The University of Arizona guitar program has teamed up with the Tucson Guitar Society to host the first-ever International Tucson Guitar Festival.
The weeklong event kicks off Sunday with the 2009 Beeston Guitar Competition and features performances with internationally renowned guitarists, including Grammy-winning Brazilian brothers Sérgio and Odair Assad.
The festival is the biggest collaboration to date between the university and the Guitar Society, and one that could signal the genesis of a united guitar community.
"We're taking small steps right now," said Ian Stuart, president of the Guitar Society's board of directors. "If it works, we'll do it bigger next year."
"We're doing some really nice collaborations that I'm really excited about," said Tom Patterson, who heads the UA School of Music's guitar program, which put Tucson on the map as a guitar town. "Our vision is one guitar community here."
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After Sunday's annual Beeston Guitar Competition, look forward to Spanish guitarist Rafael Aguirre Miñarro, who will perform the first concert on Wednesday. In between, the artists will host master classes.
An international guitar festival is a natural fit for Tucson, given its place in the guitar world. The city's reputation is almost unmatched, driven largely by the successes in the UA's guitar program.
"We have, over the years, produced really solid players," Patterson explained. "They're playing in international competitions; they're going off teaching. After a while, the tradition is the tradition. I guess I'm pretty good at what I do, but at a certain point people think there's something magic in the water down here, and everyone goes to where the success is."
The region's ties to Latin America also play into the success.
"The guitar is clearly the most symbolic instrument of Spanish, Latin American music, and a lot of people identify with it," said Patterson, who joined the UA program in 1980, four years after it was founded in 1976. "As a result, our events typically sell out here. It's an exciting place for someone to come and hone their art form, . . . with a lot of excited, enthusiastic fans. This doesn't happen in other places, where you get sold-out audiences all the time."
Stuart said Tucson's guitar reputation extends to its luthier community. The city boasts craftsmen such as Jeremy Cooper and Brian Dunn, whose instruments are sold worldwide, commanding thousands of dollars.
"Guitarists know about (Tucson) even if they haven't played here," Stuart said.
"The dream," he added, "is to hold one big festival."
And that will require cooperation with the Guitar Society, the UA and local concert presenters, he said.
