To hold the Amarante International Guitar Festival and Competition is the most important initiative of the year to the Maria Amélia Laranjeira – Amarante Cultural Centre (CCA). Aimed to all the public who loves music and guitar this event combines concerts, masterclasses and an international competition.

In 2016 the competition brought over hundreds of participants from different places around the world. Carlo Marchione, Adriano Del Sal and Aniello Desiderio have brighten up and honoured this festival in the land of such iconic local personalities as Amadeo Souza-Cardozo (modernist painter), Agustina Bessa-Luís (writer) and Teixeira de Pascoaes (poet). Francesco Buzzurro, Rui Vilhena, Norberto Cruz and The Minho Plucked String Orchestra have completed the festival’s program. It is promised that the winners of the category F and of the category E of the festival’s second edition, the Australian guitarist Campbell Diamond and the Italian guitarist Ettore Scandolera respectively, will perform the opening concert which is foreseen to be outstanding.

I shall leave you with the certainty that we are committed to the festival and we put all of our capability and know-how in it. It’s in a renewed ambition that lays our strength. We believe that with passion we will be able to present, year after year, a renewed project capable of astonish you. Stay tuned!

Cultural Greetings

Francisco Laranjeira

President of the Maria Amélia Laranjeira /Amarante Cultural Centre