Two talented guitarists have received a EuroStrings scholarship that will take them to the upcoming IGF José Tomas Villa de Petrer in Spain. The festival will take place from July 10th until July 24th. Scholarship winners, Rodrigo Alvarado and Álex Pernas will attend masterclasses, concerts, and other activities at this Spanish festival.

Congratulations to them! Let’s meet our new scholars:

Álex  Pernas, born in 1999, started playing the guitar at the age of 13 with flamenco and classical professor Alejandro Bernáldez, His rising passion on music make him enroll in the Manuel de Falla Conservatory of Madrid, where he studies with Yinay de León and Victor Manuel Casero in addition to courses on composition with professor Héctor Oliva, getting to release some pieces.

He has performed solo recitals, monographics on Spanish music, in chamber music projects, as a soloist with string orchestra as well as a part of guitar ensembles, and he is currently developing a stable guitar duo project. He also maintains a regular teaching activity and is working on several arrangement projects for solo as for guitar duo, willing to expand the repertoire possibilities and to take advantage of the particularities of the instrument. Álex is currently studying at the Conservatori Superior de les Illes Balears with Pedro Mateo, while he also carry on studies on social sciences in the Carlos III University of Madrid. Additionally, he receives advice in the masterclasses of renowned guitarists like Anders Clemens, Marco Socías, Zoran Dukic, Margarita Escarpa, Miguel Trápaga, Aniello Desiderio or Carlo Marchione. He regularly attends national courses and festivals, being awarded in competitions José Tomás-Villa de Petrer (online and on-site) and Ciudad de Náquera.
Between its main musical concerns are the repertoire of the XXth and XXIst centuries (the established as the more experimental languages), the instruments of the renaissance and baroque, flamenco guitar, composition and the development of a complex approach and understanding to the musical thinking and language. His work is supported by various entities as the prestigious scholarship of the Sociedad de Artistas Intérpretes o Ejecutantes de España (AIE).

Rodrigo Alvarado started his formal classical guitar studies at the age of 15, entering to the Autonomous University of Coahuila studying a degree in Classical Guitar. His first mentor was the professor Alberto González González.

He is the winner of the second place of the first national guitar contest in San Luis Potosi, “The first week of the guitar”, category “young performers” in 2019. He also won the contest organized by the National guitar association “Las notas de Guido” competing in the juvenile category in its 2020 edition, being selected to participate in the international concert “La fiesta de la Música desde casa” sharing virtual stage with other winners from 6 different countries around the world, being this his fist international participation. Rodrigo received from the Autonomous University of Coahuila´s Dean the prestigious prize “Presea Lobo 2020” in the category of “Artistical Activities” due to academic excellence being this the highest award given by the University to its best students.

He has performed as a soloist and as a chamber performer around Mexico in some of the most important concert halls, in cities like: Parras Coahuila, Montemorelos Nuevo León, Monclova Coahuila, Tepic Nayarit, Paracho Michoacán, San Luis Potosí SLP, Lagos de Moreno Jalisco, Chachalacas y Xalapa Veracruz; where he participated as one of the guitarist members of the Grand Guitar Orchestra of the Mexican Republic in the “Complejo Cultural Tlaqná Hall”, considerated one of the most important Halls of the country and in Latin America, performing the famous “Huapango de José Moncayo”, directed by the legendary guitarist and musical director Alfonso Moreno. Rodrigo was also invited to participate to the online concerts cycle, “La guitarra y sus intérpretes”, international guitar festival carried out in Bahía Blanca, Buenos Aires Argentina province in 2021.

Rodrigo was named “Promotor cultural” (cultural promoter) by the Autonomous University of Coahuila. Certified in perfection guitar performance, by the international recognized guitarist Arody Garcia, in Tepic Nayarit by the Autonomous University of Nayarit in 2017. Certified in orchestral conducting (2021) by Natalia Riazanova (Russia) an important orchestral conductor and violinist worldwide. Furthermore, he obtained a full scholarship by the Instituto Municipal de Cultura de Saltillo. Certified in Musical pedagogy by the Academy of musical education of UA de C in 2016.

He has taken master classes with some of the most important classical guitar performers worldwide, just to mention some: Giampaolo Bandini (Italia), Kazuhito Yamashita (Japón), Zoran  Dukić (Croacia), Mauro Zanatta (Italia), Grisha Goryachev (Rusia), Pavel Steidl (República  Checa), Gian Marco Ciampa (Italia), Oman Kaminsky (México) Berta Rojas (Paraguay), Vladimir  Gorbach (Rusia), Arody García (México). He has participated as an active student in the Mexican International Festival of Guitar (considered in the top 6 most important classical guitar festivals) in its editions XX, XXI, XXII, XXIII and XXIV. On the XXIV edition of this festival he performed on a gala concert being the main performer on the strings section of the guitar orchestra of the UA de C. Nowadays, Rodrigo keeps improving and applying his knowledge. Studying his last year of the Bachelor´s degree of Classical Guitar under the professorship of the well-known professor Martin Madrigal Guzmán, international considered as one of the best Mexican and Latin American guitarists.