The 12th Annual Indiana State Fingerstyle Guitar Festival features a morning guitar competition and an evening concert!

Schedule:

Friday, July 28, 2023

6:00pm - 10:30pm: Friday Night Party ’23

Location: Brown County Inn

Join us for music outdoors under the Big Top Tent at Brown County Inn! These event is free to the public and features live music from our competitors and judges. A cash bar and food will be available as we enjoy fingerstyle guitar under the stars!

This is a FREE event, so no tickets or reservations are required.

Saturday, July 29, 2023

11:00am - 2:00pm: Guitar Competition

Location: Brown County Playhouse

Acoustic guitarists from around the world will converge at the Playhouse for the Eleventh Annual Indiana State Fingerstyle Guitar Festival. The only event of its kind in the Midwest, this competition will feature two rounds of solo competition until the top five players are crowned, with the top three taking home custom-built guitars!

The top-3 finishers will play at the Evening Concert along with a selection of world-class performers, and those tickets are available separately.

Fingerstyle guitar is the technique of playing the guitar by plucking the strings directly with fingertips, fingernails, or picks attached to the right-hand fingers. The term is often used synonymously with fingerpicking, classical, or thumb style. Prominent fingerstyle players include Chet Atkins, Merle Travis, Tommy Emmanuel, and Andres Segovia.

Tickets are on sale at the Brown County Playhouse box office

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Competitor Signup

7:30pm - 10:00pm: Evening Concert

Location: Brown County Playhouse

The Twelveth-Annual Fingerstyle Guitar Evening Concert features world-class acoustic guitarists whose captivating performances will raise your spirits!

The show features the Top-3 Winners of our earlier Competition as well as Mark Cruz, Edgar Cruz, and Michael Kelsey.

Mark Cruz won the 2022 Indiana Championship and is a professor of guitar at Texas State University. He won the International Fingerstyle Competition in 2013 and has been a featured artist at the Eastfield Guitar Festival, Classical Minds Festival, and many others. Mark has toured Europe, performed with Tommy Emmanuel, and has twice been a soloist with the Oklahoma City Philharmonic performing Vivaldi concerti. He has also performed countless times with his brother, Edgar Cruz, famed for his solo guitar transcription of Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody.

Edgar Cruz has been a headliner at the prestigious Chet Atkins Guitar Festival every July in Nashville since 1995 and has been a strong icon at major art & music festivals in Oklahoma since the late 70’s. Those who have witnessed Cruz’s performance immediately become entranced at the precision, speed and complexity with which his fingers strike the strings of his guitar to create a symphony of sound unusual to just one instrument. Edgar has recorded Nineteen CDs covering a multitude of genres and two award-winning DVDs.

Michael Kelsey brings a free-flowing improvisational style to the guitar that involves every inch of his instrument. From his funky, percussive playing style that conjures an image of a one-man version of STOMP to lush instrumentals reminiscent of Michael Hedges/Phil Keaggy, his performance blends multiple musical genres and vocals along with some techno fun to create a sound all his own. He is the winner of Guitar Center’s “Guitarmageddon”.

Chosen from among 3,000 entrants the singer-songwriter performed at Eric Clapton’s Crossroads 2004 where he shared the stage with many legendary guitarists. Throughout a performance, Michael may make use of technology, his improv skills, objects in the room, and audience interaction to make music for the ears but more importantly a musical experience for the senses.

General Admission tickets are available, as well as VIP seats for the first 5 rows.

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Date: July 28 - 29, 2023

Location: Various Venues in Nashville, IN 47448.

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