The first of two special evenings of guitar performances with Cristina Galietto, Renata Arlotti and Tom Kerstens’ G Plus Ensemble.

6.00pm – 6.45pm Cristina Galietto

Please note that Cristina’s performance is an individual event for which tickets must be purchased separately. A free ticket is available to bookers of this event (The Big Night of the Guitar 1). Simply add tickets for both events to your basket and the first event with Christina will be discounted as complimentary.

Cristina Galietto is a 20-year-old multiple prize-winning guitarist from Naples, most recently winning premier international competitions in Stuttgart, Uppsala, and the ‘Andres Segovia’ Monheim-am-Rhein in Germany. Last August she won First Prize in one of the most prestigious guitar competitions in the world: the EuroStrings Guitar Competition held in Petrer, Spain. This ‘super’ competition is exclusively contested by the winners of the international competitions of the 20 participating EuroStrings Festivals. She is the first female winner of this Prize which will catapult her into a major international career with tours in Europe, China and the Americas planned for 2022.

7.30pm – 8.30pm Renata Arlotti

Renata Arlotti’s musical journey started in her hometown Sassari, and soon followed a prestigious international path. Renata’s classical guitar playing was shaped by Italian and British influences whilst studying in Milan, Aosta, Lugano, Siena and London. She graduated with a Master Of Arts in Music Performance from the Conservatorio della Svizzera Italiana in Lugano, under the tutelage of Lorenzo Micheli, and in 2016 she completed a second Master’s degree at the Royal Academy of Music in London, studying under the guidance of Michael Lewin, David Russell and Fabio Zanon. In that same year, she was selected as an IGF Young Artist Platform performer.

Renata has since embarked on an intense concert activity, with solo and chamber ensemble performances all over the world, most recently in Tehran, Nagoya, Tokyo, London and Grenoble. She regularly collaborates with composers of new music to expand and spread the repertoire of the classical guitar. Professor Antonio Ligios, director of the Sassari Conservatory, described her in the La Nuova Sardegna: “Musician of great sensitivity, with depth of sound and great variety of timbre”.

9.00pm – 10.00pm G Plus Ensemble

Tom Kerstens is a major figure in the guitar world. He is highly regarded as a versatile performer on modern and period instruments and is an influential champion of the guitar in his roles as player, recording artist and artistic director. He was chosen in Classic FM’s list of the ‘100 best classical artists’ and ‘Five best guitarists world-wide’ whilst hailed as a ‘refreshing musical explorer’. He has commissioned 108 works for IGF in the past 20 years.

His G Plus Ensemble consists of one or two guitars, string quartet and percussion and is exclusively dedicated to new music.

‘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