Jury
Stolina Dobreva
She is one of the most profound guitar teachers in Bulgaria. Her students have won more than 300 prizes from both national and international competitions and festivals.
Stolina began her musical education in National School of Music “Liybomir Pipkov” in Sofia and then continued with her higher education in Hochschule für Musik Freiburg in the class of Prof. Sonja Prunnbauer. She graduated both educational institutions with honours. She is a prize-winner of various national and international competitions. She has attended numerous masterclasses, among which those of Alvaro Pierri, Carlo Domeniconi, Robert Brightmore, Alexander Frauchi, and more. Stolina performs and has concerts in Bulgaria, Germany, Turkey, Hungary, and others.
Since 2017, Stolina Dobreva is principal of the National School of Music “Liybomir Pipkov” in Sofia. She is an author of numerous research papers, regarding the history of guitar in Bulgaria, and she is also editor in chief of “Kitara” magazine. Her doctoral dissertation (PhD) is on History of guitar in Bulgaria.
Stolina does recordings for the Bulgarian National Television and the Bulgarian National Radio. She is a jury member for multiple competitions and festivals. Dobreva gives masterclasses in Bulgaria, Serbia, Romania, Republic of North Macedonia, etc.
Goran Krivokapić
The guitar virtuoso Goran Krivokapić has been labelled “one of the most sought-after guitarists of today” by Medici TV.
Prize-winner of nineteen international competitions, his focus lies on the development of repertoire for guitar, mainly through making his own transcriptions and collaborating with composers. Goran Krivokapić is an active soloist, chamber musician, and teacher. He has performed across Europe, North and South America, Asia, Africa and Russia, participating at major festivals, and concert halls such as Tchaikovsky Hall, Lubkowitz Palace, Concertgebouw, and Auditorio Conde Duque. Together with Danijel Cerović, he formed the Montenegrin Guitar Duo, a leading guitar ensemble, which has performed on four continents and made the highly acclaimed premiere recording of J.S. Bach‘s complete English Suites for Naxos.
Passionate about teaching, Goran Krivokapić has given masterclasses and lectures at universities and festivals worldwide. He has taught previously at the Koblenz International Guitar Academy, The Lemmens Institute, and Prince Claus Conservatoire, he currently teaches at Detmold University of Music and is professor of guitar at The Cologne University of Music and Dance.
Campbell Diamond
Campbell is an international award winning classical guitarist from Canberra, Australia and is currently based in Linz, Austria, having recently been appointed as Professor of Guitar at the Anton Bruckner University of Music. He is a laureate of over 30 international music competitions worldwide, and is widely regarded as one of the leading guitarists of his generation.
He finished his Bachelor degree (First Class Honours) in Germany, with Hubert Käppel at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln, and continued his study with Judicael Perroy at the Haute Ecole de Musique in Geneva. Prior to his move to Europe, he studied with both Timothy Kain and Minh Le Hoang at the ANU School of Music in Canberra. He began studying the classical guitar at the late age of 17. He has performed and given masterclasses in over 25 different countries, and at many of the worlds most prestigious guitar festivals, and concert series, including Koblenz, International Guitar Festival, Iserlohn International Guitar Festival, Cultura Artistica – Sao Paulo, Berlin International Guitar Festival, Paris International Guitar Festival, GuitarArt Festival Belgrade, Forum Gitarre Wien, and many more.
In the upcoming year Campbell has concert engagements in prestigious concert halls such as Carnegie Hall, Vienna Konzerthaus, St James Piccadilly London as a soloist and at the Melbourne Recital Centre in collaboration with the acclaimed Ensemble Liaison.
Marco Tamayo
The Cuban guitarist with Austrian citizenship, Marco Tamayo, acclaimed as the “Il Re della Chitarra”, has preserved his international reputation in a unique way: both on stage and in the pedagogical field. He has won major international competitions with more than 20 international awards, among which we can name the International Guitar Competition Michele Pittaluga -Cita di Alessandria / Italy, International Guitar Competition Andrés Segovia / Spain, Vienna-Rust, Nikita Koshkin International Guitar Competition / Austria, Leo Brouwer International Guitar Competition in Havana / Cuba, etc.
He has also performed solo concertos together with well known orchestras and conductors, recitals on every continent, and is a regular member of chamber ensembles. Above all, he is a soloist with a wide repertoire that covers all styles and more than 6 hours of music.
Tamayo is a member of international juries and a regular guest for master courses at festivals and Universities.
Marco Tamayo has performed several world premieres and numerous composers including Leo Brouwer have dedicated works to the interpreter. Tamayo has recorded several albums including works for guitar and transcriptions of the famous Caprichos for violin by Niccolo Paganini. He is also a composer, arranger and conductor of chamber ensembles.
He started playing guitar while he was three years old, he was hailed as a prodigy child at the age of six and his first international tour took place in Europe when the young guitarist was only ten years old.
Marco Tamayo is Professor at the Universität der Künste Berlin (UDK), Germany, and Professor at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg, Austria.
His book “Essential Principles for the interpretation on the Classical Guitar” changed the approach to classical guitar teaching around the world. Most of his students enjoy international careers.
Marco Tamayo is the Artistic Director of the “Michele Pittaluga Int. Guitar contest” (since 1999, year in which he won the competition), and director of the “Klagenfurt Int. Competition and Festival” in Austria. He is also an honorary citizen of the City of Solero and Alessandria, both in Italy.
Marco Tamayo is currently playing on a guitar built by luthier Stephen Connor, from the United States of America. Marco Tamayo is a Savarez Artist and uses Cantiga Premium- Alliance / Blue strings. He is also the president of Marco Tamayo Edition, a publishing house created in 2014.
Artyom Dervoed
Universe Guitare (France) has famously dubbed Artyom Dervoed the “Tsar of the guitar”. This bold claim is backed by the growing international demand, an active recording career, and no less than 16 first place awards in various international competitions. A regular guest on the world’s most prestigious stages, including the Berliner Philharmonie, Kölner Philharmonie, Tonhalle Düsseldorf, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Carnegie Hall, Jordan Hall, Bunka Kaikan, Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, and Tchaikovsky Hall, Dervoed is among the most eminent champions of the classical guitar. Having mastered the entire standard orchestral, chamber and solo guitar literature, he is significantly expanding the existing repertoire through collaborations with leading composers, whose works he inspires, commissions and performs.
Artyom Dervoed fell in love with the guitar as a child and became the first Russian to win two of the most prestigious contests: Michele Pittaluga Guitar Competition in Italy and Her Royal Highness Princess Cristina Competition in Spain. The international attention allowed him to focus on recording projects, including the album of works by Russian composers, which was released worldwide on Naxos in 2008 and became one of the top ten bestselling chamber music records that year. “If your current budget runs to just a single item, make this the one” advised the UK Classical Guitar Magazine.
The following year, he recorded the music of the Cuban classical guitar legend Leo Brouwer. The album titled “Canticum” was exclusively released in 2019 on classical music streaming platform IDAGIO. His third album “Ghosts & Shadows: Music of Spain” (Melodia Records, 2015) represented a research of the 500 years of Spanish music and was nominated for the ICMA Best Solo Performance Award in the “Solo Instruments” category.
Just before the pandemic crisis Artyom Dervoed released his fourth album “Paganini & Koshkin” (Melodia, 2020). The album features Nikita Koshkin’s Megaron concerto, and the first-ever recording of Grand Quartetto – Niccolт Paganini’s Grand Sonata transcribed by Koshkin for guitar and string trio. The album brought the artist the
second ICMA nomination and was acknowledged as “one of best recordings of the decade” by leading Canadian classical guitar source This is Classical Guitar.
He teaches at the prestigious Gnesin Academy. Twelve highly anticipated lessons of Artyom Dervoed’s series of educational videos was released in 2017 — 2020, four more will be slated for release this year.
Artyom Dervoed is a founder of Moscow Guitar Chamber Music Festival “Golden Fingerboards” and the co-founder and Artistic Director of the annual Guitar Virtuosi Moscow International Festival, presented by the Moscow Philharmonic at the Tchaikovsky Hall. Its solo, chamber, and orchestral performances are streamed online and have featured major international stars including Pepe Romero, Sergio and Odair Assad, violinist Dmitry Sitkovetsky, and pianist Boris Berezovsky. The latter has recently collaborated with Dervoed on a program of classical and contemporary repertoire.
In 2015 the festival opened with Mr. Dervoed’s performance of his own transcription of Beethoven Violin Concerto with the Svetlanov State Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Fabio Mastrangelo.
Recognized as “a musician with a wide dynamic range, an intelligent and expressive phrasing, and a technical facility with no discernible limitations” (Editions Orphee, USA), he has received honorary scholarships from the City of Moscow, Vladimir Spivakov International Foundation, and the Russian Foundation for the Performing Arts. Artyom Dervoed uses D’Addario strings and Nevaton mics. He is the first Russian classical guitarist endorsed by Yamaha.