Francisco Tárrega International Guitar Competition

Repertoire requirements

• Preselection · 15 min
  • A repertoire of free choice that may include works (or movements) and in which, necessarily, will include: “Prelude nº1 in D minor” (2nd series) Ed. Berben and "Studio-Scherzo” (T. Damas) Ed. Bèrben by FRANCISCO TÁRREGA. This round will not exceed 15 minutes.
• Sessions · 25–30 min
  • Freely chosen works, among which must include, obligatorily, “Danza Mora” by FRANCISCO TÁRREGA and a freely chosen work by the same author. The program to be performed will have a minimum duration of 25 minutes and a maximum of 30 minutes, and may not include the works presented in the Preselection phase.
• Final Session
  • a) A guitar and orchestra concerto to choose from: Fantasía para un Gentilhombre Ed. Joaquín Rodrigo, Concierto de Aranjuez Ed. Joaquín Rodrigo, Concierto para una Fiesta Ed. Joaquín Rodrigo. b) Works by FRANCISCO TÁRREGA of free choice that have not been performed in previous phases of the Competition, and whose maximum duration does not exceed 9 minutes.

Official website

https://www.certamenguitarrabenicassim.com/noticias/

Visiting? A guitarist's guide to Benicàssim

Photo: Martin Cox from Benicasim, España, CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

If you love the classical guitar, few weeks are more worth building a trip around than the Tárrega competition in Benicàssim. The Certamen Internacional de Guitarra "Francisco Tárrega," held here since 1967, is the oldest guitar competition in Europe, and it takes place in Tárrega's own province of Castellón, on the Costa del Azahar, where a relaxed Mediterranean beach town turns the final rounds into a small festival by the sea. Come for the playing, and you find yourself in the guitar's own country; come for the coast, and the music finds you.

Getting there

Fly into Valencia, and the whole coast opens up from there. From the airport (VLC), the metro reaches the city centre in about twenty minutes, and from València Nord regular trains run north up the Mediterranean line to Benicàssim in a little over an hour, calling at Castelló de la Plana just to the south, much of the ride with the sea off to your right. Valencia has the widest connections by far; the small Castellón–Costa Azahar airport (CDT) sits closer, with a handful of Ryanair routes, if the timings happen to suit. Once you are on the coast, you barely need a car: the town is walkable, and the trains up and down the shore are frequent.

Compare trains, buses & flights to Benicàssim on Omio →

Spain runs on Type F sockets, standard across most of Europe, so you will only need a travel adapter if you are coming from the UK, Ireland, or beyond Europe.

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Where to stay

Benicàssim is an easy town to settle into for a few days around the concerts, a relaxed resort strung along six kilometres of sandy beach, where you are never far from the sea or a good seafront lunch. Base yourself near the promenade or in the old centre, and you can walk to everything, including the concert venues; the town is also known for the belle-époque villas along its Voramar seafront, a reminder of the resort's genteel early days. Rooms go quickly in high summer and around the festival, so it pays to book ahead.

What you'll hear

The Tárrega competition draws the finest young guitarists in the world, and its winners' list reads like a roll-call of the instrument's greats: David Russell, Ana Vidović, Marko Topchii. The early rounds range widely across the repertoire, with a prize set aside for the best playing of Tárrega's own music; but the night to be there is the final, when each finalist plays a Rodrigo concerto (the Concierto de Aranjuez, the Fantasía para un gentilhombre or the Concierto para una fiesta) with orchestra.

And all week you are standing in the guitar's own country. Francisco Tárrega, whose name the competition carries, and whose Recuerdos de la Alhambra and Capricho Árabe every guitarist knows, was born just inland at Vila-real, a short hop from Benicàssim; after his death in Barcelona in 1909, he was brought home to be buried in Castellón, where his pupil Daniel Fortea now lies beside him, and the town museum in Vila-real keeps a room of his belongings, a genuine pilgrimage, only a few kilometres from the concert hall. Rodrigo, whose concertos close the competition each year, was a son of this same coast, born just down the line at Sagunto. Between Tárrega's Vila-real and Rodrigo's Sagunto lies one short stretch of Mediterranean shore that gave the guitar two of its defining voices, which is why a week here feels less like attending a competition than like visiting the instrument's homeland.

If you play as well as listen, explore the Rodrigo concertos in our repertoire finder, where you can hear each piece and find the sheet music.

The local table

The rice here is the real thing. Arròs a banda, rice simmered apart in a deep fish stock, is the dish of this coast, with arròs negre, dark with squid ink, never far behind. But the delicacy to seek out is the langostino de Vinaròs, the sweet king prawn landed just up the coast at Vinaròs and prized across Spain. Keep one long lunch free for the rice, and book a seafront table for the evening's catch.

Fancy a guided taste? Food and wine tours in Valencia →

While you're there

There is plenty to fill the days between concerts. Behind the resort, the Desierto de las Palmas natural park rises into the hills, its ridges and old Carmelite monastery good for a morning's walk. For a guitarist, two short trips are close to obligatory: inland to Vila-real for Tárrega's museum room, and a little further, just north of Valencia, to Sagunto, Rodrigo's birthplace, where a Roman theatre (the first monument Spain ever placed under protection, in 1896) and a hilltop castle of Roman and Moorish walls look out over the coast, the old Jewish quarter climbing between them. Valencia itself is barely an hour down the line and easily worth a day at either end of the week: the futuristic City of Arts and Sciences with its oceanarium, the Central Market, the Gothic old town around the UNESCO-listed Silk Exchange, and the city that gave the world paella. Up the coast the other way stands Peñíscola, the "city in the sea", a walled old town on a rocky headland crowned by the Castell del Papa Luna, the fortress that sheltered the Avignon pope Benedict XIII and later stood in for Valencia in the film El Cid.

Tours, tickets and day trips in Valencia →

More guitar events in Spain: Alhambra Junior International Guitar Competition (CIGAJ) · Certamen Internacional Andrés Segovia · Certamen Miquel Llobet · CIGA - Alhambra International Guitar Competition · Concurso Ángel G. Piñero · Concurso Internacional de Madrid (FIGUIM)

Also in August: Classical GuitarFest West · Forum Gitarre Wien · Harmonia Cordis International Guitar Festival · International Guitar Competition Maurizio Biasini & Festival · International Guitar Festival in Hersbruck · Japan Guitar Competition

Listing data is compiled from official sources and can change each edition. Always confirm dates, deadlines and requirements on the organizer's official website before applying or booking travel. Spotted an error? See our terms or let us know via the About page.

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