This is a photo of Tanja Miric, a young Serbian guitarist, after playing in my masterclass at the Mississippi Guitar Festival, which is being held on the campus of Belhaven College in Jackson, October 18 and 19, 2006. She gave a very accurate and mature performance of the Elegy of Johann Kaspar Mertz.

I am here at the festival with three of my students, Jared Doner, Ronnie Holder and Daniel Merchant. This is such a great opportunity for them to get to meet guitar students from other schools and play in masterclasses for the other faculty members. On Wednesday evening, we heard an outstanding performance by Adam Holzman, our festival guest artist.

On Thursday, there will be a competition for the students, and Adam will be presenting a masterclass, where my student Jared Doner will be playing. I will post more information about these other festival events later.

Visit my website at http://www.michaelpatilla.com

Email me at guitar@colled.msstate.edu