Otto Vowinkel

Guitar maker Amsterdam

festival

Summer School PrSt

These are Valentina Krempatic, Emil Hadziefendic and Hanna Jakac at the Summer School with the unpronouncable name PrSt.

This summer, invited by Sanel Redžić and Predrag Stanković, I visited the beautiful Eco Zone Zlača, one hour drive from Tuzla in Bosnia Herzegovina, where since 2016, the Tuzla Youth Arts Center organizes an annual summer camp for young guitarists.

In a beautiful setting, the students follow classes by four, top of the bill guitar teachers and at the same time, celebrate their holidays, because next to attending individual, group and ensemble lessons, there is plenty of time for hiking, swimming or just being lazy.

This Summer camp is a unique opportunity for young guitarists to be taught by Predrag Stanković, Denis Azabagić, Sanel Redžić and Boris Tešić as well as meeting other guitar enthusiasts. I totally recommend all youngsters to take a closer look at the site of Ljetna Skola guitare PrSt.

In the video below I uploaded a rehearsal of a guitar ensemble and pictures I made or found on Facebook. Just to give you an impression.

Taiwan Guitar Seminar

esther steenbergen solo

This is Esther during her concert in Taiwan.  She was invited by the Taiwan Guitar Seminar to play a solo concert and accepted the kind invitation of Michael Luo and Alfredo Huang.  She is preparing a sequel to her Bach cd so she decided to play Bach a.o.

Since playing solo is not her favorite thing to do,  she asked the organization if she could add some chamber music to the program and that’s how the cooperation with mezzo-soprano Cheng, Hai-Yun and violinist Tsai Tsung-Yen started (see video below). 

Workshop

I too was invited,  to give a lecture and do some workshops. I talked about my way of working and I taught guitarists how to take care of their instruments and how to do some small repairments themselves.

Malaysian guitarist Hong Tee checking the frets of her guitar.
Malaysian guitarist Hong Tee checking the frets of her guitar.
Taiwan Guitar Seminar 2018



Cyprus Guitar Festival

mustafa elmas- can belgili

Last year Mustafa Elmas and Can Belgeli came to my workshop to buy two of my 2A models. The guitars were meant for guitar students in Cyprus where there happens to be an active guitar community.

Mustafa, Can and the Academic Members of Near East University, Dr. Erkan Sülün and Ünal Dede are playing a leading role in this community. Together they organize a guitar festival to which Esther and I were invited.

There were lectures, concerts and masterclasses.

Ozan Saritepe (photo Emre Ünlenen)

 

Zoran Dukic Guitar
Zoran Dukic (photo Emre Ünlenen)

 

2nd international cyprus guitar festival team
Erkan Sülün (most left) and Ünal Dede (most right) with their team members : Arda Özsegkin, Neriman Soykunt and Murat Alihan. (photo: Facebook)

And there was a boat ride hosted by Ünal Dede who, besides being a guitar professor, is also a renowned sailing instructor.

Zoran Dukic Sailor
Zoran Dukic after his concert

 

 

Changsha Guitar Festival

Zoran Dukic

Sanel Redzic in Changsha

Zoran Dukic and Sanel Redzic at the Changsha Guitar Festival in China.

The Changsha Guitar Festival is an annual, international guitar festival which aims to promote world class guitar music in China. This Summer I visited the festival for the second time, taking advantage of the opportunity to personally deliver a guitar ordered by the chairman of the festival, Qingxiang Li.

At the festival of which Xuefei Yang is the artistic director, I bumped into Kuang Junhong. He is a student of Manuel Barrueco now and happened to have grown a lot since the last time he visited us.

Kuang Junhong

Tarik Residbegovic

This is Tarik Residbegovic. I wrote about him earlier. I met him and his parents at the Sarajevo Guitar Festival. When I got home I received a message from his father

Tarik played at the competition in Omis, Croatia, last weekend and took a second prize in his category. He also had a very successful masterclass with a respectful professor Xhevdet Sahatxhija from Zagreb.

Tariq Residbegovic with his parents
Tariq Residbegovic with his parents

It’s always nice to keep track of the players of my instruments.

 

Sarajevo Guitar Festival

Just like last year I went to the Sarajevo International Guitar Festival organized by Dani Sehu. It was all very nice and interesting. Here are some pictures.

Aladin Nuspahic
Belkim Okanovic and Predrag Stankovic
Boris Tesic
Dani Sehu with son Benjo and Predrag Stankovic
Darko Karajic
Matthew mcAllister
Oman Kaminsky
Predrag Stankovic and Darko Karajic

First Prize

Maroje Brčić is a Croatian guitarist who works as a professor at the Academy of Arts in Split and Dubrovnik. At this picture he is teaching Andrija Lazarevic, winner of the first prize in category IV of the competition of the Sarajevo International Guitar Festival. Category IV is for competitors born in or after 1994. The first prize included a D’Addario gift box, the participation fee for the next festival and a guitar.

Thomas and Predrag

These are Thomas Offerman and Predrag Stankovic. The picture is taken at the Sarajevo International Guitar Festival for which I was invited by Đani Šehu, the founder of the festival. Thomas is professor in Rostock and also teaches in Berlin, he wrote a dissertation about guitar technique and works as a director of guitar ensembles. He is giving masterclasses at the festival. Predrag is a sought after guitar teacher who works at the music school in Tuzla. His (former) students won over fifty  international competitions. He is visiting the festival to see how the ones taking part in this competition are doing.

Thomas Offerman and Predrag Stankovic
Thomas Offerman and Predrag Stankovic