NEW YORK GUITAR FESTIVAL

06/13/2025

As we prepare to celebrate our 26th season we would like to pause and express our deep gratitude to the Augustine Foundation. Without their belief in our mission of bringing audiences and guitarists closer together, and their ongoing financial support, the New York Guitar Festival would not be possible. We offer our thanks, and are truly grateful.

www.newyorkguitarfestival.org for information and tickets.

03/05/2025

TICKETS ON SALE NOW / schedule via link in bio — After celebrating its 25th anniversary last year, the New York Guitar Festival launches into its second quarter-century with an all-star lineup and an expanding range of venues In partnership with World Music Institute + New Sounds Live.  There are events at Merkin Hall at the Kaufman Music Center, but also in Brooklyn’s historic First Unitarian Congregational Society.  And the NYGF’s audience will grow exponentially with a pair of free shows at an iconic Manhattan public space to be announced soon. 

The series kicks off on Friday, June 13 with perennial NYGF favorite Bill Frisell.  The legendary American guitarist will perform in a duo setting with Icelandic bass player Skúli Sverrisson. That concert will also feature another pairing, as the adventurous guitarist/composer Mary Halvorson joins drummer Tomas Fujiwara.  Between the two duos, you can expect to hear a kaleidoscopic evening of sonic shape-shifting.
The festival continues on Saturday, June 21, with a pair of extraordinary virtuosos from Brazil: the veteran Yamandu Costa and the rapidly rising Gabriele Leite will each offer a solo set, playing colorful original works redolent of the tropics, as well as recent classical composers like Sergio Assad.  And on Thursday, June 26, New York audiences will have their first opportunity to hear the new duo of Derek Gripper, the South African guitarist, and Rahim Al-Haj, the Iraqi-born, American-based master of the Arab oud. 
The New York Guitar Festival is made possible by the generosity of a grant from the Augustine Foundation.

05/28/2024

As we prepare to celebrate our 25th anniversary we would like to pause and express our deep gratitude to the Augustine Foundation. Without their belief in our mission of bringing audiences and guitarists closer together, and their ongoing financial support, the New York Guitar Festival would not be possible. We offer our thanks, and are truly grateful.

www.newyorkguitarfestival.org for information and tickets.

02/14/2024

Save the dates: June 14 & 15 ––The New York Guitar Festival celebrates its 25th anniversary this year! 
In partnership with World Music Institute + New Sounds Live, our 25th season begins with two concerts at Merkin Hall featuring: Marc Ribot & Leyla McCalla, Yasmin Williams, Neel Murgai & Kunal Prakash, Medicine Singers, Lee Ranaldo & Yonatan G*t, Maalem Hassan BenJafaar, Mamady Kouyate and other very special guests.

A quarter century of bringing guitars and guitar-like instruments from around the world to New York left NYGF founder David Spelman and his co-founder/collaborator John Schaefer of WNYC’s New Sounds scratching their heads and wondering what they could possibly do to mark the occasion.  The answer:  return to the place where it all began, back in 1999.  And so the Festival’s 25th anniversary will kick off in Merkin Hall at the Kaufman Music Center with two typically eclectic events on the weekend of June 14 and 15, both co-presented by New Sounds Live and recorded for future broadcast on WNYC.

TICKETS ON SALE NOW / full schedule via link in bio

08/31/2022

NYGF Artistic Director and Sharon Isbin. Sharon is a multiple Grammy Award winning classical guitarist and the founding director of the guitar department at the Juilliard School. We are proud to consider Sharon a friend and supporter of the festival and thrilled by the prospect of presenting one of her remarkable projects to our audiences.

07/12/2022

Listen tomorrow night, or watch anytime, for free!

This year’s New York Guitar Festival was full of surprises: Vieux Farka Toure playing a song associated with his famous dad; Bill Frisell and Gyan Riley doing an impromptu duet; the striking sounds of the Portuguese guitar from Marta Pereira da Costa; Laraaji’s all-orange outfit nearly upstaging his duos with Vernon Reid… and you can relive them all as the music hits the airwaves on WNYC’s New Sounds.  Starting with Toure’s set on July 13, with more to come on July 14, 19, 22, August 3, and 4.  Tune in at 11pm each night, or catch the shows later at the New Sounds website.  You can watch the full events online as well (LINK IN BIO).

06/10/2022

Thanks for helping us spread the news, Relix!

The New York Guitar Festival has announced its artist lineup for the 2022 event, slated to occur at The Green Space in New York City from June 14 through