39ο Διεθνές Φεστιβάλ Κιθάρας Αθηνών

The Athens Conservatoire's "Aris Garoufalis" Hall is a Bauhaus-austere room — Pentelic marble exterior, strict geometry by Ioannis Despotopoulos, Gropius's student — and on the evening of 16 April 2027 it opens the 39th Athens International Guitar Festival with two Italian duets tuning.

Costas Cotsiolis, the classical guitarist whose own playing pushed Greek guitar onto the international recital circuit, founded the festival in 1978 and has directed every edition since. Opening night pairs Duo Aniello with violinist Gennaro Desiderio, then Duo Giampaolo Bandini with bandoneonist Cesare Chiacchiaretta — two couplings that set the edition's thread of guitar against another voice.

You will share the hall with the city's classical-guitar circle: conservatory students who track international recital circuits, older subscribers who remember which Rodrigo recording still undersells the concertos, the small Italian-Greek diaspora who turn out for any Bandini date in Athens.

Aspect | Details ---|--- Setting | Bauhaus-era concert halls, 350- and 820-seat capacities Vibe | Formal recital attention; applause between movements withheld Sound | Guitar with violin; guitar with bandoneon Door | 19:30 curtain; €25 opening night

The festival unfolds outward from there: Friday brings solo recitals from Michalis Sourvinos and Vojin Kocić; Saturday places Grisha Goryachev's flamenco guitar alongside the Rosenberg Trio's gypsy jazz; Sunday closes with a triple recital featuring emerging soloists Nino D'Amico, Pavle Filipovic, and Filippos Manoloudis, followed by a full Rodrigo concerto evening with The Underground Youth Orchestra.

If you want a pop-radio night, skip this. But if you want to hear the guitar treated as the serious solo and chamber voice it has been for two centuries, the Conservatoire has reserved four evenings for you.

Athens Conservatoire sits at Rigillis and V. Georgiou B', a short walk from Evangelismos metro. Opening night is €25; the Rodrigo evening €30; Sunday's triple recital €15. Curtain 19:30.

Thirty-ninth edition of the Athens International Guitar Festival, programmed continuously by Cotsiolis since 1978 — one of Europe's longest runs dedicated to a single instrument.