Paganini Guitar Festival Parma 2022
The Paganini Guitar Festival returned to Parma from 26 to 29 May 2022, transforming the city into the capital of the guitar for four days full of events.
Paganini , Parma and the guitar - if the name of Niccolò Paganini (1782-1840) immediately evokes Genoa and the violin , not everyone knows that the legendary violinist was also a great virtuoso of the guitar , an instrument he loved and for which he wrote numerous compositions , although he did not perform in public as a guitarist, preferring to reserve his most intimate and private attention to the six strings. And if it was Genoa that saw Paganini born, it is in Parma , in the monumental cemetery of the Villetta , that his remains rest.
The Paganini Guitar Festival is inspired by the great musician's passion for the guitar, and for over twenty years it has attracted thousands of fans to the city. The review, organized by the Parma Concerts Society in collaboration with the Department of Culture of the Municipality of Parma-Casa della Musica, reaches its 22nd edition this year : entitled De Los Viajeros ("of travelers"), it is an invitation to rediscover the joy of travel, on the wings of music and on the streets of the world.
The Paganini Guitar Festival 2022, as always, boasts the participation of artists from all over the world, in a dense mix of proposals, including concerts, competitions, masterclasses, special events, conferences, guitar making exhibitions.
Concerts:
The billboard also this year hosted world-famous artists:
The Cuban guitarist Manuel Barrueco was the protagonist of the opening concert on Thursday 26 May : he performed music by Frescobaldi, Scarlatti, Aguado, Ponce, Cervantes and Malats.
On Friday 27 Pavel Steidl played music by Paganini, Legnani, Merzt, Coste.
Saturday 28, Jan Depreter and Eduardo Isaac alternated on stage performing pieces by Depreter, Albeniz, Granados, Sagreras, Iannarelli, Colombo and Piazzolla .
Giampaolo Bandini , artistic director of the festival, held a special sensory concert entitled " Close your eyes ", in collaboration with the Italian Union of the Blind and Visually.
On Sunday 29 the final appointment of the festival at the Teatro Regio featured the Scottish guitarist David Russell , who performed pieces by Bach, Scarlatti, Albéniz, Granados and Goss .
Worth noting is the Paganini Youth Orchestra : a project that every year involves hundreds of children from music conservatories and high schools from all over Italy: it is an intensive two-day course and culminated in the spectacular final concert of the youth orchestra, conducted by Maestro Vito Nicola Paradiso , with soloist the violinist Ksenia Milas , Sunday 29 May in the Church of San Francesco del Prato .
Guitar making exhibitions:
Finally, the offer of the XXII Paganini Guitar Festival was completed by two guitar making exhibitions, the historical Beyond Time , curated by Gabriele Lodi , with guitars made by the Fabricatore family before, during and after the collaboration with Paganini, and the exhibition of modern guitar making with the participation of several important European luthiers.
