Marko Topchii has won more than 100 awards worldwide in international classical guitar competitions. Among them, 55 have been first prizes in the competitions in the United States, Mexico, Australia, Japan, China, Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea, Indonesia, Germany, Switzerland, Norway, Netherlands, France, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Poland, Hungary, Serbia, Croatia, Bulgaria, Montenegro, and Ukraine. Notably, he is the Guitar Foundation of America Competition Rose Augustine Grand Prize Winner. In the fall of 2018, he appeared on the cover of issue No. 391 of the Classical Guitar Magazine: Marko Topchii, Perennial Prize Winner. The issue also included the interview: Marko Topchii, Inside the World of One of the Most Successful and Widely Travelled Competitors. In 2017, he appeared on the cover of the issue No. 12 of Polish classical guitar magazine Sześć Strun Świata (Six Strings of the World).  Marko often performs with orchestras, having more than ten concertos for guitar and orchestra in his repertoire. He has performed at Carnegie Hall, the Salle Cortot (Paris), Yamaha Ginza Hall (Tokyo), Tchaikovsky Hall (Moscow).

 Marko has recorded three solo CD albums: In 2016, for Fleur de Son Classics in Buffalo, NY as a winner of JoAnn Falletta International Guitar Concerto Competition, in 2016 for Contrastes Records in Seville, Spain as a winner of the International Classical Guitar Competition "Gredos San Diego" (Madrid, Spain), in 2018 for Naxos Records as the winner of the Michele Pittaluga International Classical Guitar Competition, and will record again for Naxos Records as the Guitar Foundation of America 2023 Grand Prize Winner. Topchii has been an official D'Addario artist since 2012. Topchii was born into a family of musicians in Kiev, Ukraine and started studying guitar at the age of four. He completed studies at the Kharkiv National Kotlyarevsky University of Arts in Kharkiv in 2011 under Prof. Volodymir Dotsenko, Petro Tchaikovsky National Music Academy of Ukraine in Kyiv in 2016 under Prof. Yuri Aleksik, and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in 2019 under Prof. Judicaël Perroy.

Lukasz Kuropaczewski, “an amiable bear of a soloist” as the Washington Post portrayed him after one of his performances with the Baltimore Symphony, “is definitely the new megastar of the classical guitar.” (El Nuevo Dia, Puerto Rico) 

Lukasz is in great demand as a recitalist and as soloist with orchestras, and he is invited to perform in numerous venues around the globe each year. Highlights include appearances in London’s Royal Festival Hall, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Warsaw’s National Philharmonic Hall, Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow, Caramoor Music Festival, the Santa Fe Music Festival, Easter Beethoven Festival, Tonhalle Zurich, Heidelberger Fruhling, Schleswig Holstein Musik Festival and New York's Carnegie Hall. 

An avid chamber music collaborator, he performed with the Orion String Quartet, mandolin player Avi Avital, Richard Galliano, Daniel Hope, Stefano Barneschi (concertmaster of Il Giardino Armonico), countertenor Jakub Jozef Orlinski, pianist Alek Debicz or accordionist Maciej Frackiewicz.

Lukasz has inspired many composers to write work for his instrument. He premiered a guitar quintet, “Acequias,” by Marc Neikrug at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, and his “Three Pieces for Guitar” at the Baltimore Museum of Art in Baltimore, Triptych Sonata by K. Meyer at the Caramoor Festival in New York. He has premiered concertos by Angelo Gilardino, Krzysztof Meyer, Mikolaj Gorecki, and Alexandre Tansman. He made the guitar version of Krzysztof Penderecki’s Viola Concerto and premiered it with Sinfonia Varsovia and conductor Maximiano Valdes. In 2022 he premiered a new Concerto by Marc Neikrug in Marseille, France with the Marseilla Opera Orchestra and Lawrence Foster.

Lukasz Kuropaczewski is currently on the faculty of the Kunst University Graz, Austria and Academy of Music in Poznan, Poland, holding a doctorate degree in performance.

Lukasz Kuropaczewski was decorated with the “Meritorius for Polish Culture” medal in recognition of his distinguished cultural contribution, awarded by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage in Poland.

He plays Julian Dammann guitar and uses Savarez Alliance Forum Strings.

“Kuropaczewski performed with such passion and technical perfection that the audience could only fall in love with him.”   Nurnberger Zeitung, Germany

Our holiday inspired concert has become a staple of our season, bringing everyone so much joy and togetherness for audiences and performers alike! Join us for a festive concert featuring the Tidewater Guitar Orchestra along with some of Hampton Roads’ most talented guitarists and musicians in beautiful downtown Williamsburg!

Andrea González Caballero as “the female voice of the Spanish guitar”. Andrea is a laureate of multiple prestigious international guitar competitions, receiving First Prize and Special Prize at the “XL International Competition F. Sor” (Rome), and First Prize at the “XIII Alhambra International Guitar Competition” (Valencia), of which she was the youngest guitarist to receive first prize.

The BBC Music Magazine described her as one of today’s young rising stars of the classical guitar. Andrea has appeared at international festivals and concert series around the world. Recent highlights include performances at Palau de la Música in Barcelona, National Auditorium and Juan March Foundation in Madrid, as well as performances with Sinfonietta Ratingen and Neue Philharmonie Westfalen in Germany. Selected by the International Guitar Foundation of London to perform as a soloist in international music festivals such as the “London Guitar Festival”, she debuted in the UK offering concerts at venues like King’s Cross in London and Sage Gateshead in Newcastle.

“THE FEMALE VOICE OF THE SPANISH GUITAR” – Opera World Magazine

Andrea’s 2017 Naxos CD, which contains the premiere of new guitar compositions and pieces by composers like B.Britten, Albéniz or Tárrega was received with great acclaim: “This album is a delicate, elegant and majestic musical word…” obtaining the Golden Melomano distinction by Melomano Magazine.

Andrea has been supported by “Alexander von Humboldt Foundation”, “DAAD” (German Academic Exchange Service), “AIE” (Society of Performing Artists of Spain) and “Provincial Council of Guipuzcoa” to study at the Robert Schumann Musikhochschule in Düsseldorf (Germany), where she graduated with honors. Andrea has recently obtained a Graduate Performance Diploma from the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University receiving the James Winship Lewis Memorial Prize.

 In her effort to promote and expand the classical guitar repertoire, Andrea has premiered pieces composed by Sergio Assad, Joaquín Clerch, Carlos Fernando López and Dustin Carlson among others. In addition, her most recent projects include the participation in the film “No Man’s Land”, co-composing and performing part of the soundtrack and the release of the recording “EUSKARAZ” in collaboration with the composer and producer Carlos Fernando López , Grammy and Latin Grammy winner.

Andrea is sponsored by Alhambra Guitars and D’Addario.

Two-time Latin Grammy nominee guitarist, educator, and composer João Luiz, began to play the popular music of his native Brazil professionally during his childhood and was later trained in classical guitar by his mentor Henrique Pinto. Winner of the 2006 Concert Artists Guild Competition as a member of the critically acclaimed Brasil Guitar Duo, João has performed extensively in the United States, Asia, Europe and Latin America. His versatility led him to be chosen to collaborate with Yo-Yo Ma and Carlos Prieto on a project to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Cuban composer Leo Brouwer in a landmark concert in Cuba in 2014. As a performer and composer João is equally at home with classical, Brazilian and world music; his solo guitar, guitar ensemble and chamber music repertoire covers all the main works in the guitar literature from Dowland to Berio and Brazilian rhythms from Choro to Baião. For five years João also performed and recorded with the classical guitar quartet Quaternaglia, one of Brazil’s most important chamber music ensembles. Musicians such as Sérgio Abreu, Paulo Martelli, Fábio Zanon and Alice Artzt have also been very important in his development as a guitar player.

João’s interests include bridging Classical, Jazz, and Latin American music, and discovering ways to make classical music education more accessible to minorities. One of João’s favorite projects was writing the guitar methods for beginners, designing the guitar curriculum and training instructors for an important music education initiative for underprivileged children in São Paulo, Guri Santa Marcelina.

João made his debut at the Aspen Festival in July 2010 as a member of the Brasil Guitar Duo. Previous summers have included concerts at New York’s River to River Festival, The Gran Teton Music Festival, Chautauqua Institution, Bermuda Guitar Festival, Tirol’s Outreach Festival (Austria), and Two Moors Festival (UK). Recently featured New York City recital engagements include Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, NY Guitar Seminar at Mannes College, Symphony Space and New York Guitar Society. In addition, the duo has performed for the Orange County (CA) Performing Arts Center, Lied Center (University of Kansas), Krannert Center for the

Performing Arts, University of Chicago, Spivey Hall, Montalvo Center for the Arts, Purdue University Convocations, Daytona Beach International Festival, Virginia Arts Festival, CityFolk Festival in Dayton, OH, the Santa Barbara Symphony’s Guitar Festival, the Miami Guitar Festival, the Asociacion Nacional de Conciertos in Panama City, Semana de La Guitarra in Colombia, and the Classical Guitar Societies of St. Louis, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Tucson and Upstate New York.

His arrangements and compositions have been recorded and played by Marina Piccinini, Fábio Zanon, Paulo Martelli, Quaternaglia, Olson/De Cari Duo, Paquito D’Rivera, Clarice Assad, Christina Jennings, Bridget Kibbey, Sybarite 5, The Newman & Oltman guitar duo, Aquarelle Guitar Quartet, and the New York City Classical Guitar Society Orchestra. João has recorded more than fifteen CDs playing solo, duo, trio and in quartet, most of which have featured his arrangements of classical or Brazilian works.

João holds a masters degree from Mannes College as a student of Michael Newman, and as the recipient of the Augustine Foundation scholarship he earned his doctoral degree from Manhattan School of Music where he studied with David Leisner.  Eager to expand the repertoire of his instrument João has commissioned and premiered works written for him by Sérgio Assad, Leo Brouwer, Egberto Gismonti, David Sampson, Clarice

Assad, David Leisner, Paulo Bellinati, Marco Pereira, and Frederic Hand. João also formed the Trio Virado in 2011 with flutist Amy Porter and violist Juan Miguel-Hernandez to promote contemporary Latin American chamber music. The first CD of the trio, Mangabeira was released in the fall of 2015 featuring world premiere recordings of works written specially for the trio by Assad, Hand and Brouwer.

João is the director of chamber music and head of guitar studies at CUNY Hunter College and teaches guitar at Stony Brook University. He uses Augustine strings and plays on guitars made by Sérgio Abreu.

The Grammy Award-winning LAGQ is one of the most multifaceted groups in any genre. The LAGQ is comprised of four uniquely accomplished musicians bringing a new energy to the concert stage with programs ranging from Bluegrass to Bach. They consistently play to sold-out houses world-wide. Their inventive, critically acclaimed transcriptions of concert masterworks provide a fresh look at the music of the past, while their interpretations of works from the contemporary and world-music realms continually break new ground. Programs including Latin, African, Far East, Irish, Folk and American Classics transport listeners around the world in a single concert experience. Their ‘Don Quixote’ collaboration with Firesign Theater veteran, actor Philip Proctor, continues to expand and delight audiences and the work 'SHIKI: Seasons of Japan' written for the LAGQ plus guitar orchestra by composer Shingo Fujii is connecting communities across the nation.

Winner of a 2005 Grammy Award, their “Guitar Heroes” CD released on Telarc is a brilliant follow-up to their Grammy nominated "LAGQ-Latin". “Spin” (Telarc, 2006) continues their explorations of jazz and contemporary music. “LAGQ: BRAZIL” (Telarc, 2007), including collaborations with vocalist Luciana Souza, was released to rave reviews, and their newest recording of the Rodrigo “Concierto Andaluz” and Sergio Assad’s “Interchange”, written specifically for them, was released on Telarc in Spring 2010, and quickly climbed to top spot on the Billboard charts.  The live DVD of "The Ingenious Gentleman: Don Quixote" was released on the Mel Bay label in spring 2012. In 2015, the LAGQ released their latest album titled "New Renaissance," a unique blend of renaissance originals and renaissance-inspired compositions by Dusan Bogdanovic and Ian Krouse.