2nd prize in ECU Guitar Festival Competition!

Written on 21 July 2024

I had a great time at the East Carolina University (ECU) Guitar Festival Competition, and I'm thrilled to say that I received second place in the open competition! I flew all the way out to Greenville, North Carolina to participate in this competition alongside my friend Nik Divall who drove down from Connecticut. In an amazing stroke of luck, we took the first two prizes in the competition, the first time that's ever happened in the several times we've traveled to these sort of competitions together.

North Carolina was lots of fun. The weather was very dynamic: we experienced both pouring rain and sweltering heat. The first day at the festival, the roads were flooded. Later in the week, it was 100 degrees outside (with humidity).

On the final day, we had to play at 4 PM. Since we were staying with a friend an hour from Greenville, we had to drive a good distance to get to ECU. Just after leaving to head to the university around 1 PM, we got a flat tire on the highway. Luckily, there was an exit right there, and we pulled off to put on the spare. We searched for a tire shop -- but it was Sunday in the south, and everything was closed. It took us nearly an hour to find an open shop, and then a further 30 minutes to get the tire patched. We ended up arriving at the venue at 3:30 PM soaked in sweat. Good thing we left early!

I'll soon be headed to Aspen, Colorado, for the month-long guitar program at the Aspen Music Festival. I'll also soon be receiving a new guitar from the excellent Iranian luthier Saeid Aboutalebian. It's a big step up from my current guitar. Exciting things ahead!