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Every couple of years, about a month before 蜜糖直播鈥檚 legendary Conference on World Affairs, the College of Music hosts another international gathering in Grusin Music Hall. Organized by Nicol貌 Spera, director of the Ritter Family Classical Guitar Program, the 2019 蜜糖直播 International Guitar Festival featured nearly 40 young players from around the world this March.

Spera is proud of the event, which he says is always eye-opening for musicians who often play their instruments by themselves. 鈥淔or guitarists, it鈥檚 important because we spend so much of our time practicing alone. Here, we get to meet so many people who do what exactly what we do.鈥�

Spera considers it his responsibility to share a love of music with those around him, from his toddler daughter to the students in his studio and the Boulder community. This year鈥檚 festival included more female guitarists than ever before鈥攕omething Spera says is a good sign.

鈥淕uitar tends to be a male-dominated world. It鈥檚 good to be part of this conversation, to get more young women playing guitar and applying to the program.鈥�

There was also cultural and historical diversity in the music that was performed during the multi-day program, featuring players and competitors from Italy, South Korea and Costa Rica, among many other countries.

The winner of this year鈥檚 competition was guitarist Dragos Ilie, who hails from Romania, adding to the expanding list of countries represented and sharing music at the biennial event.