5th edition · 2026
Artists
Brazil
Luis Leite
Masterclasses
Jury · Categories A–C
Concert · 6 December
Workshop · 5 December
Luis Leite is one of Brazil’s leading guitarists, with a career spanning classical music, Brazilian musical traditions and jazz. He has performed in more than thirty countries, at venues such as Vienna’s Musikverein and London’s Wigmore Hall.
Born in Rio de Janeiro, he began performing professionally at fourteen. He studied with Oscar Ghiglia at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena before moving to Vienna, where he lived for a decade and earned his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees with distinction under Alvaro Pierri at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. He also holds a PhD in Music from UNIRIO, with research exploring new approaches to musical improvisation.
His awards include the John Duarte International Guitar Competition in Austria, the Ivor Mairants Guitar Award in London and Brazil’s BDMG Instrumental Prize. He has collaborated with artists such as David Garrett, Antonio Sánchez, Greg Osby, Yamandu Costa, Hamilton de Holanda and Mônica Salmaso, and has released three albums of original music — Mundo Urbano, Vento Sul and Ostinato. Professor of Guitar at the Federal University of Juiz de Fora since 2009, he developed a programme integrating classical and popular guitar studies.
Mexico
Alejandro Córdova
Masterclasses
Head of the jury · Categories A–C
Concert · 6 December
Alejandro Córdova is a classical guitarist whose artistic voice has evolved between Mexico and Europe, bringing together interpretative tradition and a constant search for colour and poetry. He studied at the Faculty of Music of the Universidad Veracruzana in Mexico and continued his studies in Italy at the Jacopo Tomadini Conservatory in Udine with Stefano Viola, and at the Francisco Tárrega Guitar Academy with Paolo Pegoraro.
He has performed across Europe, the United States and Latin America, including appearances with the RTVE Symphony Orchestra of Madrid, and toured internationally as a member of the Xalapa Guitar Orchestra. He has won first prize in more than thirty international competitions, among them the Francisco Tárrega Competition in Benicàssim, the Julián Arcas Competition in Almería and the Enrico Mercatali Competition in Gorizia. His discography includes releases on Contrastes Records and Naxos.
He is a guitar professor at the Nicola Sala Conservatory in Benevento, Italy. His repertoire brings together Mexican and Spanish traditions and twentieth-century European music, revealing the guitar’s ability to bridge cultures, periods and musical languages.
Norway
Kristina Vårlid
Masterclasses
Head of the jury · Categories D–E
Concert · 4 December
Kristina Vårlid is a Norwegian classical guitarist celebrated for her expressive artistry and her passion for exploring the guitar’s sonic possibilities. Her recordings for Simax Classics have been widely acclaimed: her debut album An Idea (2019) was named Norwegian Classical Album of the Year by Klassekampen, and 5 Stages of Grief (2023), dedicated to the memory of guitarist Sabrina Vlaškalić, was praised as “a powerful experience” by Gitarr och Luta. Her next album will be released in 2026.
She has performed at the Royal Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Auditorio Alfredo Kraus in Las Palmas and the Koblenz International Guitar Festival, and as a soloist with the Bergen Philharmonic, the Stavanger Symphony and the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra. In 2017 she won the Antwerp International Guitar Competition and the Grachtenfestival Conservatorium Concours.
She is Professor of Guitar at the Prince Claus Conservatoire in Groningen and teaches at the University of Agder in Norway, where she is pursuing a PhD in artistic research. She plays a guitar by Andrés D. Marvi and has been a D’Addario artist since 2019.
Austria
Florian Palier
Masterclasses
Jury · Categories D–E
Concert · 4 December
Austrian guitarist and composer Florian Palier discovered his love of music early; his first teacher was his father, Johann Palier. In 2015 he graduated with honours from Álvaro Pierri’s class at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, where he later worked for many years as Pierri’s assistant. Critics have called him “one of the most fascinating voices on the contemporary European guitar scene” (Klassiek Centraal).
As a composer, performer and improviser he brings different musical worlds together, with a repertoire ranging from the Renaissance to contemporary music. He has played with ensembles such as Klangforum Wien and the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra and regularly premieres works dedicated to him; his own compositions are performed and recorded from Japan to the Netherlands.
Winner of more than twenty first prizes at competitions at home and abroad, he has given concerts and radio and television recordings (ORF, BBC, Classic FM) across Europe, Russia, the Middle East, the USA, Japan and Taiwan. He teaches a guitar class at the Gustav Mahler Private University in Klagenfurt and is a regular guest at masterclasses worldwide.
Lithuania
Danguolė Lingytė
Masterclasses
Jury · Categories A–C
Danguolė Lingytė is a Lithuanian guitarist, educator and D’Addario Artist who has performed across Europe, South-East Asia and North America. She holds a BA in Music from the Maastricht Conservatorium, an MMus in Performance from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and a Master of Arts in Education from the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre.
She is frequently invited to give masterclasses and seminars at institutions such as HKMI (Hong Kong), the Ionian University (Greece), MUBA (Estonia) and Florida University (USA), and serves on the juries of national and international competitions in Lithuania and Thailand. She received a letter of recognition for promoting Lithuania abroad. She is Head of the Strings Department at the Vilnius choir school “Liepaitės” and guitar teacher at the Royal Russell School Vilnius.
Türkiye
Erdem Sökmen
Masterclasses
Jury · Categories D–E
Erdem Sökmen took his first guitar lessons with Raffi Arslanyan and studied composition and guitar at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, working with Cengiz Tanç, Cemal Reşit Rey, İlhan Usmanbaş and Carlo Domeniconi. He graduated in harmony and counterpoint in 1982 and in guitar in 1984. In 1986 he established the classical guitar department of the Istanbul University State Conservatory, where he also earned the title of Proficiency in Art.
Alongside teaching he has played jazz with his group Passiflora. Since 2013 he has performed in a guitar duo with Hasan Meten, with whom he recorded the album 1; he recorded Duende with Nağme Yarkın, with whom he still gives concerts, and records and performs with Terra Magica (Tuluğ Tırpan, Volkan Öktem and Eylem Pelit). He has also made a significant contribution to Turkish popular music and continues to work on solo albums.
Türkiye
Raffi Arslanyan
Masterclasses
Artist talk · 6 December
Born in Istanbul in 1944, Raffi Arslanyan first met music through the harmonica as a child. On the advice of his lifelong friend Misak Toros, he studied regularly from 1959 to 1964 with the great classical guitar master Prof. Andrea Paleologos, Toros’s own teacher. During his two years of military service and for many years afterwards in Istanbul, he gave recitals and played solo classical repertoire every night at distinguished venues, while introducing the classical guitar to a wider public and teaching intensively.
Raffi Arslanyan has devoted himself entirely to his students: most of Türkiye’s leading classical guitarists and guitar teachers today studied with him. He continues to teach.
Türkiye
Kağan Korad
Masterclasses
Kağan Korad has given more than 600 concerts — solo and with long-standing ensembles such as the Bilkent Guitar Trio, the Terci–Korad Guitar Duo, Trio Anka and the Salman–Korad Bandoneon–Guitar Duo — across Türkiye and in many countries in Europe, the Americas, Asia and Africa. Since 2023 he has also performed in a duo with his former student Özberk Miraç Sarıgül.
He has appeared as performer, teacher and jury member at festivals including Koblenz, Volos, GuitArt, Naxos, Miami and Istanbul, has premiered many works written for him and his ensembles — five of them guitar concertos — and has played some twenty works as a soloist with orchestras. His awards include the Honour Award of the Volos International Guitar Festival’s 30th anniversary and “Guitarist of the Year” at the Yıldız Technical University International Guitar Festival. He has released four albums and made many arrangements for guitar ensembles, solo guitar and guitar with orchestra.
A founding member of ASEG (Association of Classical Guitarists of Southeastern Europe) and the Classical Guitar Association, he directs the Türkiye Guitar Meetings, held every year since 2006, and the Bilkent Chamber Music Days. He served for many years as head of department and dean of Bilkent University’s Faculty of Music and Performing Arts, where he is a professor.
Türkiye
Cem Küçümen
Masterclasses
Jury · Categories D–E
Festival committee
Guitarist, educator and composer Cem Küçümen was born in Istanbul and took his first steps in music on the mandolin. He began classical guitar with Ertuğrul Şatıroğlu and studied chamber music and theory with the composer, educator and violin virtuoso Ekrem Zeki Ün. In 1979 he founded the Istanbul Guitar Trio with Şadi Ensari and Önder Arık, and has performed ever since with the trio and as a soloist.
He has played at international guitar festivals, taken part in many TRT radio and television programmes and appeared as a soloist with the Kopuz Chamber Orchestra, the Kadıköy Municipality Istanbul Chamber Orchestra and the Dokuz Eylül Symphony Orchestra. He has worked with Carlo Domeniconi, Costas Cotsiolis and Roberto Aussel and served on competition juries. A graduate in electrical engineering (Yıldız Technical University) and guitar (Istanbul University), he completed his master’s and doctorate at the Haliç University State Conservatory.
One of the few students carrying on Ekrem Zeki Ün’s tradition of composition, he has written solo, chamber, symphonic and concerto works as well as music for film, television and the stage; his Concerto for Mi for guitar and strings was premiered in 2007 with himself as soloist. In 2025 he won the Gold Award of the Brahms International Music Competition and First Prize at the Bach International Music Competition for composition. After retiring from the Istanbul University State Conservatory he teaches at the Okan University Conservatory and performs with his Istanbul Guitar Ensemble.
Türkiye
Kâzım Çokoğullu
Masterclasses
Guitarist and composer Kâzım Çokoğullu took his first lessons with Mehmet Gürgün and İbrahim Kayaalp and graduated from Bilkent University as a student of Kağan Korad in 2007. The same year he won a rare full scholarship to The Juilliard School in New York, where he studied with Sharon Isbin and graduated in 2009, supported by the Eczacıbaşı and Ahmet Ertegün foundations. He completed the Proficiency in Art programme at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University in 2013, and has worked with Carlo Domeniconi, Roland Dyens, Marco Socias, Carlos Barbosa-Lima and Ricardo Moyano.
He has given recitals at the Ahmed Adnan Saygun Arts Centre, the Akbank Guitar Festival, the Yıldız and METU guitar festivals, the Türkiye Guitar Meetings and ASEG, and has played concertos with orchestras including the Bilkent Symphony, the Istanbul and Çukurova State Symphony Orchestras and Orchestra Akademik Başkent — among them the premiere of Okay Özdağ’s guitar concerto (2016). In New York he performed with the New Juilliard Ensemble in the Elliott Carter centenary concerts (2008).
His works include Three Pieces for Guitar, also the title of his first solo album (2024), Five Folk Songs for guitar and string quartet and a Concerto for Two Guitars and Orchestra, first performed in 2025; with his ensemble Sırnağme he released Meyler Süzülsün (2015). He taught at the Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University State Conservatory from 2011 to 2020 and has been a faculty member at Ankara Music and Fine Arts University since 2020.
Türkiye
Kerim Altınörs
Masterclasses
Jury · Categories D–E
Workshop · 3 December
Festival committee
Born in Neuss, Germany, in 1981, Kerim Altınörs first studied flamenco guitar and began classical guitar in 1999 with Bülent Ergüden. He completed his degree at Yıldız Technical University in 2011 — while assisting Ergüden in coordinating the International Yıldız Guitar Days, where he also gave solo and duo concerts — and his master’s at the Istanbul University State Conservatory with Erdem Sökmen, with a thesis on the technical challenges of Joaquín Rodrigo’s guitar works. He attended masterclasses with Thomas Müller-Pering, Marco Socias, Hopkinson Smith, Lorenzo Micheli, Carlo Marchione, David Russell, Lucio Matarazzo, Zoran Dukić and Hubert Käppel.
He premiered and recorded Eray Düzgünsoy’s Darfur Fragments at the Türkiye Guitar Meeting in 2013 and gave its opening concert in 2018. The American Fingerstyle Guitar Journal published an interview with him by Bill Piburn and his edition of Sainz de la Maza’s Andaluza, and Victor Frost dedicated his Variations Lyriques Op. 81 to him (2018). His album Altınörs Plays (2021), with music by Scarlatti, Albéniz, Rodrigo and Sainz de la Maza, has been broadcast on TRT and Borusan Klasik.
He received his doctorate with a thesis, supervised by Ergüden, on guitar transcriptions of Albéniz’s piano works. After teaching at the Okan University Conservatory (2017–2022), he is an assistant professor at Yıldız Technical University’s Faculty of Art and Design, and gives masterclasses and seminars and serves on competition juries.
Türkiye
Efgan Rende
Masterclasses
Concert · 3 December
Born in Berlin in 1976, Efgan Rende grew up in Antakya and studied music education at Uludağ University, where he also wrote a master’s thesis on Francisco Tárrega’s contribution to classical guitar teaching; he continued his guitar studies with Bekir Küçükay of the Istanbul University State Conservatory. He taught at Balıkesir University and at the Istanbul Avni Akyol and Aydın Doğan fine arts high schools, and completed his doctorate in music at Yıldız Technical University.
In 2012 he founded the Bağlama & Guitar Duo with Ali Kazım Akdağ; their album Firez (2015) won Best Album in the “My Project” competition of the 9th Türkiye Guitar Meeting at Bilkent University. Since 2022 he has performed with vocalist Ayşegül Aykaç. He wrote the guitar textbooks (I–IV) for Türkiye’s fine arts high schools (2017) and their guitar curriculum, and composes and arranges for solo guitar and chamber ensembles with guitar. He is an assistant professor at Ankara Music and Fine Arts University.
Türkiye
Sevda Daysalı
Masterclasses
Jury · Categories A–C
Sevda Daysalı graduated in music (guitar) education from the Buca Faculty of Education at Dokuz Eylül University. She began classical guitar with Mete Çarıkçı, continued with Mehmet Gürgün throughout her university studies and attended masterclasses with Ricardo Moyano, Bekir Küçükay and Erdem Sökmen. She has given masterclasses at international guitar festivals and many concerts and recitals in solo and duo projects — in 2017–2018 with Tuba Akkaya as the Akkaya–Daysalı Guitar Duo. She teaches guitar at the Istanbul Avni Akyol Fine Arts High School and continues to build repertoire for solo and duo concert projects.
Türkiye
Serkan Ağır
Masterclasses
Serkan Ağır began classical guitar in 1994 and in 1997 entered the part-time guitar programme of the Hacettepe University Ankara State Conservatory as a student of Ahmet Kanneci. In 2000 he won a scholarship to Bilkent University’s Faculty of Music and Performing Arts, where he studied with Kağan Korad and Kürşad Terci. At Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University he completed his master’s with Soner Egesel and, in 2012, the Proficiency in Art programme with Erdem Sökmen. He has worked with Tilman Hoppstock, Alirio Díaz, Aniello Desiderio, Marco Socias, Costas Cotsiolis and Alfonso Moreno.
He has given concerts and masterclasses in Türkiye and abroad — at the Theater des Augenblicks in Vienna, the St. Marcus Music Festival in Zagreb and the Novska Conservatory, and in Türkiye at universities, cultural centres and the French, American and Spanish embassies — as a soloist, with chamber ensembles and with the Bilkent Symphony Orchestra. He taught at the Hacettepe University Ankara State Conservatory (2006–2015) and coordinated the classical guitar department at Bilkent University (2015–2020). Since 2021 he has been an assistant professor at Ankara Music and Fine Arts University.
Türkiye
Ayşegül Koca
Founder & artistic director
Masterclasses
Festival committee
Ayşegül Koca is one of the most acclaimed Turkish classical guitarists of her generation and the founder and artistic director of the International Ankara Guitar Festival and Competition. A prizewinner at national and international competitions, she has performed as a soloist with the Staatsorchester Rheinische Philharmonie, the Moscow Sinfonietta, the Xalapa Guitar Orchestra, the Presidential Symphony Orchestra and the Antalya and Bursa state symphony orchestras, and released a live album with Orchestra Akademik Başkent in 2018.
She has toured widely in the United States and Mexico and has been invited to perform, give masterclasses and serve on juries in countries from Germany, Spain and Russia to the United States, Mexico, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates. In 2016 she was a visiting professor at the Benito Juárez Autonomous University of Oaxaca, Mexico; she is a faculty member at Ankara Music and Fine Arts University. She also plays the fretless guitar, bridging Eastern and Western aesthetics.
She began her studies at Bilkent University’s music school in Ankara with Kürşad Terci and Kağan Korad, earned her bachelor’s degree with Carlo Marchione at the Conservatorium Maastricht, the Artist and Soloist diplomas with Aniello Desiderio at the Koblenz International Guitar Academy and her master’s with Paolo Pegoraro at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz, and holds a doctorate in music from Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University. Pepe Romero has called her “one of the best players of her generation”.
Türkiye
Cem Çeliksırt
Masterclasses
Jury · Categories A–C
Luthier exhibition · live performance
Born in Bafra, Cem Çeliksırt was introduced to the guitar at a young age in Mersin. Having begun his studies with Utku and Mehmet Özkanoğlu, he graduated with honours in 2016 from the Konzertexamen class of Prof. Thomas Kirchhoff and Prof. Dale Kavanagh at the Detmold Academy of Music in Germany. Extending the lute studies he began in Berlin to the theorbo and archlute, he has become an indispensable part of baroque and early music ensembles and orchestras in Türkiye and is considered one of the pioneers of the basso continuo tradition and the lute family in the country.
He has performed as a soloist with orchestras such as the Heilbronn Symphony Orchestra, the Presidential Symphony Orchestra, the Bilkent and Hacettepe symphony orchestras, Orchestra Akademik Başkent, the Detmold Chamber Orchestra and the Çukurova State Symphony Orchestra, and at festivals in Hamilton, Barcelona, Osaka, Iserlohn, Gevelsberg and Istanbul. Composers including Carlo Domeniconi, Martin Christoph Redel, Terukaku Yamashita and Jaime Muthesius have dedicated works to him. An associate professor since 2021, he teaches at the Başkent University State Conservatory.
Türkiye
Hale Birgül
Masterclasses
Hale Birgül graduated in 1998 from Ertan Birol’s guitar class at the Mimar Sinan University State Conservatory, where she also studied counterpoint with İlhan Usmanbaş. After performing at New York’s MayFest in 1999, she began a master’s programme with Lars Frandsen at the City University of New York in 2000 and appeared as a guest artist in Tania León’s contemporary music series at Levenson Recital Hall. In 2001 she premiered and recorded Marco Oppedisano’s Movements for Guitar in a Vox Novus concert series and gave chamber music concerts at Stony Brook’s Staller Center, Gershwin Hall and the Harbor Conservatory.
In New York she took part in Brian Willson’s improvisation seminars and Douglas Cohen’s seminars and performances on John Cage and Morton Feldman, and worked with Benjamin Verdery, Paul Gregory, Frederic Hand, Antigoni Goni and Jerry Willard. In 2002 she gave performances of Christian Wolff’s Stones at Galata/Tripudio in Istanbul. She teaches guitar at Mersin University’s Faculty of Music and Performing Arts, has led the Aima Guitar Workshops since 2013 and publishes in musicology and performance research.
Türkiye
Abdullah Kaya
Masterclasses
Born in İzmir in 1993, Abdullah Kaya began guitar in 2010 in Konya with Doğan Sarıcı and studied music education at Necmettin Erbakan University, also working with İskender Özçelebi at Gazi University and with Soner Egesel and Onur Güçlü. At Necmettin Erbakan University he completed a master’s thesis on the guitar festivals, competitions and meetings held in Türkiye between 2007 and 2017 (2018) and a doctorate on flipped learning in guitar education (2023).
Appointed a music teacher by the Ministry of National Education in 2016, he taught guitar at the Konya Çimento Fine Arts High School from 2017 to 2025, training many students with inclusive, constructivist teaching. He has published widely on guitar and music education in national and international journals. After teaching as a visiting lecturer at Ankara Music and Fine Arts University in 2024, he has been an assistant professor at Nevşehir Hacı Bektaş Veli University since 2025.
Türkiye
Uğur Alpagut
Festival committee
Born in Ankara in 1962, Uğur Alpagut began his music education in 1980 at Marmara University’s Atatürk Faculty of Education, studying the violin with Cemalettin Göbelez and Saim Akçıl. He continued at Gazi University’s Music Education Department as a student of Prof. Dr. Ali Uçan, completing his master’s degree (1989), proficiency in art (1991) and doctorate (2001) there.
From 1988 to 1994 he taught music history and theory at Bilkent University’s Faculty of Music and Performing Arts, where he was also assistant director of the Music Preparatory School. In 1994 he joined Bolu Abant İzzet Baysal University, where he led the founding of the doctoral programme in music education, became professor in 2011 and headed the Department of Fine Arts Education from 2014 to 2017. His books include Kim Kapattı Şu Müziği? and Müzik Sorunlarına Bakışta Atatürk’ün İzleri (2010).
With Anadolu Güneşi, the ensemble he founded in 2003 with bağlama player Kemal Bilsel Sarısözen, he has given concerts in Türkiye and in countries including Pakistan, Malaysia, Hungary, North Macedonia, Australia, the United States, France, Germany, China and Canada. He chaired the Silk Road Music Conference series (2014–2017), was the first Turkish academic elected to the board of the International Society for Music Education (ISME, 2016–2020), and chaired the 33rd ISME World Conference in Baku (2018) and the ISME Istanbul Legacy Conference (2019). He is President of MÜZED – Music Educators Society of Türkiye, the festival’s organising institution.
Türkiye
İlker Deniz Başuğur
Festival committee
İlker Deniz Başuğur began his musical life in 1986 at the Armed Forces Military Music School and in 1989 entered the Hacettepe University Ankara State Conservatory, where he studied with leading Turkish artists and educators. He works as a conductor, composer and academic; as a composer he has written award-winning works, particularly for children’s and youth choirs.
He took part in organising the World Military Bands Festival (2003) and organised an international symposium in Ankara on music therapy against the negative effects of terrorism (2010). Since 2015 he has been the Türkiye coordinator of the World and European brass associations, and he was the organiser and music director of Ankara Brass Week, their first event in Türkiye. He has been invited to conduct abroad and appears as a guest conductor with orchestras in Türkiye, including the Trakya Chamber Orchestra. He teaches at Ankara Music and Fine Arts University and the Hacettepe University State Conservatory, and is General Artistic Director of the Sabit Dağsuyu Foundation.