From 19/20 - 24 August 2024 the International Guitar Competition Maurizio Biasini-cciMB & Festival will be back in Basel, Switzerland, for its 6^th edition. Hosted by the prestigious Musik-Akademie Basel (MAB), the competition will see its semifinalists compete for a chance to win the top prize of € 12 000.- and concert opportunities in Switzerland and Italy. The total prize money is € 20 000.-. The cciMB 2024 is now open to applications for the preliminary round, held by an online video selection, which will require the performance of a 15 -20 min program including one set piece: Segoviana for Guitar Op. 366 (1957) by Darius Milhaud. The final round will feature a concerto for guitar accompanied by one of Switzerland’s most important orchestras: the Sinfonieorchester Basel. A new composition, written by the Swiss violinist Helena Winkelman, is a required piece for both the semifinal and final round. The well-established cciMB Jury will be joined in Basel by the Argentinian guitarist Pablo Marquez, a highly sought-after classical guitar teacher at the MAB, and cciMB 2018 finalist Jinhee Kim from South Korea, since April 2021 professor of guitar at the Trossingen University of Music, Germany. The application deadline is 31 January 2024. See Registration requirements and Rules and regulations for more detailed information.

After winning the NIER prize (€ 1 000) for best performance of the commissioned composition Corren los soles by Alex Nante last Thursday, the 20-years-old Bulgarian Georgi Dimitrov-Jojo also grabbed first Prize (€ 12 000) at the cciMB 2021 guitar competition with his stunning performance of the Concerto No. 1 in Re by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco last night at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna. Runner-up 27-years-old Luka Lovreković from Croatia, who performed the Concierto de Aranjuez by Joaquín Rodrigo, took home the second prize (€ 5 000), while Agustín Nazzetta, 31 years old from Argentina, who also performed the Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco concert, was awarded third Prize (€ 3 000). Corren los soles was also performed as a solo piece by all finalists. Congratulations to all of you! We would like to thank all the wonderful guitarists who participated in the competition and hope that they had a good time in Bologna to “meet, exchange, perform and learn”.

Photo by Elías Abraham Fóscolo

Back row, from left to right: Agustín Nazzetta, Luka Lovreković, Alex Nante and  Georgi Dimitrov-Jojo

Front: Nadia Guth Biasini

The winners of the GUITAR 2020 video competition are: 1^st Prize - Marius Schnurr (Germany), 2^nd Prize - Lorenzo Reggiani (Switzerland), and 3^rd Prize -  Marie Sans together with Alice Letort (France). Launched during the COVID19 pandemic, the GUITAR 2020 video competition has provided a platform for our semifinalists to express themselves freely, unbound by expectations, showing their personal vision on music and the classical guitar. We were thrilled to receive 13 beautiful and interesting video entries (involving 14 semifinalists), all made with great care and showing an enormous variety in styles and approaches. This made it especially hard to come to a decision for our cciMB Jury, which was joined for the occasion by the independent filmmaker and author Fred van der Kooij. We would like to thank all the participants for the time and effort they put into preparing their videos. The winning videos will be visible exclusively through our website here up to 31 March 2021, while each of the other submitted videos will be presented over the coming months.

 From left to right: Marius Schnurr, Lorenzo Reggiani, and Marie Sans.

After a careful evaluation, keeping in mind our priority of guaranteeing the safety of all our competitors and staff from exposure to the new coronavirus during travel as well as during the many social and musical events of the competition, the Association cciMB has decided to RESCHEDULE the continuation (semifinal and final round) of the cciMB 2020 to 27/28 Sep – 2 October 2021in Bologna. This will be exactly 10 years after our first edition in Bologna in October 2011, so we are foreseeing to develop and present a special event. The program of the semifinal and final round, with orchestra at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna on 2 October 2021, will remain UNCHANGED.