Save the date for GuitarFest 2027!
April 2-4, 2027 (Friday-Sunday)
Now celebrating its 30th anniversary, GuitarFest offers an intensive weekend of education and camaraderie for classical guitarists nationwide. The three-day annual festival, which began in 1997, offers a guitar orchestra, Suzuki workshops, masterclasses and recitals by national and international guitar celebrities, and competitons for guitarists of all ages - including opportunities to win handcrafted guitars by famous makers.
NCMEA Music Performance Adjudication (MPA)
For the second time, the NCMEA Guitar Committee is partnering with Appalachian State University GuitarFest to offer a NCMEA Music Performance Adjudication (MPA) at GuitarFest!
GuitarFest 2027 Headliners
GuitarFest's 30th anniversary will be an all-alumni lineup featuring headliners Alan Mearns and Matt Palmer!
Guitar at Appalachian State University
Guitar at the Hayes School of Music
The Hayes School of Music at Appalachian State University has a thriving guitar program with a wide variety of degree programs. Highlights of our program include...
- Undergraduate degrees, graduate degrees, and certificate programs for guitarists
- Appalachian State GuitarFest: March 27-29, 2026
- Matanya Ophee Music Collection in the Belk Library
- Guitar Orchestra with over 25 guitarists
- Cannon Music Camp for high school musicians
- Guitar lessons for youth and adults (non-credit) through the Community Music School
Degree Programs for Guitarists
The Hayes School of Music offers many music degree options for guitarists.
Auditions are required for all music degree programs, including the music minor.
Music Degree Programs
- B.M. in Music Performance
- B.M. in Music Education
- B.M. in Music Therapy
- B.S. in Music Industry Studies
- Master of Music Therapy
- Master of Music in Performance
Minors and Certificates
The Ophee Collection: Historical Guitar Music
Appalachian State University has recently acquired the collection of historical documents once belonging to publisher and musicologist Matanya Ophee. Highlights from the Ophee Collection include over five hundred first and early editions of major guitar composers including Fernando Sor, Mauro Giuliani, Matteo Carcassi, Ferdinando Carulli, and many others, as well as the only complete manuscript of the Dix Etudes by Giulio Regondi, discovered by Ophee in 1987. The collection also includes the personal scores and papers of Argentinian guitarist Doming Prat (1886–1944), as well as a large amount of rare music for the Russian 7-string guitar from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries