A CARNIVAL OF
CLASSICAL GUITAR

The New York Guitar Festival Brings A World Of Music To Bryant Park, August 14 and 15, 2026

On August 14 and 15, the New York Guitar Festival returns to Bryant Park with two free events that will be typically eclectic, occasionally electric, and always electrifying.  From classical guitar favorites to Brazilian popular music, from punk-jazz to folk-based improvisations, the 27th annual NYGF will turn the Bryant Park stage into a showcase for the range of the instrument and the creativity of the people who play it.  

The festivities begin on Friday evening, August 14, with “A Carnival Of Classical Guitar.”  Star guitarist Raphaël Feuillâtre will play some of the core pieces of the classical guitar repertoire, but the concert will expand to include Argentine tango from the duo Ziggy & Miles, and the Balkan-South Asian-Latin fusion of Goran Ivanovic & Fareed Haque.  Of course, no carnival is complete without a trip to Brazil, so Gabriele Leite will play a set of Brazilian favorites.

Saturday evening, August 15, brings “The Misbehaving Guitar,” a concert that features musicians who color outside the lines.  It promises to be a wild ride with The Messthetics offering their fusion of guitarist Anthony Pirog’s avant-jazz with the rhythm section of the punk band Fugazi; Pierre Bensusan playing open-tuning explorations of Celtic, North African, jazz, and electronics; and Gyan Riley’s cosmic mix of psychedelia, minimalism, and contemporary classical music. 

Since it began in 1999, the NYGF has presented guitarists from every inhabited continent and in a huge range of styles.  The festival certainly hasn’t ignored the legends of rock (like Andy Summers of The Police), classical music (Sharon Isbin), and jazz (Bill Frisell), but NYGF shows also feature up-and-coming stars, thematic shows, tribute concerts, as well as guitar-adjacent instruments like the Arab oud, the Chinese pipa, and the Indian sarod. 

The New York Guitar Festival was founded by David Spelman, and the concerts are hosted by WNYC’s John Schaefer, and recorded for future broadcast on WNYC’s “New Sounds.”  

BIOS:

Raphaël Feuillâtre was born in Djibouti, on the Horn of Africa, raised in France, and has won major guitar competitions in Spain, Portugal, and the USA.  He now records for the famed German label Deutsche Grammophon. His globetrotting career is reflected in his repertoire, which goes from Bach to contemporary guitarists like Sergio Assad and Roland Dyens.  

Ziggy & Miles are brothers from Melbourne, Australia. They were the first guitar duo (and, oddly, the first Australians) to be accepted into the Juilliard School’s Artist Diploma program, and in 2023 became the first guitar duo to win the prestigious YCA (Young Concert Artists) Award here in the States.  They continue to blaze trails by unveiling new works written for them as well as arrangements of familiar pieces like Debussy’s “Claire de Lune.”

Goran Ivanovic & Fareed Haque are each busy as soloists, but they’ve occasionally found time to record together.  One album title, IndoBalkan, hints at their mix of styles and reflects their own backgrounds.  Ivanovic is Croatian-born, while Haque is of Pakistani and Chilean descent.  Both now live in Chicago, and their music is a deep dish pie of South Asian, Latin, and Balkan ingredients, liberally spiced with improvisation. 

Gabriele Leite is a Brazilian guitarist now based in New York.  She represents the next generation of great Brazilian musicians, and champions the extraordinary sonic range of her homeland, both the classical compositions and the classic works of MPB, or Brazilian Popular Music.