The festival is over and we had a great week with interesting workshops, concerts and ... the competition!

The finalists have been:

BOTOS Joseph (Hungary)
FEOLA Giuseppe (Italy)
FREML Matej (Czech Republic)
HAIMEL Christian (Austria)
MEISINGER Krzysztof (Poland)
PODHORSZKY Gabor (Hungary)
TESIC Boris (Bosnia)

The jury under president Colin Cooper, England,

Giovanni Antonioni (Italy)
Carlos Atilano (Venezuela)
Jeff Cogan (USA)
Colin Cooper (England)
Roberto Fabbri (Italy)
Heinz Irmler (Austria)
Andreas Lieberg (Germany)
Isabel Siewers (Argentina)
Jovan Pesec (Austria)
Jim Skinger (USA)
Neil Smith (England)
 

promoted the following winners of the 

International Guitar Comptetion "John Duarte" 2006:

1. Place: TESIC Boris (Bosnia)
2. Place: FEOLA Giuseppe (Italy)
3. Place: BOTOS Jozsef (Hungary)

Special Prize "John Duarte": HAIMEL Christan (Austria)
(for the best interpretation of a composition by John.W.Duarte)

Special Prize "Heinz Irmler": PLOHL Sanja (Slovenia)
(for the best participant of the master course)

Colin Coopers, president of the jury, comment regarding the 8th International Guitarfestival Rust 2006:

The 2006 Rust International Guitar Festival and annual John W. Duarte Competition was a great success, both musically and socially, but the unusually large number of gifted guitarists who entered the competition gave the jury some problems. As more and more of the 28 contestants revealed their talents, it became increasingly obvious that there were more good players than there were places for them in the second round. Since the second round was also the final, it meant that only a maximum of seven could be selected: embarrassing for the organisers, but deeply disappointing for the five or six who (understandably) felt that their talents should have been better rewarded. In the wider view, it is of course wonderful for the guitar that so many young and gifted guitarists can now be heard around the world. All that remains is for the world to take some notice of them. Competitions, like this increasingly important one in Rust, play their part in that.

I know very well that the cyclical nature of guitar competitions means that in 2007 there may well be scarcely any contestants at all, but the evidence of Rust, as well as of other competitions I have attended in the last year, does suggest that the guitar has moved up another notch.

Rust will have to come to terms with its new status as a major competition. The eight years of the event have attracted players of the calibre of Marco Tamayo, Alieksey Vianna, Goran Krivokapic and Luis Leite, all worthy of their first prize and capable of winning international competitions elsewhere - as indeed they have done. Rust’s problem now is not only picking out and rewarding such high talent but making sure that other excellent players are not overlooked.

That said, I believe that 2006’s winner, Boris Tesic from Bosnia, makes a worthy addition to the above distinguished list of winners. His ability to give a phrase a deeply poetical and musical significance showed a musician of unusual quality, and his future career will be watched with interest.

Colin Cooper

For further information please look at the video of the International Guitar Festival Rust 2006

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