Andalusia is hosting the first Cádiz Guitar Festival Ángel G. Piñero, an international event with concerts in castles, monasteries and peñas. Its aim is to give everyone free access to world-class Spanish classical guitar. Thirteen concerts are being held at 11 venues in four towns and cities: Cádiz, Jerez de la Frontera, El Puerto de Santa María and Rota. Admission is free until each venue is full.

The festival is built around the legacy of Ángel G. Piñero, a guitarist and composer born in Cádiz in 1932. He gave more than 250 recitals, designed his own guitar and wrote 36 works: six for guitar and orchestra, eight for guitar and string quartet and twenty-two for solo guitar. «Music has a historic debt to the classical Spanish guitar,» he said.

In 2022, a tribute concert to Piñero was held at the Teatro Real, with Luca Romanelli and Stanislav Steshenko taking turns to play. Now Romanelli has opened the festival, and Steshenko will perform at the closing concert with the Cuarteto Chagall.

The programme is broad: solo guitar, flamenco, cante, chamber music, voice and guitar ensembles. Concerts take place in the historic Castillo de Luna in Rota, the Alcázar de Jerez, the San Miguel monastery in El Puerto and the Casino Gaditano in Cádiz, as well as in Andalusian peñas.

The festival continues this coming weekend: Jerónimo Maya in Jerez, Júlia Farrés-Llongueras and José Luis Ruiz del Puerto at the Alcázar, Quartett HANA in Rota and Cádiz, and María Esther Guzmán at La Caleta. Before you go, check the programme at cadizguitarfestival.com: times and venues may change.

Sources: Andalucía Informa — Cádiz Guitar Festival programme; Vivir Ediciones — festival presentation; Qué! — Teatro Real and Ángel G. Piñero