sharing the stage with world-class guitarist Xuefei Yang in an incredible honour."

Ticketed highlights include:

• The exhilarating double bill featuring Spanish flamenco star José María Gallardo del Rey and Victoria-based dance group Arte Kanela, in El Corazón del Flamenco. This performance is presented with support from Michael Abbott QC and Sue Crafter.

• Special guests Slava and Leonard Grigoryan joining José and Australian voice/guitar duo Quin Thomson and David Malone with Origination: a program of beloved favourites, and premiere new works by Quin and by acclaimed Australian classical composers Maria Grenfell and Gerard Brophy. They'll be appearing together with a string quartet comprising Elizabeth Layton, Belinda Gehlert, Justin Julian and Sharon Grigoryan.

• One of the world's best classical guitarists, China's Xuefei Yang, in a triple bill of Sketches and Orchestrations together with Adelaide Guitar Festival Orchestra's Winter School Classical stream, and the Brisbane-based Riverside Guitar Ensemble.

• Local shred guitarist Cam Blokland with a stellar band playing the best of Satriani, Vai, Malmsteen and more, followed by lead guitarist Simon Hosford and rock band Fair Warning channeling the spirit of Eddie Van Halen in Foundations of Shred.

• ARIA award winner and eight-time Golden Guitar winner Fanny Lumsden and South Australian miner-turned-singer Jimmybay, together sharing tales from the road and weaving stories and song in the charming Songs Told of a Land of Gold.

• The world premiere of Spectrums of Sound featuring local duo Out of Sinc (bass player Nick Sinclair and jazz guitarist James Muller) and Sydney-based Isola (guitarist/composer Cameron Deyell and percussion/producer Laurence Pike) sharing brand-new tunes and the launch of Isola's limited edition vinyl release LP.

• A special screening of This is Spinal Tap and Q&A (via live video cross) with Harry Shearer at Mercury Cinema.

• Previous Adelaide International Classical Guitar Competition winners Pavel Ralev (2021), Pietro Locatto (2020) and Andrew Blanch (2019) in a monumental afternoon of inspiring solo recitals, before the hotly-contested 2022 competition on the Festival's final day.

Adelaide Festival Centre CEO & Artistic Director Douglas Gautier AM: "Adelaide Festival Centre's venues are tuned up and ready to welcome Adelaide Guitar Festival performers and audiences. You're never too old or too young to pick up a guitar, or to simply appreciate the brilliance of the world's most popular instrument in all of its various forms and styles, and we encourage everyone to make the most of everything on offer."

After an incredible opening weekend of free events and over 3000 total community, schools and residential care services attendances in Elliston, Streaky Bay, Tumby Bay, and Cleve, Adelaide Guitar Festival On the Road continues to bring world-class musicians to regional towns Crystal Brook and Watervale on July 15, Edithburgh (July 16), Wallaroo (July 17), Eleanor Downs (July 17), and Gumeracha (July 24).

Prefer to watch from home? Enjoy The Backstage Sessions, featuring some of South Australia's most talented and emerging musicians performing in the intimate concert setting of the Festival Theatre stage. Newly recorded sessions from early 2022 were recently added to the currently re-released 2020 recordings and are all free to watch online.

In 2022 Adelaide Guitar Festival is assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, Festivals Australia program and RISE funding body.

Tickets on sale online and via Ticketek.

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