The Alhambra Guitarras Foundation recognises the career of Radio Clásica RNE with its International Award for Excellence in Guitar 2025.
The award will be presented on 26 March at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid.
The event will feature a concert by the classical guitarist Julia Trintschuk in which she will perform pieces by Fernando Sor, Manuel de Falla, Joaquín Rodrigo and Francisco Tárrega.
This is the third edition of this annual prize, which has already awarded guitarist Pepe Romero and the Fundación Victoria y Joaquín Rodrigo.
The classical guitarist Julia Trintschuk
The Alhambra Guitarras Foundation has announced the winner of the International Guitar Excellence Award, an award created in 2022 with the aim of rewarding and disseminating the work of excellence carried out by personalities, groups or public or private institutions (performers, composers, associations, festivals, publishers, record companies…) in the field of the Spanish guitar.
In this third edition, this award, which in its three years of history has become a benchmark of recognition in the world of the guitar, has gone to Radio Clásica of Radio Nacional de España, the only public radio channel dedicated to classical music that dedicates many spaces in its programming to the dissemination of the Spanish guitar. Radio Clásica has paid great attention to the dissemination of the guitar by broadcasting different slots in its different programmes and in July 2011 it launched the programme ‘La Guitarra’, directed by Ángel Sánchez Manglanos, dedicated exclusively to the dissemination of the Spanish concert guitar.
This was the decision of a jury made up by the nine members of the Foundation’s Board of Trustees. In the words of its artistic director, José Luis Ruiz del Puerto ‘to award our International Award for Excellence in Guitar to Radio Clásica is to reward an entire 60-year career, the same as that of Alhambra Guitarras. Its incessant and tireless work for the benefit of the dissemination of any style of music is deserved and has brought us enormous emotional benefits over the decades’.
The award ceremony will take place on 26 March at 12 noon at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid, presided over by the composer Tomás Marco, during a ceremony in which the president of the Fundación Alhambra Guitarras, José Botella, and the artistic director of the foundation, José Luis Ruiz, will present the award to the recently appointed director of Radio Clásica, Eva Sandoval.
During the event, which will be attended by numerous personalities from the cultural and musical world, the international concert pianist Julia Trintschuk will perform works by Fernando Sor, Manuel de Falla, Joaquín Rodrigo and Francisco Tárrega.
With this recognition, Radio Clásica joins a list of award winners that will grow year after year and which was inaugurated by the internationally renowned guitarist Pepe Romero, winner of the first edition, and the Fundación Victoria and Joaquín Rodrigo, winners of last year’s edition.
A wooden design intimately linked to the guitar
The design of the prize to be awarded on 26 March reproduces the foundation’s logo: an ‘A’ for Alhambra, which stands for excellence, in red, in honour of the monumental palace built in Granada and which gives its name to the foundation.
The piece is made of wood, the material from which the Spanish guitar has traditionally been made. Likewise, its base is made of six pieces of Cameroonian ebony, in reference to the six strings of the guitar, which can also be seen in the six thin lines simulating strings that appear at the bottom of the foundation’s logo. The use of wood from Cameroon is no coincidence, since the most valuable guitars are built with this noble and exotic wood; in fact, the base has no type of treatment or varnish, as the ebony fretboard is the only part of the guitar that has continuous contact with the air.
In short, a design intimately related to the values represented by this Award: wood, originality, foundation and, above all, excellence and guitar.
Guitarras Alhambra: A history of values, commitment and love for the guitar.
Located in Muro de Alcoy (Alicante), Manufacturas Alhambra S.L. was founded in 1965 with the mission of creating stringed musical instruments. This year marks its 60th anniversary and throughout its history the company has always been at the side of young students and teachers, knowing their needs and supporting their initiatives. The continuous work for improvement and the knowledge of the needs of the guitar world have meant that, in recent years, competitions such as the Alhambra International Guitar Competition (CIGA) and the awarding of Alhambra international scholarships have become permanent activities.
The Alhambra Guitarras Foundation takes over the baton and the work done so far by Manufacturas Alhambra and aims to become an international institution for the promotion of the classical guitar and its culture. Its projects such as the Concurso Internacional de Guitarra Alhambra (CIGA), the Projects “Pepita, Guitar in the Classrooms” or “Guitars in Prison” aim to consolidate a calendar of actions for the promotion, dissemination and diffusion of the Spanish guitar with a wide-ranging educational, cultural and social character. Its programme of international scholarships and inter-institutional collaborations aimed at students, performers and composers have become a benchmark for supporting the training and consolidation of the guitar music profession.