Virtuosas of the Guitar: An Evening with Ana Vidovic & Xuefei Yang

Join 2 of the world’s most elite classical guitar virtuosas for a special dual concert!

Xuefei Yang
“One of the most extraordinary instrumentalists in the world.”
– New York Sun

Xuefei Yang is acclaimed as one of the world’s finest classical guitarists. Hailed as a musical pioneer – her fascinating journey began after the Cultural Revolution, a period where Western musical instruments & music were banned. Xuefei was the first-ever guitarist in China to enter a music school & became the first internationally recognized Chinese guitarist on the world stage. Her first public appearance was at the age of ten and received such acclaim that the Spanish Ambassador in China presented her with a concert guitar. Her debut in Madrid at the age of 14 was attended by the composer Joaquín Rodrigo and, when John Williams heard her play, he gave two of his own instruments to Beijing’s Central Conservatoire especially for her and other advanced students.

Xuefei is one of the few guitarists whose artistry connect with audiences far beyond the guitar fraternity. She collaborates with an eclectic range of artists: classical musicians such as Jian Wang, Ian Bostridge, Rosalind Plowright, Sir James Galway, Elias String Quartet & the Heath Quartet; cross-over artist David Garrett. Xuefei has also appeared on numerous radio and television programmes including BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour, the BBC Proms, a BBC documentary ‘The Story of Guitar’, and China Central Television, who made a biographical documentary on Xuefei, & are filming another this year.

Ana Vidovic
Ana Vidovic is an extraordinary talent with formidable gifts taking her place amongst the elite musicians of the world today. Ms. Vidovic has given over one thousand public performances since first taking the stage in 1988. Her international performance career includes recitals in New York, London, Paris, Vienna, Salzburg, Rome, Budapest, Warsaw, Tel Aviv, Oslo, Copenhagen, Toronto, Baltimore, San Francisco, Houston, Austin, Dallas, St. Louis and beyond. Mel Bay Publications released Ana Vidovic’s most recent DVD in 2009 entitled “Guitar Artistry in Concert,” a journey through the music of Torroba, Piazzolla and Pierre Bensusan, Sergio Assad, Stanley Myers, Villa-Lobos and Agustin Barrios Mangoré. “Guitar Virtuoso,” Ana’s performance of works by Bach, Torroba, Paganini and Walton, was released on DVD by the Mel Bay label in 2006.

Ms. Vidovic has won an impressive number of prizes and international competitions including first prizes in the Albert Augustine International Competition in Bath, England, the Fernando Sor competition in Rome, Italy and the Francisco Tarrega competition in Benicasim, Spain. Other top prizes include the Eurovision Competition for Young Artists, Mauro Giuliani competition in Italy, Printemps de la Guitare in Belgium and the Young Concert Artists International Auditions in New York. In Croatia the guitarist has performed with the Zagreb Soloists and the Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra and with Symphony Orchestra of the Croatian Radio and Television, as well as having been featured in three television documentaries by the eminent Croatian film director Petar Krelja.