“The New Orleans International Guitar Festival Returns After a Three-Year Hiatus”

Cervantes Fundación Hispanoamericana de Arte (Cervantes Hispanic-American Arts Foundation) is proud to announce the return of the New Orleans International Guitar Festival after a three-year hiatus due to the pandemic. Its sixth edition will be celebrated with a kickoff by Maestro Manuel Barrueco on March 16, 2023, which will be dedicated to Maestro Elias Barreiro. Following that will be the 4-day festival starting on March 28 through March 31. Two Lifetime Achievement Awards will be given out this year. The first will go to Maestro Elias Barreiro at Manuel Barrueco’s performance and the second will be given to Carl LeBlanc for their outstanding contributions to the guitar and to the musical arts in New Orleans. LeBlanc’s recognition will be made on opening day, May 28, which will take place at the New Orleans Jazz Museum at 2pm. Other venues that will host the festival are Tulane University, Loyola University, and Rock n Bowl. In addition to Maestro Manuel Barrueco’s performance, twelve other artists, from different countries, are scheduled to perform throughout the four days of the festival. These artists are Rafael Padron, Jay Kacherski, Javier Garcia Verdugo, Geovane Santos, Javier Olondo, Mahmoud Chouki, Nicholas Ciraldo, Lina Morita, and Cristian Puig with dancer, Mirilia Quevedo. The Elias Barreiro Young Artists Competition will also return and interested artists can register now at www.noigf.org. The objective of the festival is to showcase the guitar which is used in a wide variety of musical genres worldwide. It is recognized as a primary instrument in genres such as classical, blues, bluegrass, country, flamenco, folk, jazz, mariachi, metal, punk, reggae, rock, soul and many forms of pop. The festival will highlight the guitar in some of these genres along with other members of the guitar family such as the lute, banjo, electric guitar and the Cuban tres, just to name a few.

“The guitar is a very accessible instrument for most people and is such an important part of a lot of lives. I am very excited to be able to bring back the festival this year. Three years was a long time, but I feel confident it will pick up from where it left off,” said Javier Olondo, artistic director and one of the performers of the festival.

Since its inaugural year in 2015, the festival has featured artists from over 16 countries. They’ve included: Eliot Fisk, Guillermo Perez-Quer, An Tran, Jose Luis De La Paz, Gaspar Rodriguez, Elias Barreiro, Iliana Matos, Steve Masakowski, Rafael Padron, Don Vappie, Dalila Mekadder, Jimmy Robinson, Isaac Bustos, Geovane Santos, Dan Kyzer, Amine Boucetta, Marina Alexandra, Jose “Panzekito” Cortes, Javier Olondo, Jay Kacherski, Carl LeBlanc, Israel Cedeño, Cyro Delvizio, Randy Jackson of Zebra, Riccardo Crespo and others.

More about the presenters:
Cervantes Fundación Hispanoamericana de Arte was created in 1982 by Guillermo De Bango, as a non-profit 501 (c) (3) organization, with the mission to promote modern and classical Hispanic arts and cultural traditions. Today, Cervantes has established four major events throughout the calendar year: Mardi Gras Mambo, New Orleans International Guitar Festival, Que Pasa Fest and Christmas of Hope. Fundraising and social events also occur during the year. The organization was named after Miguel de Cervantes, a Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright, who lived during the 16th century.

Hispanic Flavor Productions was created in 2007 with the goal to enhance and enrich the Hispanic culture and traditions by creating diverse events such as festivals, classical music concerts, art exhibits, music conferences, among other events. Some past and present productions by Hispanic Flavor include Que Pasa TV show; Que Pasa newspaper; Buena Vista Social; Que Pasa Nights; Que Pasa Fest and Havana Nights.