Widely acclaimed for the rare beauty of her sound and her enchanting presence on stage, Irina Kulikova has established herself as one of today’s leading guitarists. She tours far afield, with appearances at major festivals in Europe, North America and Asia and in concert halls such as the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow, the Palau de la Musica in Valencia, the Musashino Hall in Tokyo and the Oriental Arts Center in Shanghai.

She performs both as a soloist and in chamber music ensembles with outstanding violinists, cellists and flutists. Irina Kulikova received over 30 awards for her artistry, including 1st prizes at the highly prestigious competitions of Michele Pittaluga in Italy, Guitarra Alhambra in Spain, Forum Gitarre Wien in Austria and Iserlohn in Germany. She recorded six albums, five of which in cooperation with Grammy-Award winning producer Norbert Kraft. “Some of the most sheerly beautiful playing I have ever heard”, Soundboard Magazine reviewed. An ambassador of pure and heartfelt performing, Irina Kulikova inspires guitar students in master classes all over the world and with her online Classical Guitar Academy. Her personal motto, in life and music: It’s about the touch.

Judicaël Perroy began playing the guitar at the age of 7 and at 11 he started giving concerts. He continued his studies with Robert Aussel and at the École Normale de Musique de Paris in Alberto Ponce’s class in 1994; in 1996, he won the 1st prize at the National Conservatory of Music and Dance of Paris (CNSMDP).

In 1997, he was awarded the 1st prize at the fifteenth edition of the prestigious GFA (Guitar Foundation of America) competition in San Diego, USA, which launched his international career. Since then, he has been performing in prestigious venues and festivals, including the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall in Moscow, the National Concert Hall in Taipei, Teatro de la Republica in Mexico and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam.

He has recorded ten albums, two of which were dedicated to the music of Johann Sebastian Bach as well as one featuring Manuel Maria Ponce (Naxos). As a teacher he is also highly sought after and regularly gives masterclasses at major universities and conservatoires worldwide. His students have been winning important international competitions. Judicaël was a professor at the Conservatory of Music in San Francisco, USA, succeeding guitarist and composer Sergio Assad (2017-2020). In September 2020, he was appointed guitar teacher at the Haute École Musique de Genève, succeeding guitarist and composer Dusan Bogdanovic, while also teaching at the École Supérieure Musique et Danse Nord de France since 2012.

Laura Snowden is one of the most sought after guitarists, teachers and composers of the younger generation. She was described by Classical Guitar Magazine as ‘linking guitar’s past, present and future’, her eclectic musical output has ranged from playing on Lorne Balfe’s soundtrack for Marvel film Black Widow to recording Lisa Streich’s guitar concerto Augenlider with the Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin. She studied Royal College of Music and privately with Julian Bream.

As a composer, Laura’s music has been performed at Royal Albert Hall, Wigmore Hall and Sadlers Wells, commissioned by the Birmingham Symphony Hall, International Guitar Foundation and New York Guitar Festival, and broadcast on BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio Scotland and Hong Kong Radio 4. Her pieces have been recorded for BGS Records, Rubicon Classics and Centaur Records. She also performs with her folk group Tir Eolas.

Neil Baker studied at the Royal Northern College of Music, where he was the recipient of all the major song prizes. He continued his studies in London at the Royal College of Music and subsequently with Margreet Honig in Amsterdam.

Neil began his professional singing career in the Glyndebourne Festival chorus and went on to make his international operatic debut with Marc Minkowski and Les Musiciens du Louvre in the role of Harald in Wagner’s Die Feen at the Châtelet Theatre, Paris. He went on to perform many performances with Maestro Minkowski including the Salle Pleyel (Paris), Palais des Beaux-Arts (Brussels), the Barbican (London). His many operatic roles include Aeneas (Dido and Aeneas), Demetrius (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), Araspe (Tolomeo), Melisso (Alcina), Escamillo (Carmen), Marco (Gianni Schicchi) and Count Almaviva (Le nozze di Figaro). He is also an accomplished concert performer, appearances include Handel’s Messiah with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Mozart’s Requiem with Jaap ter Linden and recitals at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam.

Alongside his performing career, in 2003 Neil began teaching fellow singers who sought his advice. He has since enjoyed a successful career as both a singer and a voice teacher, but his reputation as a voice teacher has grown so rapidly that he now devotes his time primarily to his teaching. Neil has acquired a formidable and important list of students both from the UK and abroad many of whom can be found performing on the world’s greatest stages including the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, The Metropolitan Opera, La Scala, Chicago Lyric Opera, Seattle Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Welsh National Opera, Opera North, Opera Australia, Opera New Zealand.

Neil is currently a member of the professorial staff at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance. Frequently invited to teach internationally, Neil has recently taught in Vienna, Geneva, Bayreuth, Santa Fe and Auckland.

Mezzo-soprano Wendy Dawn Thompson has performed principal roles with many of the world’s leading opera companies, including the Royal Opera House, Opera Australia and Teatro Nacional de São Carlos. She made her theatre debut as Teresa Salieri in Amadeus at London’s National Theatre.

Wendy studied singing at Victoria University of Wellington and won New Zealand Young Performer of the Year Award in 1998. She was a Dame Malvina Major Emerging Artist at New Zealand Opera before completing studies at the Royal Northern College of Music and Royal College of Music. In her final year of study Wendy won the 2003 Kathleen Ferrier Prize.

She is equally at home on the song recital and concert circuit. Recital appearances have seen her performing at the Wigmore Hall, Aldeburgh Festival, BBC Proms, Edinburgh International Festival and Bridgewater Hall. Wendy was proud to represent New Zealand in the final of the 2005 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition.

Leyla Cemiloglu is a concert pianist based in London, with a particular interest in exploring intersectionality in the arts, through collaboration with living composers, championing minority composers and seeking inspiration from other art forms.

Leyla enjoys combining these interests and presenting them alongside her extensive knowledge of the mainstream classical repertoire, with the intention of finding a deeper meaning and relevance that speaks to current and future audiences, performing frequently across the UK as well as in Europe, Turkey and Northern Cyprus.

Leyla studied at the Yehudi Menuhin School for eight years, under the tutelage of Prof. Ruth Nye MBE. She went on to study with Prof. Joan Havill at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, for both her undergraduate and postgraduate studies, supported by the Guildhall School, the AJA, the William Barry Trust and the Headley Trust. During this time Leyla was Highly Commended in the 2018 Romantic Prize, a finalist in the 2020 Glass Sellers’ Beethoven Prize, and awarded the Concert Recital Diploma.

Leyla is grateful for the close guidance of legendary Turkish pianist İdil Biret, on whose invitation Leyla performed Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in July 2023 in Bodrum, Turkey, as part of the festival held in her name.

Other recent and upcoming projects include a radio-broadcast concert of music by Frank Zappa for BBC Total Immersion, with the Guildhall School of Music and Drama’s Ubu Ensemble, an appearance with the ensemble Piano Circus, performing Steve Reich’s ‘Six Pianos’ at the Cambridge Music Festival, a solo recital at the University of Surrey, and a fundraising concert in aid of earthquake relief in Turkey and Syria, for which Leyla founded and organised the Evil Eye Ensemble.

Leyla is also in demand as a collaborative pianist, and places great importance on education, working frequently with instrumentalists and singers, as well as for instrumental teaching studios and schools such as City of London School for Girls. When not at the piano, Leyla enjoys reading, attending art exhibitions, and escaping to the seaside.

“The Eric Clapton of the lute”, Sam Brown is one of the UK’s most versatile chordophonists, known for his sensitive style. A graduate of the Royal College of Music and student of Jakob Lindberg and Lorenzo Micheli, Sam has performed for major venues across three continents, including at Wigmore Hall and Konzerthaus Wien.

He works extensively with singers and vocal groups, including Emma Kirkby DBE, soprano Marie Lys, mezzo Nina van Essen, soprano duo Fair Oriana, baritone Laurence Williams, and lute song ensemble Dowland’s Foundry. He is based in London, where he grapples with a mild coffee addiction.

Described by Guitarist Magazine as “one of the most exciting players on the acoustic guitar scene” and by BBC Radio 3’s Max Reinhardt as “virtuosic and committed, with stunning sonic awareness”, Declan Zapala is a British classical/percussive fingerstyle guitarist specialising in composition, arranging, audio production, and education.

A Masters graduate of London’s Royal College of Music, and highly influenced by his contemporaries in the percussive fingerstyle world Declan is best known as a concert artist for his technical innovations on the classical guitar. His self-produced solo shows “Fusion Guitar” and “Guitar Multiverse” have received no less than seven ★★★★★ reviews internationally and have been performed throughout the UK and Australia.

Alongside all of this Declan is the monthly Classical Guitar Contributor at Guitar Techniques Magazine where he arranges and records new guitar music for a readership of over 20,000 guitarists.

A multiple prize winner in many guitar competitions, Colombian guitarist Francisco Correa has performed concertos with orchestra on both sides of the Atlantic, and has appeared on Colombian, British and French radio & television. His debut CD Música de la Tierrita received high acclaim in renowned guitar publications Guitare Classique, Soundboard and Classical Guitar Magazine.

Career highlights include performing the Aranjuez Concerto with the Grammy-winning Bogota Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as the Latin-American premier of Steve Goss’s Guitar Concerto (2012) with Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Colombia.
A passionate advocate of new music, Francisco collaborates with renowned composers to create, record and premiere new works for guitar. By winning the Ibermúsicas Funding Award in 2020, Correa was able to commission and premiere Barreiro’s Suite Warmikuna, written to honor four socially and culturally important Ecuadorian women. The award included funding for a recording of the work, which was issued in 2021. Correa followed that with “Winterbourne” under the British label Deux-Elles in 2023. He is a D’Addario and Mundo Music Gear sponsored artist and currently teaches at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Dance.

‘Equally comfortable gliding through brisk, virtuosic numbers, heartfelt songs, Correa is one of Colombia’s top classical guitarists, Highly recommended!.’ 
Classical Guitar Magazine

Tom Kerstens, IGF Artistic Director, is a major figure in the world of the guitar, highly regarded as a versatile performer on both modern and period instruments and an influential champion of the guitar in his roles as player, recording artist and artistic director. He was recently chosen in Classic FM’s list of the ‘100 best classical artists’ and ‘Five best guitarists’ whilst hailed as a “refreshing musical explorer”.

Since 1994, Tom Kerstens has led IGF (International Guitar Foundation) as Artistic Director, IGF’s main showcase festivals London Guitar Festival, IGF Guitar Summit, Bath Guitar Festival and North East Guitar Festival have established themselves as amongst the foremost in Europe and have confirmed Kerstens’ reputation as an artist and artistic director of rare qualities. He has commissioned 118 new works for guitar from leading composers including 3 concertos.

Cecilia Rodrigo awarded him the prestigious Joaquín Rodrigo commemorative medal for his ‘outstanding contribution to the dissemination of Rodrigo’s work’.

Collaborations have included a host of leading British orchestras and ensembles and in addition he has formed his own ensemble called G Plus which is dedicated to especially commissioned new music for guitar in a varying chamber ensemble context. The G Plus Ensemble’s debut CD Utopia was made in Peter Gabriel’s famous Real World studios and garnered great critical acclaim. He has recorded 9 highly acclaimed CDs for BGS Records, Real World Records, BMG and EMI.

‘Tom Kerstens is in a rather different league…he manages to make the guitar sound like a harp, a human voice or even a whole orchestra…his interpretations continue to amaze… Vivid, colourful guitar playing.’

BBC Radio 3

Stephen Goss’s music receives hundreds of performances worldwide each year. It has been recorded on over 80 CDs by more than a dozen record labels, including EMI, Decca, Telarc, Virgin Classics, Naxos, and Deutsche Grammophon. His output embraces multiple genres: orchestral and choral works, chamber music, and solo pieces.

Goss’s work is marked by a fascination with time and place – both immediate and remote – and the musical styles that evoke them. In many of his compositions, contrasting styles are juxtaposed through abrupt changes of gear. His compositional voice is shaped by his parallel career as a guitarist – that is to say, as a performer, transcriber, arranger, improviser and collaborator with other composers and performers. Not surprisingly, his music often tests the boundaries between all these activities and original composition.

Several of Goss’s recent projects have involved the legendary guitarist John Williams, including his Guitar Concerto, which Williams recorded and played on tour with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Some of the world’s leading orchestras to have performed his works include The Russian National Orchestra (under Mikhail Pletnev), The China National Symphony Orchestra, The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, The State Symphony Orchestra ‘New Russia’, The RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra, The Boulder Philharmonic Orchestra, The Scottish Chamber Orchestra, and The Barcelona Symphony Orchestra.

Commissions have come from guitarists David Russell, Miloš Karadaglić and Xuefei Yang (including chamber works with cellist Natalie Clein and tenor Ian Bostridge). Goss has also collaborated with Andrew Lloyd Webber, Alt-J, and Avi Avital. As a guitarist, he has worked with Takemitsu, Henze, Peter Maxwell Davies and Elliott Carter, and toured and recorded extensively with the Tetra Guitar Quartet, various other ensembles, and as a soloist.

Stephen Goss is Chair of Composition at the University of Surrey (UK), Director of the International Guitar Research Centre, and a Professor of Guitar at the Royal Academy of Music in London. In 2018 he was made a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music, an honour limited to 300 living people. He was born in Wales on 2nd February 1964.