FESTIVAL 2024

 

The New York Guitar Festival celebrates its 25th anniversary, starting the season with two nights, June 14 and 15. A genre-spanning, globetrotting series at Merkin Concert Hall, where the festival launched in 1999. 

 Full details here

 

 

Exploring virtually every aspect of the guitar’s personality, the New York Guitar Festival, since 1999, has presented many of the world’s most influential guitarists at Carnegie Hall, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Sawdust, (Le) Poisson Rouge, 92nd Street Y, Brookfield Place Winter Garden and other iconic venues, large and small. From multi Grammy-winners to emerging artists, NYGF performers have included masters of the classical repertoire (Pepe Romero, Christopher Parkening, Ana Vidović, Nigel North) as well as blues & jazz (Taj Mahal, Bucky Pizzarelli, Bill Frisell, Sonny Landreth), pop & indie rock (Vernon Reid, Bruce Springsteen, Bon Iver, Andy Summers, Thurston Moore), and folk & Americana (Levon Helm, Emmylou Harris, Cindy Cashdollar, Leo Kottke) as well as sounds of Central & South America (Badi Assad, Yamandu Costa, Vinicius Cantuária) and genre-defying innovators (Kaki King, David Torn, Daniel Lanois, Bryce Dessner).

The New York Guitar Festival: music from across the centuries. . . and music yet to be.

24 hours in the jet-lagged life of Sarah Lipstate: From London's Royal Albert Hall to the New York Guitar Festival Marathon at The Met Cloisters

24 Jet-Lagged Hours with Sarah Lipstate

This past weekend, I played two of the most spectacular venues in the world within the span of 24 hours. It all started in London, on Friday night.  read on
The magical sound of Dom Flemons. . . and the grand old lady of gospel, Sister Rosetta Tharpe

The Magical Sounds of
 An American Songster

Dom Flemons approaches old-timey folk and blues in a way that’s emotionally evocative yet steeped in history.  read on
A Conversation with Earth's Dylan Carlson and the NYGF's Jesse Freedman

Riding Drone Waves
 With Dylan Carlson

Earth’s Dylan Carlson hears the notes of the Universe. How his drone metal harmonizes oscillations of vibrational energy.  read on
The making of Organic Moonshine Roots Music: How Sister Rosetta Tharpe inspired Valerie June to do anything or die trying

Do Anything or Die Trying

Mixing blues, gospel, and Appalachian folk into a brew of organic moonshine roots music, Valerie June draws inspiration from the heroism of Sister Rosetta Tharpe.  read on
Tim Brookes’s 100 Great Guitarists Who Weren’t on Rolling Stone’s 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time List

100 Greatest Guitarists?

Tim Brookes’s 100 Great Guitarists Who Weren’t on Rolling Stone’s 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time List.  read on
A Conversation with lutenist Paul O’dette

Paul O'dette Interview

A Conversation with Grammy Award-winning lutenist and Baroque guitarist Paul O’dette.  read on
Chris Rosenau’s thoughts on scoring Charlie Chaplin’s “One A.M.” and “Easy Street”

Bon Iver Meets Chaplin

NYGF commissioned Justin Vernon + Chris Rosenau to create scores for two Charlie Chaplin classics.  read on
A poignant return to Bach: Pepe Romero interviewed by William Kanengiser

A poignant return to Bach

A Conversation with Maestro Pepe Romero and Los Angeles Guitar Quartet founder William Kanengiser.  read on
Musician's drawings backstage at the 2014 NYGF

Backstage Drawings

We asked musicians to fill out a page in our 2014 digital scrapbook — the results are fascinating!  read on
Running the NY Guitar Marathon, by William Kanengiser

The Guitar Marathon

William Kanengiser discusses the Guitar Marathon, focused on guitar in South and North America  read on
Shillington design students collaborate with NYGF

Shillington + NYGF

For the 2014 festival, NYGF and the Shillington School of Graphic Design collaborated on some beautiful posters  read on
Interview with Alvin Youngblood Hart

Interview with Alvin Youngblood Hart

Q+A with the celebrated, Grammy-winning blues guitarist  read on