Guitarist Richard Savino will make his San Diego Guitar Festival debut with a special finale concert held in Rhapsody Hall at the School of Music and Dance at San Diego State University, a fitting conclusion for the festival's 2018 season. Grammy-nominated guitarist/lutenist Richard Savino has been a featured performer throughout the US and abroad. Mr. Savino has studied with Oscar Ghiglia, Eliot Fisk, Albert Fuller, and received his Doctor of Musical Arts degree from SUNY at Stony Brook where he studied under Jerry Willard. He is presently a Collegiate Professor at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and Professor of Music at the California State University at Sacramento. Early in his career, Mr. Savino was chosen twice by Maestro Andres Segovia to perform in master-classes at the Conservatoire de Musique in Geneva, Switzerland, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and twice at the International Segovia Fellowship Competition sponsored by New York University. In 1985, he became the first solo guitarist to be chosen as a winner at the Artists' International Carnegie Recital Hall Debut Competition. His extensive discography of over 30 CDs as a director, soloist or principal performer on the Harmonia Mundi, Naxos, Koch, Stradivarius and Dorian labels includes the first period instrument versions of Luigi Boccherini's guitar quintets (3 CDs), Mauro Giuliani's Grand Quintetto and Johann Kaspar Mertz's Bardenklänge, all of which have received great critical acclaim. Now in its third season, the San Diego Guitar Festival promotes guitar artistry through educational opportunities and performances presented by world-class artists. Accessible to the community, the festival engages the next generation of guitarists and guitar enthusiasts in the Southern California region.