After a long professional career, I feel that the invitation to take part in the Miami International GuiART Festival, to be held in Miami, is a wonderful opportunity. My work there will focus on two key activities: I will give a concert and teach masterclasses to enrolled students.
When the musician has finished their training period, the performer’s begins. From then on, every step must be carefully considered, and it’s better to move forward cautiously than to schedule a multitude of concerts without being very clear about where you want to go. Once you have a program you identify with and the stage has become an ally, it’s a good time to map out a professional path as a performer.
Taking part in music festivals is an excellent opportunity to round out and complement a musician’s professional profile. There, the two sides that currently make up my professional activity come together: musician and teacher. That’s why receiving the invitation from the Miami International GuiART Festival is so important for my development.
This festival is part of the cultural program organized by the University of Florida. Among the many activities organized, highlights include the luthiers’ fair, where guitar makers showcase their instruments and innovations; the concerts, which bring together leading figures connected to the guitar, such as Iliana Matos; and the masterclasses, attended by young students who will be the future of the instrument.
The institutional support it receives is enormous, as is the large number of sponsors who collaborate in making it happen. This is one of the reasons they have a good number of guest musicians from other countries, which enriches the event and serves as a forum for sharing and keeping the guitar up to date. In my case, they contacted me at the beginning of this school year, and even then I was sure I would take part.
My commitment to the guitar is one of the pillars of my life. Ever since I became a guitarist, I have tried to improve it and help it gain recognition, both in Spain and abroad. That’s why I believe this experience will be beneficial for my CV, but not only that. It will also lead me to apply what I learn with my students, and then they will benefit; I will hear how pieces I’ve been listening to for years in a certain way are interpreted in other countries; and, in terms of event management, it will be essential to learn first-hand how other festival organizations operate, like the one I run in Spain (Madrid International Guitar Festival).
And, of course, I must acknowledge that the visibility on the international scene that this opportunity gives me is the decisive reason that makes this experience so valuable. It’s very interesting to step outside the European circuits where, despite borders and languages, musicians draw from the same interpretive sources.
The USA considers classical music a major artistic discipline, which it nurtures with great care and for which it offers an excellent cultural program. Being part of it—being a piece of this highly valued musical ecosystem—fills me with tremendous excitement.
This opportunity is one of those moments in my professional career that reaffirms my decision to keep building it at a calm, thoughtful pace, with a clear direction: forward.
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