IGF is changing young people’s lives through the guitar

We do this on a number of levels:

• at grass roots level with our Guitar Circus
  which collaborates with music education hubs around the UK, introducing children and young people to making music

• at our summer school
  where young people learn to play in a variety of different musical styles

• with young professionals
  who we help in the earlier stages of their careers through our Young Artist, Tomorrow People and Aspire Platforms, the EuroStrings project and London International Guitar Competition.

IGF fosters the future of the guitar through its commissioning programme

New music is the lifeblood of music, it is often said that without the music of today there will be no music of tomorrow. This is why we have developed the largest commissioning programme for new music for guitar in Europe. To date we have commissioned some 97 new works for guitar and guitar in ensemble, from both established and, most importantly, young composers. In almost all cases these new works are from mainstream composers writing their first work for guitar.

IGF brings great international artists to this country, often making their UK debut

Great guitarists in a wide variety of styles from Tommy Emmanuel to Gerardo Nuñez to Ana Vidovic have performed their debut concerts and workshops in the UK in IGF events. Each year we invite great guitarists such as David Russell, the Assad Brothers, Stochelo Rosenberg, Margarita Escarpa, Scott Henderson, Léo Brouwer, Vicente Amigo and many others to delight UK audiences. We are continuing this vital work every concert season with our festivals and educational events around the UK.