¡Guitarraganza!
International Guitar Festival
'25 Festival Dates October 23-25, 2025
We're busy planning Guitarraganza' 25, check back for date confirmation and guest artist announcements.
The festival is a celebration of guitar studies and performances featuring guest artist concerts, lectures and master classes that involve the Stanislaus State Guitar Studio and the Central Valley Guitar Community.
'25 Guest Artists
The 2025 guest artists: The Ibison Guitar Duo, Chad Ibison and Janet Grohovac
2025 schedule is pending. All festival events will take place in Snider Recital Hall. Anything open to the public will also be live-streamed on the Stanislaus State Department of Music YouTube Channel (direct links included below).
Thursday, October 23, 2025
- 4:00pm - Workshop/Masterclass Janet Grohovac
- 7:30pm - Chad Ibision Solo Recital
Friday, October 24, 2025
- 2:00pm - Workshop/Masterclass Grohovac/Ibison
- 7:30pm - Grohovac/Ibision Duo Recital
Saturday, October 25,2025
- 2:00pm - Workshop/Masterclass Ibison
- 7:30pm - Gala Concert featuring: Ibison Guitar Duo, and festival participants.
Evening Concerts
Non-participants must purchase tickets to attend the evening concerts. Advance ticket reservation is strongly recommended. Limited seats are available..
2025 Guest Artist
Ibison Guitar Duo bio
The Ibison Guitar Duo, Chad Ibison and Janet Grohovac, are Grammy-nominated guitarists whose performances have been praised as “superb and sublime" (Austin American-Statesman) while presenting a "refined and elegant style" (This is Classical Guitar). The duo performs throughout the US and abroad with recent appearances at the Fundación Guitarra Viva tour in Chile (2025); the esteemed Brevard Music Festival in North Carolina; the Canada West tour of Banff, Edmonton, and a one week residency at Calgary’s GuitarFest West; Festival Internacional de Guitarra de Taxco, Mexico; Christ Church Cathedral series, Canada; Ticino Musica’s concerts in Lugano, Switzerland; and the Houston Classical Guitar Festival and Competition. Both hold Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from The University of Texas at Austin studying with Adam Holzman. Dr. Ibison has won many top prizes in competitions including the prestigious Guitar Foundation of America and the JoAnn Falletta Concerto Competition. Dr. Grohovac won 1st prize awards at the Southern Guitar Competition, and the Northwest Guitar Competition. Chad was the Teaching Assistant to Professor Adam Holzman at UT-Austin for 4 years and is the Professor of Guitar at Austin Community College. Janet is the Professor of Guitar at Concordia University Texas and Austin Community College. They also manage their own very successful Austin-based guitar studio where the duo teaches close to seventy students a week. Janet and Chad perform on Martin Blackwell guitars handcrafted in the Sunshine Coast of BC, Canada.
Chad Ibison bio:
American guitarist Dr. Chad Ibison has captivated audiences across North America and abroad through his imaginative musical interpretations and charismatic stage presence. Hailed through critical acclaim, Chad has been described as “very versatile in terms of contrast and range of expression” (Classical Guitar Canada) with “masterful phrasing combined with technical precision” (ClassicalGuitar.org). Composer Gregory Sullivan Isaacs, in the Fort Worth Star Telegram, describes Ibison’s impact as a performer; “Chad gave an incendiary performance. His approach was, at the same time, aggressive and intimate. He melded with the instrument, and the result was brash, expressive and technically secure.” Along with his critical acclaim, Ibison has accumulated ten first place awards among his eighteen top prize wins at international guitar competitions including The Guitar Foundation of America, JoAnn Falletta Concerto Competition and Boston’s New England Conservatory Guitarfest. He participates regularly at guitar festivals as a performer, teacher and judge.
Chad is a member of the Ibison Guitar Duo, where he and Dr. Janet Grohovac performs throughout the US and abroad. Recent concerts include their 2025 tour in Chile, a tour throughout western Canada including a one week residency at Calgary’s GuitarFest West, a residency at the esteemed Brevard Music Festival in North Carolina, along with a Southeast tour in Nashville, TN, Columbus, GA and Troy, AL. They have also performed at the Music by the Sea festival in Victoria, BC, Ticino Musica’s concerts in Lugano, Switzerland, concerts in Taxco, Mexico, Houston’s Classical Guitar Festival and Competition, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee concert series, Austin Classical Guitar’s series, and Austin’s radio stations KMFA and KVRX.
Chad is also a member of the Austin Guitar Quartet. In 2019, the quartet performed and recorded Nico Muhly’s “How Little You Are” with the Texas Guitar Quartet, and the Grammy Award Winning groups, Los Angeles Guitar Quartet and Conspirare under the direction of Craig Hella Johnson. The 2020 album, “The Singing Guitar” on the Delos label, reached #15 on the Billboard traditional classical charts in its first week and was reviewed favorably by BBC 3 Radio. In 2022, the album was nominated for a Grammy.
Chad resides in Austin and is currently a Professor of Guitar and directs the ensemble at Austin Community College and maintains a private studio in Hyde Park.
Janet Grohovac
Canadian-American classical guitarist, Dr. Janet Grohovac, is a passionate performer and sought after instructor based in Austin, Texas. Janet holds Doctor of Musical Arts and Master of Music degrees from the University of Texas at Austin and a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Victoria, British Columbia. As a dynamic concert artist, recent performances include appearances at the Festival Internacional de Guitarra de Taxco, Mexico with the Ibison Guitar Duo, and solo concerts for Austin Classical Guitar Society’s Salon and Cactus series, the Central Valley’s Guitarraganza festival in California, and Victoria Conservatory of Music’s Summer Guitar Academy in Canada. Dr. Grohovac has accumulated many top prize awards in competitions including: 1st place as a soloist in Southern Guitar Competition and Northwest Guitar Competition, and was a finalist in the international guitar competitions at Montreal, Lone Star Guitar Festival, Tennessee, and Dallas.
Janet is a member of the Ibison Guitar Duo, where she and Dr. Chad Ibison perform throughout the US and abroad. Recent concerts include their 2022 Southeast tour in Nashville, TN, Columbus, GA and Troy, AL. They have also performed at St. Barnabas’ concert series in Canada, Ticino Musica’s concerts in Lugano, Switzerland, Houston’s Classical Guitar Festival and Competition, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee concert series, Austin Classical Guitar’s Cactus Café series, and Austin’s radio stations KMFA and KVRX.
Janet is also a member of the Austin Guitar Quartet. In 2019, the quartet performed and recorded Nico Muhly’s “How Little You Are” with the Texas Guitar Quartet, and the Grammy Award Winning groups, Los Angeles Guitar Quartet and Conspirare under the direction of Craig Hella Johnson. The 2020 album, “The Singing Guitar” on the Delos label, reached #15 on the Billboard traditional classical charts in its first week and was reviewed favorably by BBC 3 Radio. In 2022, the album was nominated for a Grammy.
In addition to performing, Janet is an avid professor and directs the guitar program at Concordia University. She also directed the guitar programs as professor at Huston-Tillotson University and Texas Lutheran University and is invited regularly to teach masterclasses and adjudicate competitions at universities and guitar festivals throughout North America. Janet has also served as a clinician for the Lullaby Project through Carnegie Hall’s Musical Connections Program.
Updated: October 15, 2025