Jorgos Panetsos started his Classical Guitar studies at the National Conservatory of Athens, Greece, and continued studying at the University for Music and Performing Arts Vienna in the class of Prof. Luise Walker. He received honours upon his graduation diploma.

After his graduation he continued his studies in master classes with David Russel and Oscar Ghiglia in Siena (Diploma di merito). In 1998 he received the academic degree „Magister der Künste“ (master of arts).

Jorgos Panetsos held master classes as a guest teacher at the Music University Graz, Austria, Music University of Madison (Wisconsin), USA, Music University Bratislava, Slovakia, Music University Rostock, Germany, the Central Conservatory in Beijing, China, as well as major international guitar festivals.

He played concerts in almost 30 countries, including the USA, China, Venezuela, Spain, France, Germany, Italy, India and Thailand. He performed as a soloist with the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestra Municipal of Caracas, the Philharmonic Orchestra Kielce (Poland), the Zilina Slovak Sinfonietta (Slovakia), and the 1st Women – Chamber Orchestra in Austria.

Many times he also took part in the orchestra of „Vereinigte Bühnen Wien“, in the Viennese Opera houses and also in the ORF-Symphony Orchestra, for example premiering E. Kreneks „Opus sine nomine“ with Ulf Schirmer in the Wiener Musikverein.

Following this, he received invitations of the St. Petersburg Philharmony and the „Central Conservatory of Beijing“, as well as Chamber Music Recitals together with René Kubelik (violin) and Claudia Eder (mezzo soprano), 1998 he performed with Paul Badura Skoda in Vienna.

Also, he gave solo recitals, master classes and lectures in numerous renowned concert halls all over Europe in the course of concert series as well as International Festivals, such as „Jeunesse Musicale„, „Wiener Festwochen“, „Bonner Meisterkonzerte“,

„Festival El Hatillo – Caracas“, „Beijing International Guitarfestival“, „Liechtensteiner Gitarretage“, „Internationales Gitarren-Symposion Iserlohn“, „Schweinfurter Seminare“.

Jorgos Panetsos often serves as member of the Jury in International Competitions, for example the „Andrés Segovia“, J. K. Mertz Competition, „Mauro Giuliani“, Kutná Hora Biennal Competition.

He also published at the Universal Edition Wien as an Editor, and had appearances in radio and Television in France, Greece, Poland, Venezuela and Cyprus and was also featured in a live broadcast in May 2009 from San Sebastian, Spain.

Marko Topchii born in 1991 in Kyiv (Ukraine) to a musical family, he started to play the guitar with Volodymyr Homenyuk when he was four and graduated at the Kharkiv Conservatory under Volodymyr Dotsenko, an Honoured Artist of Ukraine, at the age of 21, continuing with a three-year postgraduate programme at the Kyiv Tchaikovsky Music Academy with Yuri Aleksik, Honoured Artist of Ukraine. In 2018 he joined the professional studies programme at the San Francisco Conservatory in the class of Judicaёl Perroy.
Marko has won more than 100 awards worldwide in the international classical guitar competitions in the professional category.
Among them, 47 first places.
Marko has performed at Carnegie Hall, Yamaha Ginza Hall (Tokyo), Tchaikovsky Hall (Moscow).
He often performs with orchestras, having performed more than fifteen concertos for guitar and orchestra.
He uses strings provided by D`Addario and plays guitars by Julian Dammann and Jim Redgate.

In 2016 he has recorded two CD albums with “Fleur de Son Classics” (Buffalo, NY) and “Contrastes Records” (Seville, Spain). In 2018, recorded the CD with the company Naxos as the winner of the Michele Pittaluga.
Awards:
2021:
1st prize: 10th Martinez Guitar Competition (Iserlohn Guitar Symposium, Germany)
1st prize: Altamira Virtual International Guitar Competition (Hong-Kong, China)
2020:
1st prize – Koblenz International Guitar Competition (Koblenz, Germany)
1st prize – 35th International Guitar Competition “Andres Segovia” (La Herradura, Spain)
1st prize, audience prize – 2nd Dutch Guitar Concerto Competition & Festival(Groningen, Netherlands)
2019:
1st prize – 3rd Qingdao International Guitar Art Festival and Competition (Qingdao, China)
1st prize – 3rd International Guitar Competition “Paris Guitar Foundation (Paris, France)
2 nd prize – LIII International Guitar Competition “Francisco Tarrega” (Benicassim, Spain)

2018:
1st prize – Miami International Festival (MIGF) and Competition (Miami, USA)
1st prize – 3rd Viseu International Guitar Competition (Viseu, Portugal)
1st prize – 1st International Guitar Competition “Alberto Ponce” (Paris, France)
2 nd prize – LII International Guitar Competition “Francisco Tarrega” (Benicassim, Spain)
2017:
1st prize – 50th International Guitar Competition “Michele Pittaluga” (Alessandria, Italy)
1st prize – 2nd Budapest International Guitar Competition ( Budapest, Hungary)
1st prize – 1st Valle dei Laghi International Guitar Competition (Valle, Italy)
1st prize – 2nd International Guitar Competition “Alvaro Mantovani” (Follonica, Italy)
1st prize – 3rd International Zagreb Guitar Competition (Zagreb, Croatia)
2016:
1st prize – 7th Singapore International Guitar Competition (Singapore)
1st prize – 23rd International Guitar Competition “Andrés Segovia” (Linares, Spain)
1st prize, Special prize – 16th Jan Edmund Jurkowski Memorial Guitar Competition (Tychy, Poland)
1st prize – 41st Incontri Chitarristici di Gargnano International Guitar Competition (Gargnano, Italy)
1st prize – 4th Adelaide International Classical Guitar Competition (Adelaide, Australia)
1st prize – 3rd International Guitar Competition Maurizio Biasini (San Francisco, CA, USA)
1st prize – 12th International Competition “Young Virtuosos” (Sofia, Bulgaria)
1st prize – 10th Anniversary Montenegro International Guitar Competition (Podgorica, Montenegro)
2015:
1st prize, audience prize – 4th Concours de Guitare en Pays Tarnais (Albi, France)
1st prize – 5th Concurso Internacional de Guitarra Clasica Gredos San Diego (Madrid, Spain)
1st prize – Daejeon International Guitar Festival Competition (Daejeon, South Korea)
2014:
1st prize, audience prize, musicians prize – VI JoAnn Falletta International Guitar Concerto Competition (Buffalo, NY, USA)
1st prize, audience prize – Taiwan International Guitar Festival & Competition 2014 (Taipei, Taiwan)
1st prize – III Changsha International Guitar Competition (Changsha, China)
1st prize – VII International Guitar Competition “Ruggero Chiesa – Città di Camogli” (Camogli, Italy)
1st prize – I Jakarta International Guitar Competition (Jakarta, Indonesia)
2013:
1st prize – XII Annual Texas Guitar Competition and Festival (Dallas, TX, USA)
1st prize – VI International Guitar Competition “Culiacán 2013” (Culiacán, Mexico)
1st prize – I International Guitar Competition Victor Pellegrini (Lausanne, Switzerland)
1st prize, Karla Minen prize – XLII International Guitar Competition “Fernando Sor” (Rome, Italy)
1st prize – V International Guitar Competition Claxica 2013 (Castel D’Aiano e Montese, Italy)
1st prize – LVI Tokyo International Guitar Competition (Tokyo, Japan)
2012:
1st prize – IV International Guitar Competition “Ferdinando Carulli” (Rome, Italy)
2011:
1st prize – XII Guitar Art Competition (Belgrade, Serbia)
1st prize – XII Le Concours International de Guitare “Ville d’Antony” (Antony, France)
1st prize – VI International Ligita Guitar Competition (Eschen, Liechtenstein)
1st prize – XIII International Guitar Competition of Sernancelhe (Sernancelhe, Portugal)
1st prize – III International Robert J. Vidal Guitar Competition (Barbezieux, France)
2010:
1st prize – XVIII Mottola Guitar Competition (Mottola, Italy)
2009:
1st prize, audience prize, Enrico Mercatali prize – VI European Classical Guitar Competition “Città di Gorizia” (Gorizia, Italy)
1st prize, audience prize, junior jury prize – III International Guitar Competition Heinsberg (Heinsberg, Germany)
1st prize – II International Guitar Competition “GuitAs” (Kiev, Ukraine)
2008:
1st prize – III International Guitar Competition “Dniprovski suzir’ya” (Ukrainka, Ukraine)
2007:
1st prize, the youngest performer prize – I International Competition “National Philharmonic of Ukraine” (Kiev, Ukraine)

Thomas Offermann professzor hét évesen kezdett gitározni.

Tanulmányait a kölni Zenei Főiskolán végezte (Tadashi Sasaki és Hubert Käppel tanítványaként), és kitüntetéssel diplomázott. Thomas szólóművészi diplomát is szerzett a baseli Zeneakadémián (Oscar Ghiglia osztályában).

Thomas számos DAAD ösztöndíjat nyert, és megkapta a Richard Doerken Alapítvány ösztöndíját is. Több nemzetközi gitárversenyen is díjazott volt (Skandináv Nemzetközi Gitárverseny, Finnország, Andres Segovia Nemzetközi Gitárverseny és Francisco Tárrega Nemzetközi Gitárverseny, Spanyolország)

Szólistaként, zenekarokkal és kamarazenekarokkal is különféle összeállításban lépett fel, a nemzetközi hírű DUO SONARE zenekarral pedig több mint 40 országban járt világszerte.

Koncerteket és mesterkurzusokat adott, valamint zsűritag is volt a legfontosabb gitárfesztiválokon világszerte, továbbá előadásokra is felkérték számos nemzetközi Zeneakadémián:

Almeria, Bath, Birkenhead, Pozsony, Cordoba, Coria, Esztergom, Freiburg, Gargnano, Gdansk, Gevelsberg, Gran Canaria, Heinsberg, Kutna Hora, Los Angeles, Lublin, Mettmann, Mikulov, Moszkva, Münster, Nyizsnyij Novgorod, Ourense, Pordenone, Potsdam, Santo Tirso, St. Paul Trois Chateaux, Tychy, Vina del Mar, Weikersheim, Bécs, Rocesteri Eastman Zeneiskola, Manhattani Zeneiskola, New York, Hochschule fuer Künste Bremen, Stettin, Nyizsnyij Novgorod, Minszk, Saigon és Hanoi.

Számos nemzetközi rádió- és televíziós fellépése volt, valamint nyolc CD-t adott ki a DUO SONARE-ral.

A Duo Sonare-ral 1985 óta ő volt az első, aki olyan zeneszerzők műveit is bevette a klasszikus gitárral adott koncertjeinek repertoárjába, mint Chick Corea, Frank Zappa vagy Mike Oldfield. Chick Corea nagyon lelkesen írt játékáról: „annyi érzelem és gyönyörűség van benne”.

1996-os súlyos betegsége után 2002-ben Thomas végleg abbahagyta a koncertezést. Azóta a tanításra, írásra és karvezetésre koncentrál, valamint gitárfesztiválokon, valamint egyetemeken tart előadásokat.

D’Addario művészként Thomas 2010 óta használ D’Addario hangszereket (New York) „a klasszikus gitár európai képviselőjeként”.

In 2013 Andrea Vigh became the rector at the Liszt Academy of Music.

She recorded ten solo CDs, all released on the Capriccio and Hungaroton label to great critical acclaim. Following the release of her “Harp Concertos” CD, she received an invitation to the “Die Beste” programme of German state television “ZDF” in 1994. Ms Vigh gave several successful solo concerts in the sold-out Great Hall of the Academy of Music in Budapest, and frequently appears in the concert halls of Hungary and Europe both as a solo artist and a chamber musician. Between 1993–1996 she regularly played with the Budapest Festival Orchestra, including concerts in Berlin and Paris as well as at the Salzburg Festival, and New York’s Carnegie Hall. Several TV-recordings have been made of her playing. During the Budapest Spring Festival 2003 she gave an orchestral concert, conducted by Zoltán Kocsis. In 2005, in the Winter Festive Evenings, she performed with Éva Marton and Ilona Tokody in the Palace of Arts. In 2006 she made a DVD recording of Mozart’s Concerto for Flute and Harp with Béla Drahos and the Hungarian Radio Symphonic Orchestra (Hungaroton). She is a jury member of the Wales, Arles, Belgrade, Szeged and Gödöllő harp competitions. In 2010 she participated in a very successful tour in Japan. In 2012 she gave a solo recital in Brussels and held a master class at the Brussels Academy of Music. In 2014 she gave a solo recital in Sapporo, Kitara Hall and in 2016 she had a concert together with Miklós Perényi. Ms Vigh is the founder and artistic leader of the Gödöllő International Harp Festival, launched in 1999.

She habilitated in 2002 and in 2009 she obtained the academic degree of “Doctor of Liberal Arts”.

Iván Madarász was born in Budapest in 1949. He studied composing in the class of Endre Szervánszky at the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music and received his degree with honours in 1972. His thesis was a one-act opera written on the request of the Hungarian Television.

Incidental music has been a decisive, important genre of Madarász Iván’s compositional career. Apart from his first opera, he composed two one-act operas. His opera, titled Lot, based on a Bible story, was also composed for the Hungarian Television. The Hungarian State Opera staged his opera titled “The Last Waltz”. Besides symphonic pieces, oratorios, cantatas, chamber and electronic compositions, he has written several guitar orchestra pieces upon the request of the Esztergom International Guitar Festival.

ISCM (International Society for Contemporary Music) has invited his compositions twice to its Yokohama and Swedish World Festivals. His compositions have been published on 7 solo CD-albums, 19 further compositions appeared on a CD-anthology. Several of his pieces have been recorded by the Hungarian Radio. His accomplishment was rewarded with Kossuth Prize, Erkel Prize, Bartók Prize, Pásztory Prize, and with the Knight of Cross from the Order of Merit of the Hungarian Republic.

Iván Madarász is professor at the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music, and president of ARTISJUS, Hungarian Bureau for the Protection of Authors’ Rights, Member of the Hungarian Lecture of the Hungarian Radio.

Daughter of Michele Pittaluga, the Founder of the Alessandria international
guitar competition, Micaela Pittaluga is the President of the Pittaluga
Competition and has been the head of the Organising committee since 1995.

She studied performing arts, music and architecture (Degree in Architecture University of Florence) and is now devoted to holding the guitar competition every year and the guitar composition competition every two years.

She officially represents the Alessandria competition at the annual meetings
of the WFIMC (World federation of International music competitions) , and last six years she was member of the Executive Committee.

Mrs Pittaluga travels widely taking part in guitar festivals, competitions
and concerts, attending to the competition and to the promotion of the young prize-winners.

She was from 2003 to 2008 President of the board of Directors at the Vivaldi Conservatorio of Music in Alessandria and in her town she promotes musical events, like founder and artistic director of FARELAMUSIC@ cultural society.

Micaela Pittaluga, PHF Rotary of Alessandria (Paul Harris fellow), Past President of Alessandria Soroptimist Club, member of Unifem Group (United Nations Development Fund for Women), and UNESCO club of Alessandria

Roman Viazoskiy was born in 1974 in Donezk, Ukraine. He studied guitar with Viktor Kriwenko and Walerij Iwko and conducting with Ludmila Popowa and Vladimir Viazovskiy in Donezk. After graduating in 1996, he began his postgraduate studies with Prof. Reinbert Evers in Munster. He completed his studies at the Cologne Music Academy with Prof. Tadashi Sasaki.

Roman Viazovskiy has won prizes in numerous international competitions like Tokio Guitar Competition (Japan), GFA (Canada/Montreal), M.Pittaluga (Italy/Alessandria), Forum Gitarre Wien (Austria), A.Segovia (La Herradura/Spain), Sernancelhe (Portugal),Tychy and Zory (Polen), Julian Arcas (Almeria/Spain), Weikersheim (Germany), Tredrez-Locquemeau (France).

Concert commitments have led him to almost every European country, to the Near East, the USA, South America, to Japan, China, Thailand and to the most important guitar festivals. In March 2007 he had his debut at the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall of the Moscow Philharmonic. 2001 saw the release of his debut CD, “Fatum” in 2006 his CD “Sonatas” and in 2011 his album “Zeitenwanderer/Wanderer in Time” was published.

Roman Viazovskiy is initiator and artistic director of the Heinsberg International Guitar Festival & Competition.

Prof. Georg Schmitz was born in Neuwied/Rhine. He studied at the Peter Cornelius Conservatory and Johannes Gutenberg University. His musical training was complemented by master classes with Konrad Ragossnig, David Russell and Hubert Käppel, jazz guitar training at the Frankfurt Music Workshop, private singing lessons, study trips to Poland and Hungary, and repeated participation in the Académie d’ été des Ircam in Paris.

In addition to classical and contemporary music, he was also interested in popular music, which he pursued as an arranger, orchestra member (guitar/e-bass/vocals) and musical director in a wide variety of productions.

For many years he worked with the Quint-Essenz singing group/choir, where he performed authentic polyphonic music by bands such as Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and the Beach Boys (Brian Wilson), in addition to cantatas and masses. The musical performances were developed in collaboration with visual artist Jiri Keuthen. He has also composed several works for solo guitar. During his time in Mainz, he taught at the Peter Cornelius Conservatory and then built up the departments of brass/guitar academy, rock/pop/jazz and preparation/theory of studies at the Koblenz City Music School as subject tutor and teacher. The Koblenz International Pentecostal Classical/Jazz Seminar, which he founded and conceived as a cross-stylistic chamber music festival, has developed under his direction into one of the world’s leading institutions of its kind, the Koblenz International Guitar Festival and Academy (koblenzguitarfestival.de), in a combination of festivals and courses and activities in cooperation with the Mainz Conservatory of Music.

He has worked as a lecturer or jury member for master classes, workshops at the Inonu University Malatya (Turkey), Faculdade Cantareira São Paulo, Universidade Fluminense Niterói/Rio de Janeiro, University of Miami (GFA USA), Martinez Competition Iserlohn, Andrés Segovia Competition Monheim, the GuitArt Guitar Competition in Belgrade, the Ligita Competition in Liechtenstein, the Havana Guitar Competition and most recently the “Vom Erfühlen der Akkorde” (From the Chords of Erfühlen) organised by the Hochschule für Musik Köln/Aachen, the Folkwang Universität der Künste Essen and the Hochschule für Musik Mainz.

Georg Schmitz teaches composition and aural training in the Department of Preparatory Studies/Theory in Koblenz, and is particularly interested in early childhood guitar teaching.