A pair of award-winning classical guitarists will perform at a guitar festival and competition in Walker’s Point on Feb. 20.
The Latino Arts Strings Program will host Iván Resendiz and Marina Tomei at the United Community Center’s Latino Arts Auditorium at 1028 S. 9th St. The pair will sit on a panel of local and international classical guitarists that will select winners at Latino Arts, Inc.’s third-annual Guitar Festival & Competition. Around 25 classical guitarists from around the Midwest are expected to compete.
Resendiz and Tomei will perform with the winners at 7:30 p.m.
“This is really exciting,” said Dinorah Marquez, founder and director of the Latino Arts Strings Program. “It’s the third year we’ve done this, and it’s always exciting for people from other countries to come to this.”
Marquez said getting guitarists like Resendiz and Tomei to perform at the competition helps raise its profile among teachers and players in the region. Resendiz and Tomei regularly perform in concert halls and music festivals in Europe, North America and South America.
Resendiz, who emigrated from Mexico to the United States in 2006, currently lives in Chicago. He has won 13 international guitar competitions since 2009.
Tomei is from Rome and performs solo concerts around Italy. She has also participated in several international guitar festivals and is a professor of guitar at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.
“The reasoning for doing this is that there is not an avenue for young classical guitarists who are highly trained in the region to have a competition,” Marquez said. “It exists for violinists, cellist, wind players … but it doesn’t really exist for classical guitar players. This is a serious festival. We have students coming from Indiana, Illinois and Minnesota.”
General admission to the concert is $10 and participation in the competition costs $25 per guitarist. The competition is open to all ages and winners will be selected from different age groups and levels of expertise.
Latino Arts, Inc. is a nonprofit that promotes cultural awareness and draws Hispanic artists from around the world to perform in Milwaukee.
