2025 BCGS Spring Festival
May 3, 8:30 am - 9:30 pm
Tickets
$85–95 (includes The Volterra Trio concert, festival pass, breakfast, and lunch)
If you already have tickets to the Volterra Trio concert, you can purchase a festival-only pass here.
Come join the fun in a relaxed, enriching, and music filled day. Reconnect with old friends, meet new ones, share some food, and have a good time at the 2024 BCGS Spring Festival!
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Please consider becoming a member or updating your membership for member benefits and to help support the BCGS and its mission to “enrich lives and build community through sharing the art of the classical guitar.”
Festival Schedule
8:30 am
Festival Welcome & Breakfast
Scones, granola, yogurt, coffee, water, juice
9:00 am
Technique Workshop
Instructor: Luca Isolani
Start the day off with a technique workshop to get your fingers moving. Luca will take the group through several warm up exercises, highlighting important aspects of right and left hand technique. Most of all, this workshop is a chance for all participants to play together as a group!
10:00 am
Basic Toolkit for Guitar Arrangements
Instructor: Maarten Vandenbemden
No instrumentalist today seems to take more interest in the repertoire of other instruments, in all cultures and from all times, than the classical guitarist. The practice of performing on the classical guitar is intrinsically linked to the practice of ‘musical translation’. Whether we take inspiration from string bowing, vocal phrasing or orchestral colours in our own interpretations, or endeavour in the actual transcription of music for other instruments we’d love to hear and play on the guitar, we are continuously approaching music in a creative and open way.
In a one hour interactive lecture, Maarten will introduce the basic ingredients for making your own arrangements on the classical guitar. Through examples of great arrangements by the likes of Mertz, Tarréga, Llobet but also Dušan Bogdanović and Sergio Assad, we will dig for inspiration for our own work.
11:00 am
Physical Acting
Instructor: Matthew Bretschneider
Want to add further depth, freedom, and expression to your guitar playing? Take your playing to the next level through physical acting techniques from the study of clowning! Clown is a celebrated form of physical acting that invites you to come exactly as you are. The benefits of physical acting include range, flexibility, emotional intelligence, and the ability to connect to an audience. Class will include a warm up, physical acting game, and performance exercise on your guitar designed to elicit freedom in your playing.
12:15 pm
Lunch
Provided by Surya Indian Caterers
1:15 pm
Presentation on the Royal Conservatory of Brussels
By The Volterra Project Trio
1:30 pm
Master Class with Antigoni Goni
Four 30 minute master class spots are available for $75 each.
4:00 pm
Open Mic Concert
Festival participants are invited to perform up to 10 minutes of music for the Open Mic Concert. Sign up in advance by emailing Catherine O’Kelly at catherine.okelly@bostonguitar.org. Space is limited to 80 minutes of music total, so sign up soon to reserve your spot!
5:45 pm
Break for dinner (on your own)
7:30 pm
The Volterra Project Trio Concert
To close out the festival, as well as this year’s Artist Series, we welcome The Volterra Project Trio to the BCGS stage!
Your ticket to the concert is included in your Festival pass.
Already bought tickets to see The Volterra Project Trio?
If you’d like to attend the festival but already have a ticket to the Volterra Project Trio concert,
we’ve got you covered. You can purchase a festival-only pass for $45.