This photo was taken during my masterclass at the Mississippi Guitar Festival. The student is Jason Hobart, a very fine undergraduate student at the University of Southern Mississippi. We spent several minutes talking about nails, practicing etc. Jason is a very talented young player.

http://music.msstate.edu/faculty-staff/mpatilla.asp

 

On November 29-30, we had the Mississippi Guitar Festival on the campus of the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg. Nicholas Ciraldo, Assistant Professor of Guitar at USM did an excellent job organizing the festival. Our guest artist was William Kanengiser, a brilliant performer and outstanding teacher.

In this photo, my student Ronnie Holder is performing in the William Kanengiser masterclass. Ronnie did an outstanding job playing for Mr. Kanengiser and quickly encorporated the musical ideas that were presented to him. This was a good experience for Ronnie and I am very proud of how well he played.

http://music.msstate.edu/faculty-staff/mpatilla.asp

 

While I was in Honduras, I was very happy about having the opportunity to perform new guitar pieces with the composers present in the audience. I haven't really had many opportunities to do that before. Here is a photo of Francisco Carranza and myself after I had performed his piece, Fiesta de San Sebastian, at the Teatro La Fragua in El Progreso, Honduras. El Progreso is just a few miles from San Pedro Sula, where Francisco Carranza runs a large studio of guitar students and is involved as a cultural official for the Honduran government.

Here are Carol and I with the U.S. Ambassador to Honduras, Charles Ford, and his wife Lillian. While we were in Honduras, we performed a special concert at their home in Tegucigalpa. That was really a nice experience. The audience was very appreciative. After the concert, we met the Italian ambassador to Honduras and his wife (who is an American), many important cultural figures, and the former president of Honduras, Carlos Flores.

We were really amazed at what a huge social event this was. There were reporters from all of the newspapers (about five or six different photographers, we learned the meaning of the word paparrazzi) and there were full-page articles in the newspapers later that week. It actually seemed to be more of a social event than a musical one, but it was a lot of fun anyway.

http://music.msstate.edu/faculty-staff/mpatilla.asp

 

While I was on Saltspring Island, I had the opportunity to meet Hugh Greenwood, a retired professor (from Princeton and later the University of British Columbia). Dr. Greenwood has been studying classical guitar for several years and has recently begun building instruments. I had a great time visiting him and playing two of his guitars (#5 and #9), and I was extremely impressed, particularly with #9, an instrument that felt really good under my hands and had a very strong, warm sound. I was particularly impressed that he has built less than ten guitars and yet has mastered many fine details of craftsmanship.

Maybe you will run into Hugh Greenwood somewhere at a guitar festival and have the opportunity to play one of his fine instruments.

http://music.msstate.edu/faculty-staff/mpatilla.asp