Annual International Acousticguitar Festivals in HUNGARY

The goal of the annual festival is to introduce the contemporary art of the modern acoustic guitar in Hungary inviting the finest players from everywhere in the world. We try to introduce not only the most important artists but also all the possible music styles can be played on acoustic guitar. We have also a very strong ambition to build up a good and sensitive audience for this events in Hungary.

The first International Acousticguitar Festival in Hungary was held in May 2002. This festival was actually a 10 concert tour in different towns and in Budapest. Four acoustic guitar players from different countries plays 10 concerts including the Hungarian player Sandor Szabo, who is the organizer of this tour.

For the first tour Peter Finger(Germany), Isato Nakagawa(Japan) and Franco Morone(Italy) was invited. The first festival prooved to be very succesful, so for the second tour in 2003 Claus Boesser Ferrari(Germany), Tim Sparks( USA) and Bob Bonastre(France) was invited. The audience is grooving every year, so in 2003 we made full house concerts. In 2004 we invited three very uniqe artists: Vicki Genfan(USA), Teja Gerken(USA) and Ian Melrose(Schothland).

In 2005 we invited Steve White from San Diego, Eric Lugosch from Chichago, and Yan Vagh from France who will share the stage together with the host artist Sandor Szabo. To enrich the concerts a guest artist Balazs Major percussion player will play in some combination with the mentioned guitar players.

 Tour Scedule of the
V. International Acousticguitar Festival for
2006 in Hungary

Invited artists

Silvio Schneider / Jörg Nassler Duo, Germany

Premier Guitar Duo Original Acoustic Compositions with a blend of Classical, Jazz,Flamenco and Latin Rhythms.
“They are one of the most innovative ensembles existing in the field of acoustic guitar music in Germany at the moment." ("Mitteldeutsche Zeitung")
"They played with considerable skill, flair and drive. Their technical proficiency was a marvel, but
more impressive was their ability to tap into emotional currents with a wide range of moods and ideas."
(John Roos, Los Angeles Times)

With their European CD release of “Triologe” on Peter Finger’s Acoustic Music Records and their U.S.
release of “Reflections” and "Here'N'There", Jörg Nassler & Silvio Schneider are fulfilling their dreams of finally making it out from the under the bombed out buildings and churches behind the former Iron Curtain of East Germany and the City of Dresden.

Jorg Nassler born in 1961 had his first guitar lessons at age fourteen and graduated in 1986 from the College of Music in Dresden. After a year as a free-lance musician he was offered a position as Assistant Professor at the college, were he taught for several years. He has written compositions for theater productions, movies, broadcasting and television. He has toured Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Denmark and Macedonia.

Silvio Schneider born in 1969 had his first guitar lessons at age eight and studied classical and acoustic guitar composition at the College of Music in Dresden from 1986 to 1991. He toured Germany, Japan, Switzerland and Macedonia with various groups and then was reunited with his Professor from college, Jorg Nassler. He has produced compositions for theater, movies, radio and television. Through all the turmoil's and experiences of their families and friends during the fire bombings by the Allied Forces of Dresden, the only city in the world other than Hiroshima that got fire bombed.
Nassler & Schneider kept their most compelling dream, to perform their own compositions freely to audiences throughout Europe and around the world after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
In 1986 Nassler and Schneider met at the College of Music in Dresden, Germany: Jörg Nassler, had already graduated with honors and thereafter became the youngest assistant professor in the history of the College of Music, mostly based on his musical ability.
Silvio Schneider, one of Nassler's first students, also shared with Nassler a great deal of appreciation for acoustic guitar music and artists Paco de Lucia and John McLaughlin, who inspired them to create the Dresden Guitar Duo. After four years of intensive concerts at different festivals, Nassler & Schneider were discovered at the famed Frankfurt Music Fair.
In the beginning of 1994 they did a limited release of their CD " Zwischenlandung" (Stopover), which created quite a stir in the acoustic guitar music scene and increased their touring across Europe. In 1997, they were invited to give a concert workshop at the renowned "Music Summer" in Skopje, Macedonia, which prompted them to concentrate and write more original musical compositions. With a great following in Germany, exciting new compositions and sold-out performances, they caught the eye of Peter Finger, one of Germany's premiere acoustic guitarists. Mr. Finger's record label, Acoustic Music Records was quick to sign Nassler and Schneider to distribute their album “Triologe” featuring percussionist Jörg Ritter across Europe.
Their first US Release “Reflections” is already being received as one of the best acoustic guitar albums to come out of Germany. They just released their second US CD on Auntie "O" Records, "Here'n'There".

Fernando Freitez Gassán / Venezuela

Fernando Freitez Gassán music finds a third option in front of the ends. Self taught guitarist during 5 years; it begins their formal learning of guitar with teacher Rodrigo Riera(1980), conjugating it with jazz shops with Virgilio Soteldo and Electroacustic music with Ricardo Teruel (1987). He assists to seminars with Egberto Gismonti, Leo Brower and Kenny Burrel, while he attended the World Congress of Guitar in Martinique (1982); obtaining in the same one the prize to the best composition -Suite de Pequenos animales de un Pantano - next to Veronique Gillet (Belgium) and Charles Ewanje (Cameroon).
In 1990 it publishes their first work as soloist and composer in the Lp Surcos (1990, Fourier). Attempting other turns integrating the intensity of their first experience, Fernando Freitez has worked in other musical fields. It forms next to Veronique Gillet and Carlos Franco the trio TERRACOTTA, music of two guitars and percussion. They record three disks in the Chapelle du Monty, Belgium: Terracotta (1994), Tres Elementos (1996) and SAVIA (1999); published by Acoustic Music Records (Germany). They do few Tours of concerts in Venezuela, Belgium, Germany, Luxemburg and Czech Republic.
Other incursions have been in groupings of Jazz and in Electroacoustic/Concrete music compositions (professor founder of the class of Electroacústica of the Conservatorio Jacinto Lara), recordings for LP's and CD's of popular music, and incidental music (Lp: Asuntos de Poesía. IUP 1985), music for Teather perfomance, besides having been carried out as professor of the Workshop of Jazz and Improvisation in the Universidad Centro Occidental Lisandro Alvarado (UCLA).
At the moment he is a professor from the initiation Workshop to the Jazz,  Electroacoustic Music and  Electric Guitar in the Conservatory Vicente Emilio Sojo of the Estado Lara(Barquisimeto).

Veronique Gillet / Belgium
Music studies:
1978: 1st Prize in music reading- Liege Music Conservatoire.
1976 –79 :  lessons in Paris with Spanish guitarist Alberto Ponce.
from 1980 :self-taught composer.
1982 : 1st Prize in composition- S.A.C.E.M. (with Fernando Freitez & Charles Ewanjé) at the « world wide guitar meeting »  in Martinique.Studies with Leo Brouwer and Egberto Gismonti.
1984-85: work in Brazil with Egberto Gismonti.

Bands & concerts :
2005-06 :          Raga y Danza-guitar solo tour (Belgium, UK, Hungary, Venezuela,…)
2003:               Quatuor Saeta (new form)
 (K.Petrossova-singing; M.Kozuch-percussions; E.Capelle-cello; V.Gillet-guitar, compositions)

2001:               Quatuor Saeta
(L.Adam-flute; K.Budé-clarinet; E.Capelle-cello; V.Gillet-guitar,compositions)

1996-98:           Duo “2 voix, 2 guitares” (B.Minguet & V.Gillet – voice and guitar )

from 1993:        Trio Terracota
( F.Freitez-guitar; C.Franco-percussions; V.Gillet-guitar,compositions)
Tours in Belgium, Czech Republic, Canada, Germany, Venezuela.
Creation for the “Schubert Festival” in Luxembourg.

1988-92:           Quatuor Areia
(L.Adam-flute; A.Lovenberg-oboe; E.Capelle-cello; V.Gillet-guitar,compositions)

1984-90:           Duo with F. Freitez – Tours in Venezuela

1983-85:           Trio Diabolo  (J. de Haas-drums; J.Debeur-double-bass)

from 1983:        Various collaborations with pianist and composer J-C. Renault.

From 1978:       Various solo concerts in  Belgium, UK, Hungary, Venezuela, Italy, Czech Republic, Quebec,…)

Sándor Szabó / Hungary

Born in 1956 in Törökszentmiklós, Hungary, he started his studies with a private teacher of classical guitar. After trying different styles from the middle of the seventies, he began to focus on improvisation.         His career started in 1980. Since the acoustic guitar has no tradition in the Hungarian music culture, playing acoustic guitar and composing for guitar was not an acknowledged and respected art. That is why he could achieve results mainly abroad with his playing, through playing techniques of different stringed instruments, with his  modern pieces, and deep spirituality. His records has been released in England, USA, Germany and Hungary. Sandor Szabo made three solo  albums for the german Acoustic Music Records. In the last 6 years Sandor released his solo guitar albums by himself in Hungary.
In his music he blends the classical forms with meditative mood of the Eastern music, Hungarian folk musical elements and improvisation that he inherited from jazz. The athmosphere of his concerts is intimate and personal.
Up to now, Szabó is repeatedly toured throughout Europe and also performed several times  in the USA and Japan, Korea as a fingerstyle guitar player. He also did some master classes in the US and France  of  his special harmony concept.
Sandor Szabo is continously working in his homeland to educate the audience for the acoustic guitar music. He is one of the organizer of the annual International Acousticguitar Festival in Hungary.