Some of the world’s finest guitarists will gather for Ellnora | The Guitar Festival, an event presented by Krannert Center for the Performing Arts at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. The biennial event will stage more than 20 performances by artists rooted in the United States, South Africa, India, Canada, England, Australia, Spain, Croatia, and Norway.
For 2013, ELLNORA will feature again an artist-in-residence. Austin-based Dobro/steel guitar master Cindy Cashdollar will collaborate with Dan Zanes and Friends, Kevin Breit’s Sisters Euclid, The Lee Boys, and others throughout the three-day guitar celebration.
Luther Dickinson, the 2011 artist-in-residence will also be back—this time with a musical configuration that joins Delta traditions with an eclectic set list and the all-female ensemble The Wandering. Legendary bluesman Buddy Guy also returns.
The international acts at ELLNORA 2013 include Norwegian musician Andreas Aase on a guitar-bouzouki hybrid, South African Derek Gripper who plays Malian kora music with influences from four continents on a nylon-string classical guitar, Andalusian flamenco guitarist Paco Peña, Hindustani slide guitar master Pandit Debashish Bhattacharya, and French-born impressionist/gypsy jazz composer Stephane Wrembel. ELLNORA will also welcome Sam Bush, Del McCoury, Jonny Lang, Del Castillo, John Scofield, El Ten Eleven, Dweezil Zappa, and many other American musicians.
ELLNORA, which takes the name of its venue’s visionary founder, Ellnora Krannert, also provides an essential showcase for some of today’s most prominent female artists. In addition to Cindy Cashdollar and the women of The Wandering, female artists for 2013 include jazz and tap guitarist Kaki King, the classically trained Ana Vidovic, jazz guitarist Sheryl Bailey, and country rocker Lucinda Williams.
Originally known as the Wall to Wall Guitar Festival before being rechristened ELLNORA in 2009, the event is organized by Krannert Center’s director, Mike Ross, and his staff in collaboration with artistic advisor David Spelman, who is also founder/artistic director of the New York Guitar Festival. In the years since its debut, ELLNORA has served as a model for other events in the United States and around the world.
Krannert Center for the Performing Arts will incorporate seven distinctive performance spaces—both indoor and outdoor, both formal and informal—that make it uniquely suited to showcase the festival’s range. This year’s incarnation of ELLNORA incorporates 11 individually ticketed events, along with 11 free shows (including concerts by Del Castillo, Buke and Gase, Gyan Riley, and El Ten Eleven) and even more events still being planned.
Author: World Music Central News Room
World music news from the editors at World Music Central
