Sean Shibe
As well as being nominated for a BBC Music Magazine Award in both 2018 and 2019 for his first two albums, Dreams and Fancies and SoftLOUD, Shibe has captured the attention of both critics and audiences alike with his incredibly colourful playing and refusal to play it safe. The Scottish guitarist was a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist for the years 2012-14, and has been shortlisted for several other major awards, as well as winning the RPS Award for Young Artists in 2018.
Thibaut Garcia
This Franco-Spanish guitarist took up a place on the BBC New Generation Artists scheme last year. In 2016 he signed a contract with Warner and Erato, releasing the album Leyendas, which we described as an ‘outstandingly played, well-balanced, well-thought selection’.
Tengyue Zhang
‘One to watch,’ we said last issue after this Chinese guitarist released his debut recital of Bach, Scarlatti and others on Naxos. TY, as he’s known, was five when he was first learnt the guitar; he went on to study with Sharon Isbin at the Juilliard.
Andrea González Caballero
This Spanish guitarist made her UK debut two years ago, after being chosen by the International Guitar Foundation. She won first prize at the XIII Alhambra International Guitar Competition, and released her first CD, also on Naxos, last year.
Torrin Williams
Williams reached the string final of BBC Young Musician 2018, playing music by Bach, Johann Kaspar Mertz and Albéniz. He’s leader of the National Youth Guitar Ensemble, and at 17 already has a solo appearance at Wigmore Hall to his name.
Laura Snowden
In 2015 Snowden gave the Julian Bream Trust Concert at Wigmore Hall where she premiered Julian Anderson’s Catalan Peasant with Guitar. On top of her solo career, Snowden plays in duos with guitarist Tom Ellis and violinist Joo Yeon Sir, and in the folk group Tir Eolas.