IGF YAP aims to help young musicians in the critical phase between the final stages of music education and the concert platform. This lunchtime concert is the Kings Place debut of 2024-25 YAP awardees the Wales Guitar Duo, whose programme includes the world premiere of a new IGF commission by David John Roche!

Programme includes movements from Cocktail List and Welsh Folk Songs by Stephen Goss, and movements from Circus Music by Carlo Domeniconi.

Established in 2020, the Wales Guitar Duo is Welsh classical guitarists, Cai Charles and Oliver Manning. They met during their undergraduate studies at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. They have performed both in the UK and abroad, most notably for Budleigh Music Festival and the Maestros de la Guitarra concert series in Granada, Spain.

Oliver Manning was selected by John Williams to become a Julian Bream Trust Scholar in 2023 to support his postgraduate studies at the Royal College of Music, London. He also won first prize in the John Mills Guitar Competition, and first prize in the Orpheus Voice and Guitar Competition.

Cai Charles won the Solo String competition at the Wales National Eisteddfod. He gave the UK première of the Dos Dalias concerto by Gerardo Tamez as a soloist during the World Harp Congress 2022 in St David’s Hall, Wales.

International Guitar Foundation is a PRS Foundation Talent Development Network Partner supported by PPL.