Timothy Phelan
Tim Phelan is one of Canada’s foremost guitarists, composers and conductors. Since his first recording at 18 years of age, as a soloist with Quebec City Symphony Orchestra, he has performed with numerous renowned orchestras, as a soloist and as a chamber musician, all over the world. His original compositions for Nyköping Guitar Seminar, The Journey and Fantasía para una dama, have been performed at numerous important guitar festivals in Canada, Mexico and Europe. His performance of tango music at Nyköping Guitar Seminar in 2016 with flute, viola, cello and dancers was an enormous success, and led to the formation of the Aurora Polaris Duo with cellist Kristin Malmborg. Tim is one of the corner stones of the Nyköping Guitar Seminar as a composer and conductor for the seminar orchestra, and as a favourite performer.
Emma Rush
Emma Rush has established herself as one of Canada’s top guitarists. Known for her innovative programming and powerful stage presence, along with her warm sound and virtuosic technique, an event with Emma Rush is one to remember. Recent touring highlights include the Altamira Shanghai International Guitar Festival (China) Festival de Guitarras Lagos de Moreno (Mexico), and a prestigious concert at the Internationales Gitarren Symposion, Iserlohn (Germany). Emma Rush has a great interest in folk music expressed with the guitar. Her newest recording, Canadiana, showcases Canadian songs arranged for solo guitar and a new work dedicated to her by Canadian composer William Beauvais. In the 2016 Nyköping Guitar Seminar, Emma Rush was featured as acclaimed soloist in Fantasía para una dama, composed by Timothy Phelan and dedicated to her and the seminar orchestra.
Duo NIHZ – Bobby Rootvelt and Sanna van Elst
Duo NIHZ is Bobby Rootvelt (guitar) and Sanna van Elst (recorders). This duo from the Netherlands is currently based in Germany. Duo NIHZ uses guitar, vocals, recorders, percussion, melodica, and several other instruments. Since 2007, the duo have presented an innovative programme of Jewish music and classical music mixed with musical theatre and comedy, and have an intensive concert schedule on important stages. Their musicality and strong presence on stage makes them highly appreciated among critics and audiences all over the world.
Elena Cásoli
Italian guitarist Elena Cásoli is professor of Guitar and Contemporary Music Interpretation at the School of Performing Arts in Bern, and is also very active on the international concert scene. As a teacher, she focuses on each student as an individual with his or her own charactersitics, qualities and interests, to bring out their unique personal profile. On stage, she is extremely versatile and is well-versed in many aspects of guitar playing, from classical solo performances to contemporary multi-media projects. Since 2011, she has been a highly appreciated guest amongst the teachers and performers at the Swedish Guitar and Lute Festival and Oskarshamns Guitar Festival, becoming well known and highly appreciated in the Swedish guitar community.
Eric Lammers
Eric Lammers is one of the leading guitarists working in Sweden today. His recent solo performances have focused on the music of Stephen Dodgson. He is a very experienced musical educator, specializing in harmony and counterpoint. He has long been a professor at the Oskarshamn Folkhögskola in Sweden, as teacher in classical guitar, solfège and music-theory. He has also worked as a teacher at the Stockholm Royal Academy of Music. Eric Lammers is a frequent guest at the annual festival of the Swedish Guitar and Lute Festival, where he has given many acclaimed concerts, and has been the chairman of that organization 2015-2017. He studied at the Music College in Utrecht, The Netherlands and the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester.
Viva Project
Viva Project is Eric Lammers, Elena Cásoli, and Jakob Henriques. They perform Antonio Vivaldi’s Four Seasons for guitar trio. In September 2016 they performed this programme at the Royal Castle in Stockholm.
Ioannis Theodoridis
Ioannis Theodoridis, former student of Bo Hansson, is a graduate from the Master of Performance program at the Royal College of Music in London, where he studied with Chris Stell and Gary Ryan. He has won many prestigious awards including the Lennox Berkeley Guitar Award and has toured extensively both as soloist and chamber musician. He is passionate about new music, and his trio, What Guitar Trio, has performed several world premiers at important locations including Wigmore Hall. His performance shave been described as ”Sensivitive, nuanced account…showing precision and elegance..”, qualities that made him the choice to be this year’s solist with Filharmoniska Sällskapet.
Jonatan Bought
Nyköping Guitar Seminar is proud to present another young award winning Swedish guitarist, Jonatan Bought, who studied with Bo Hansson. He won the Jörgen Rörby prize of the Swedish Guitar and Lute Society in 2014 and has since won a number of prestigious prizes. After studies with Carlos Bonell and Chris Stell he graduated from the Royal College of Music in London in July 2017 and will continue his Masters Degree on theorbo with Jakob Lindberg. He performs in operas, as soloist, in chamber music and in the acclaimed Bought & Bergek Duo, playing Swedish and Brazilian music together with Berlin based guitarist and composer Björn Bergek . Their interpretations of Swedish and Brazilian folk music has been highly praised, both in Scandinavia and Brazil, where their concerts have been broadcasted on TV Gazeta and a number of other TV-stations.
Ekaterina Vasilyeva
Ekaterina Vasilyeva studied guitar at the Music Academy of Moscow, and continued her studies with Jan-Olof Eriksson at the Music Academy of in Piteå, where she took her Masters degree in 2012. She is regarded as one of the most talented and promising young guitarists in Sweden, and was finalist in the competition of Uppsala Interantionella
Gitarrfestival in 2010 and other international competions. She performs both as soloist, in duo and with chamber music. Her performance at Nyköping Guitar Seminar 2016 was highly praised by Göran Söllscher, and her interpreation of Roland Dyens’ Felicidad enchanted our seminar guests, and made her a natural choice for a concert in the 2018 edition.
Jakob Henriques
Jakob Henriques was born in 1972 and received his soloist’s diploma from the Royal University College of Music in Stockholm in 1997. He has been a soloist with several Swedish orchestras, including twice with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Okku Kamu and Niklas Willén. Among his awards can be mentioned that Jakob has been awarded the maximum stipend for foreign studies from the Royal Swedish Academy of Music.
Elisabeth Jansson
Elisabeth Jansson studies with Eric Lammers at Oskarshamns Folkhögskola, and is an extremely talented young guitarist. Håkan Odeberg, organizer of the Nyköping Guitar Seminar, heard her perform at the Oskarshamns Gitarrfestival in March 2017, and was so struck by her performance that she was immediately invited to play the welcome concert of the seminar.