Contest brings international guitarists to Bigfork

The newest event to the Crown of the Continent Guitar Festival is the semifinals of a high-profile international guitar competition.

The Lee Ritenour Yamaha Six String Theory Guitar Competition semifinals will be staged on the Crown Festival Stage in Flathead Lake Lodge in Bigfork. The event will run from 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday. A $20 donation is suggested at the gate.

Hundreds of people from 52 countries entered this year’s Six String Theory competition, said David Feffer, Crown of the Continent Guitar Foundation’s chairman. From those entries, 36 were named semifinalists, who were then narrowed to 14 “supersemifinalists.”

Those semifinalists include:

• Andy Bacon (acoustic), from Banff, Alberta

• Jonathan Finley (acoustic), from St. Paul, Minn.

• Rami Halperin (blues), from Yelm, Wash.

• Viktor Geczy (blues), from Budapest, Hungary

• Karl Marino (classical), from Laval, Quebec

• Ben Pila (classical), from Los Angeles

• Calum Graham (country), from High River, Alberta

• Jamie Dupuis (country), from Los Angeles

• Colin Cook (jazz/fusion), from McLean, Vt.

• Yoav Eshed (jazz/fusion), from Ramat Hasharon, Israel

• Felix Carcone (jazz/fusion), from Mirabel aux Baronnies, France

• Italo Cunha (jazz/fusion), from Cambridge, Mass.

• Isaias Mechillemoti (rock), from Racife, Brazil

• Alex Sill (rock), from West Hills, Calif.

One person from each category will move on to the finals, which will take place in the Bigfork Center for the Performing Arts at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday. Tickets to that show are $50.

All of the semifinalists will get to attend classes and participate in workshops throughout the festival, Feffer said.

“It’s a great experience for them to get a chance to be part of this,” he said.

Tickets for the semifinals, finals and other Crown of the Continent Guitar Foundation concerts are available at Nancy O’s, Donna Shanahan Interiors and Electric Avenue Gifts in Bigfork; at Sportsman & Ski Haus in Kalispell and Whitefish; at Bonelli’s Bistro in Kalispell; at SM Bradford and Co. in Whitefish and Bigfork; and at the Glacier National Park Fund office in Columbia Falls.

Tickets are also available at www.cocguitarfoundation.tix.com or by calling 249-4671.