International Guitar Night (IGN), the world’s premier touring guitar festival, is returning to the Cowichan Theatre stage where it all began 18 years ago.
On Thursday, Jan. 18, another presentation bringing together a group of interesting and innovative acoustic guitarists to exchange musical ideas comes to the big stage starting at 7:30 p.m.
For each tour, IGN founder Brian Gore invites a new cast of guitar luminaries to join him for special evenings of solos, duets, and quartets that highlight the dexterity and diversity within the world of acoustic guitar. Gore founded IGN in 1995 as a forum for the world’s finest guitarists/composers to play their latest original songs and share musical ideas and talent with their peers.
Gypsy jazz legend Lulo Reinhardt, who is returning as guest host for International Guitar Night’s 18th year, is constantly on tour with his own Lulo Reinhardt Latin Swing Project.
In additional to annual Australian tours that began in 2008, they have played in the United States, China, France, Switzerland, Belgium, England, the Czech Republic, Scotland and Germany. He has also performed as a soloist with the International Guitar Night troupe in 2009 and 2011, going to Canada, the U.S. and the UK. Lulo was asked to be guest host of International Guitar Night January/February 2017. He’s back on board for the North American tour, hosting and performing for the festival starting January 2018.
Reinhardt will be joined by three dynamic musicians: Calum Graham, a young Canadian contemporary sensation; Marek Pasieczny, an innovative classical composer/performer from Poland; and award-winning American guitarist Michael Chapdelaine.
Graham has a two-handed style that has attracted millions of YouTube viewers. Pasieczny has performed and written for a variety of orchestras around the world, and Chapelaine has won both the Guitar Foundation of America Classical Guitar Competition and the National Fingerstyle Championship for steel string guitar, while Reinhardt has enhanced the aura surrounding his family’s famous name by adding Latin vibes.
Tickets to this event are $35 for adults, $30 for seniors and Cowichan Folk Guild members and students and $5 for eyeGO students. Get them at the Cowichan Ticket Centre, or online at cowichanpac.ca, or by phoning 250-748-7529.