MARCH 7, 2024 — The Southwest Guitar Symposium (SWGS), known for bringing guitar virtuosos from around the world to perform high caliber concerts and offer masterclasses to UTSA students, will make its return this weekend, March 8-10 at the UTSA School of Music on the Main Campus.
This year’s line-up of guest artists will bear the UTSA Arts’ En Vivo Guest Artist Series — marking the debut of this brand at the symposium. Another highlight of this year’s symposium, universally acclaimed artists William Kanengiser and Pablo Garibay will share the stage. The two guitarists will double-headline the UTSA Recital Hall at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 9.
All SWGS concerts are free and open to the public.
Kanengiser and Garibay will also be teaching masterclasses, where they’ll critique performances by multiple students in an open, two-hour class. Kanengiser will teach his class at 1 p.m. on March 9, and Garibay at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday, March 10. Symposium visitors can attend both sessions in the Arts Building, (AR 2.03.18A) on the UTSA Main Campus.
“It’s very important, at least for me, not to try to change the personality, the concept, the feelings of the student… [it’s important] to make them more secure, to try to identify what they are making and reinforce that,” Garibay said.
Attendees can also enjoy viewings of the symposium’s Southwest Solo Guitar Competition concerts by Cuarteto de Guitarras de la Ciudad de México, Duo Fortis, and the Southwest Luthier and Vendor Expo in the Recital Hall, including a performance by 2023 competition winners Adrian Montero and Wyatt Green.
The competition is from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on March 9 and from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on March 10.
Duo Fortis’ concert is at 7:30 p.m. on March 8. Montero and Green will perform at 5 p.m. on March 9, and Cuarteto de Guitarras de la Ciudad de México’s concert is at 5 p.m. on March 10.
The Southwest Luthier and Vendor Expo takes place all day in the Arts Building lobby on March 9 and 10.
Kanengiser, an American guitarist, has been a guest artist at UTSA on multiple occasions and performed at the Southwest Guitar Festival, the original incarnation of the Symposium, in 2003 and 2009 with the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, of whom he is a founding member.
He has several accolades as an accomplished and well-respected virtuoso. Most notably, he’s received numerous Grammy award nominations and won two — one in 2004 for his contributions with the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet for Best Classical Crossover Album “Guitar Heroes”, and the other in 2007 with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra for Best Opera Performance for Osvaldo Golijoy’s Ainadamar “Foundation of Tears”.
Kanengiser’s performance will feature mostly contemporary works. Most notably, he’ll showcase a piece composed by former UTSA guitar professor and Southwest Guitar Festival director Matthew Dunne. This piece, “The Village,” is the first movement of a larger work titled “Beyond the Horizon”.
The American virtuoso will also be performing “Sevillana (Fantasia)”, “Op. 29” by Joaquín Turina, “English Suite” by John Duarte, “Three African Sketches” by Dušan Bogdanović, and “Brookland Boogie” from “Sketches for Friends” by Brian Head.
Garibay is one of Mexico’s most highly respected and widely praised musical talents. The guitar virtuoso has drawn international recognition from audiences and critics for his peculiar sensitivity to musicality and his work with the standard classical guitar repertoire and contemporary artists.
“I’m very excited and touched that I can participate in this year’s festival along with other guitarists and professors whom I admire so much,” Garibay said.
Garibay is making his UTSA debut. His performances will feature Spanish composer Antonio Jose‘s “Sonata Para Guitarra.” The latter is well known in the classical guitar repertoire for its demanding complexity and beauty. It is Jose’s most famous work and one of only two pieces the composer wrote for guitar. Garibay will also perform Sonatina Meridional by Mexican composer Manuel Ponce.
“It’s the kind of repertoire where [other musicians] hear it and appreciate many things they don’t hear commonly in the guitar repertoire… it’s a very beautiful piece,” Garibay commented on Jose’s work.
