2024 Festival Artists

Ensemble Corcovado

Ensemble Corcovado

In concert Saturday, June 17, 2023 7:00pm

Join us on a journey through 20th century Brazilian music, with Ensemble Corcovado! With its vibrant intensity, haunting melodies, and complex rhythms, Brazilian music has been integral to the world of guitar artistry. Ensemble Corcovado gathers some of New Mexico’s brightest talents to showcase chorus, Bossa nova, and contemporary music. Featuring John Truitt, our 2024 Showcase Composer, as well as a merry band of nefarious friends.

New Mexico Showcase

NM Showcase concert concert: Friday, June 14, 7:00pm

Join us for a casually elegant evening featuring music from some of New Mexico’s finest guitarists. Held in a cafe setting, there will be a little bit of something for everyone! Featuring the Duke City Trio, local performers, and the GNM Guitar Youth Ensemble, conducted by Gwen-Marie Lerch & Miguel Jaramillo.

chuck hulihan

Festival Orchestra Conductor

Chuck Hulihan

2024 Guitar Orchestra Conductor
Join us on Sunday, June 16 at 2pm for a fantastic concert put on by our 2024 Festival Guitar Orchestra, led by the energetic and gregarious Dr. Chuck Hulihan! Concert repertoire includes a showcase of composer John Truitt, featuring his work En El Torreon.

Chuck Hulihan has enjoyed a career over the past three decades as a guitarist, educator, conductor, narrator, arts administrator, and as a classical music radio host. Chuck has directed the guitar program at Glendale Community College since 1999, where he is the Assistant Department Chair for Performing Arts, and in 2015 he was chosen by his peers to receive the GCC Gaucho Globe Award for Supporting Student Success. His work at GCC is highlighted by collaborations with composers whom have written new works for the GCC Guitar Ensembles, including Mark Houghton, Rex Willis, Jan Bartlema, Adrian Andrei, Frank Wallace, Andrew York, Vito Nicola Paradiso, Francisco Munoz, Aramis Silvereke, and Phil Moloso. Since 2000, his students have consistently won the Artists of Promise competition in both solo guitar and instrumental ensemble categories, and in 2014 the GCC Guitar Octet won the Guitar Foundation of America’s Ensemble Showcase Competition and went on to perform two world premieres at the 2014 convention.

Chuck’s work as a conductor has included over 120 concerts directing the GCC Guitar Ensembles and includes leading large orchestras comprising students from high school, college, and guitar society ensembles. He has he led the Arizona Guitar Orchestra (AZGO), a collaboration of musicians from across Arizona, in three statewide tours that featured Shingo Fujii’s Concierto de Los Angeles with soloist William Kanengiser, Brad Richter’s Once We Moved Like the Wind, and Andrew York’s By Chants with the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet. He has been a featured guest conductor with the Clark County School District Honor Ensemble, the Vanguard University Guitar Festival Orchestra, the State College of Florida Guitar Ensemble, The Sonoran Desert Guitars Festival Ensemble, Austin Classical Guitar’s Guitar Curriculum National Teacher Training Summit and Guitar Ensembles Festival, as well as Florida, Virginia, and New Mexico All-State Guitar Ensembles. In 2019 Chuck conducted the world premiere of David Leisner’s Medanales Morning in Virginia with the All- Virginia Guitar Ensemble, Mark Houghton’s Guitarchestra no. 10 with the GFA Youth Guitar Orchestra in Florida, and Michael Keplinger’s Gale in Texas with the Austin Classical Guitar Ensemble Festival Orchestra. During the 2019 GFA Convention in Miami Florida, Chuck led an exclusive performance of music from the Netflix mini-series Godless, by Emmy-award winning composer Carlos Rafael Rivera, and collaborated with the composer on the arrangement for cello, guitar and guitar orchestra for this special performance.

He is the Director of the Guitar Foundation of America’s Youth Guitar Orchestra, Community Guitar Orchestra, and Guitar Summit. Chuck contributes to the field of music education as a conference clinician and presenter and serves as Western Division Representative for the National Association for Music Education’s Innovations Council, as ex-officio Guitar Chair for the Arizona Music Educators Association, and as an active board member of the Grand Canyon and Phoenix Guitar Societies.

Concert Schedule:
Friday, June 14, 7:00pm: NM Showcase, featuring Duke City Trio & GNM Guitar Youth Orchestra
Saturday, June 15, 7pm: MAINSTAGE: Ensemble Corcovado
Sunday, June 16, 2pm: Festival Guitar Orchestra, conducted by Dr. Chuck Hulihan

REGISTER HERE
All events & concerts held at:
First Unitarian Church
3701 Carlisle Blvd, Albuquerque NM 87110

Workshops and masterclasses will be held June 13-15; see SCHEDULE for complete listing

Featured artists from previous festivals: Martha Masters, Johan Smith, Lynn McGrath, Paul Galbraith, Iliana Matos, Zoran Dukic, Evan Herschelman, Helen Sanderson, Michael Anthony Nigro, Bandini Chiacchiaretta Duo, Matt Palmer, SoloDuo, Michael Partington, Jeremy Mayne, Stephen Goss, Jorge Caballero, Tantalus Quartet, Andrew York, Rene Izquierdo, Roland Dyens, Scott Tennant, Benjamin Verdery, Marcin Dylla, Eden Stell Duo, Carlos Rafael Rivera, Michael Chapdelaine, Marc Teicholz, Carlos Perez, Thomas Viloteau, Genevieve Leitner, Lynn McGrath, Roberto Capocchi, Randall Kohl, New Mexico Guitar Duo, Benjamin Silva, Mickey Jones, John Truitt, Rio Grande Guitar Quartet, Anthony Mariano, Elliot Simpson, Adam Larison, Calvin Hazen, Craig Russell, Gwen-Marie Lerch, Patrick Cox, Petra Babankova, Brian Moore, and Cyro Delvizio