International classical guitar competitions

Although competitions are not the only way to establish oneself as a talented musician, they can serve various beneficial purposes. Namely, they allow young artists to promote themselves and gain exposure. Furthermore, they increase public awareness of the arts and the Classical Guitar itself. Some competitions also have newly composed "set" pieces which serve to increase the repertoire of the instrument.

Most classical guitar competitions take place during guitar festivals, and therefore the competition event can be attended by the general public, as audience.

Modern criticism of guitar competitions is actually quite common. Some criticisms are that they are often judged by unqualified judges, that reward people for being technically proficient without regard to musicality. But concerning the judging of musicality, this is in itself controversial, as the question arises, on how to judge art on any objective level.

Analysis of data at a piano competition, with many high level participants, has made it doubtful that judges are able to make fully objective judgements; because there was a small correlation between the order of appearance of participants and their ranking:

On the other hand, if a competition has many professional-level artistic participants, it may not even be possible to make an objective judgement of who is "best"; because: given numerous professional-level artistic performers, there may not even be room for the concept of comparison; since this presumes the existence of a "best" interpretation, which is itself questionable (and would be a commercialization of art; viewing it from a mass-consumption or absolutist point of view).

Some advanced guitarists have written about their guitar festival and competition experiences.

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Wikipedia