Guitar Solo, Ensemble, and Sight-Reading Festival 2024
Date: Saturday April 27, 2024
Time: 11:00am - 3:30pm
Location: Clayton High School
St. Louis Classical Guitar will be organizing a Guitar Solo, Ensemble, and Sight-Reading Festival, designed for middle and high school guitar ensembles and soloists. The purpose of this event is to provide a goal for guitar programs in area schools to perform well for the event adjudicators. These adjudicators will provide constructive feedback to each ensemble and soloist. Soloists will be given an opportunity to perform a rehearsed solo piece for the adjudicators while ensembles will be given the opportunity to perform two pieces of varied styles. The sight reading component of this event will only be applied to ensembles. To enroll an ensemble and/or soloist for this event, please fill out the enrollment form below.
2024 Adjudicators
Deyan Bratic and Patrick Rafferty
Deyan Bratic
Deyan Bratic is as passionate about his commitment for teaching as he is as a performer, author, and transcriber. He earned his Bachelor of Arts and Masters in Music Performance degrees from Webster University, studying classical guitar under John McClellan. He has penned innumerable transcriptions for magazines such as Fingerstyle Guitar (now Fingerstyle 360) and Mel Bay Publications. He is also a published author with four highly successful books to his credit, including the critically acclaimed, best-selling Chet Atkins In Three Dimensions volumes, as well as the definitive biography on legendary Argentine composer/guitarist Jorge Morel. As a musician, he has performed to countless audiences locally in his native St. Louis area and in various territories nationally and internationally. He is also an expert not only in the subtleties of classical guitar technique and flat-picking technique, but also the fingerstyle techniques of Chet Atkins, Jerry Reed, and Lenny Breau.
Deyan currently serves as guitar faculty at Webster University.
Patrick Rafferty
Patrick Rafferty, an active performer and teacher, concertizes across the Midwest and teaches in a variety of studio and classroom settings across the area. A polished interpreter of the traditional guitar repertoire, he is equally at home in a wide range of popular and world music styles. Patrick has extended his interests to early guitar repertoire with a focus on Baroque guitar, 19th Century Guitars and the music that was written for them.
As a student, Patrick has earned several academic degrees in guitar performance. In 2004 he received a Bachelor of Music degree from Southeast Missouri State University where he studied with Jeffrey Noonan. He continued his studies at the Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University, earning the Master of Music degree in 2006 and the Graduate Performance Diploma in 2008 under Julian Gray.
In 2021 Patrick was selected as a Featured Artist by the Missouri Arts Council.
Patrick currently serves on the guitar faculty of Southeast Missouri State University, Saint Louis University and the Webster Community Music School. His recently graduated students have been accepted into the prestigious guitar programs of The Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University, The Jacobs School at Indiana University, Northwestern University and Denver University.