Some quick news and updates on the 2008 New York Guitar Festival, which launches this coming Saturday the 12th!

We've nailed down the final line-up for this Saturday's The "Royal Albert Hall" Project, the Festival's opening night show, which will honor Bob Dylan’s storied May 17, 1966, concert. This FREE concert takes place under the glass atrium of the World Financial Center's Winter Garden, 220 Vesey Street (directly across the street from the World Trade Center site) at 8:00pm. Performing their own arrangements of Dylan’s songs from the original show, in sequence, will be Laura Cantrell, Kelly Joe Phelps, Oakley Hall, Stevie Jackson (Belle & Sebastian), Lenny Kaye (Patti Smith's band) & Katrina Kiedis (Sufjan Stevens's band), Jason Isbell (co-founder and formerly of Drive By Truckers), Jim Lauderdale, Toshi Reagon & Big Lovely, Freeman (signed last year by RCA Muusic Group), Vernon Reid (Living Colour), Harry Manx & Kevin Breit, The Last Town Chorus/Megan Hickey, Natalia Zukerman, Jesse Harris, Richard Julian & Jim Campilongo, and others. We’ll be recording this show for a future radio broadcast—we’ll send out more information on that shortly. Produced in association with Arts > World Financial Center.

We've also added artists to our string of free shows at the Apple Store in Soho, including the Grammy Award-winning Dan Zanes—we expect this to be a real kiddie Woodstock, so parents should plan on arriving early to guarantee a place to sit or dance. And as we’ve already mentioned, the series also features six-string wizard Kaki King, late of Foo Fighters' most recent CD and tour, king of strings multi-instrumentalist Larry Campbell, the Macedonian blues of Goran Ivanovic & Fareed Haque, and some other very cool artists as well. Acclaimed jazz guitarists Larry Coryell, jazz-rock innovator, and innovative Austrian Wolfgang Mothspiel will have runs at The Jazz Standard in late January/early March. (Great jazz + Blue Smoke barbeque = sell outs.) And we'll have a run of about 10 shows at The Monkey that'll examine the worlds of classical and modern-avant garde composition. Gyan Riley, Dominic Frasca, Benjamin Verdery, Michael Nicolella, and others are locked in to play this very cool and very intimate performance space in Chelsea.

We’re over the moon that rock, folk and blues legend Jorma Kaukonen will be an Artist-In-Residence at the Festival -- AND, bless him, he'll be blogging about his shows on his website at www.jormakaukonen.com. Jorma has co-curated four exciting programs, exploring American roots and country music at Merkin Concert Hall. The full line-up and schedule can be found on our website; it will feature: G.E. Smith, Larry Campbell, Laura Cantrell, Teddy Thompson, Ollabelle, Alvin Youngblood Hart, and others paying tribute to Hank Williams, Loretta Lynn, Lefty Frizell, and Merle Haggard.

Our fourth Guitar Marathon at the 92nd Street Y will examine the guitar’s rich history in Brazil, and is being co-curated by multiple Grammy-winners Sérgio and Odair Assad. The Assad brothers are today's foremost guitar ensemble, and have collaborated with Yo-Yo Ma, Paquito D'Rivera, Dawn Upshaw and many others. Among the Marathon’s many highlights will be Yamandu Costa, the sensational composer, arranger, improviser and seven-string guitar prodigy whose gained international buzz for his distinctly new sound-- an amalgam of Choro, the most played music in Brazil, with Gaucho melodies and dance rhythms. Tickets are now on sale, so act fast as we anticipate this show selling out quickly (our Marathons always sell out in advance). Box office number is: (212) 415-5500.

And if you haven’t already watched our YouTube channel, do take a look. We’ve posted quite a few videos from past events, and have attracted just shy of a million views!

All Best,

AJ Benson & David Spelman
The New York Guitar Festival®
newyorkguitarfestival.org

The deadline for submission to The Chicago Chamber Musicians’ 2008 Chamber Music Composition Competition is quickly approaching! All submissions must be received by December 1, 2007.

The competition is open to composers age 32 or younger. The winning work will receive a performance in Chicago by CCM as well as a recording and travel and accommodations for the composer to attend rehearsals and performance.

For Complete details visit http://www.chicagochambermusic.org/2008CompositionCompetition.htm