A three-day guitar festival at the Mondavi Center — sponsored by the UC Davis music department — will offer several free events as well as two formal evening concerts, featuring musical styles and influences ranging from classical to flamenco to jazz, as well as cutting-edge modern composition and music drawing on Asian tradition.

Many different kinds of guitars will be featured, including flamenco guitar and steel guitar, as well as early instruments like the theorbo and lute, which were forerunners of the modern guitar.

Among the visiting performers will be David Tanenbaum, who has appeared as soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the San Francisco Symphony, the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra and the Minnesota Orchestra, among others.

Tanenbaum chairs the guitar department at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and he has released some three dozen recordings, including the 2003 disc “Serenado” (on the New Albion label), which contains some of the music he will perform at this guitar festival.

All events take place in the Vanderhoef Studio Theatre at the Mondavi Center.

* Thursday, Jan. 19, 12:05 p.m., free: Michael Goldberg, guitar, has extensive experience teaching both classical and jazz guitar, and is on the faculty at both UC Davis and UC Berkeley. He has toured throughout the United States as part of the Alma Duo and is also a member of the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, a group devoted to contemporary music performance.

Goldberg has been featured with Empyrean Ensemble, based at UC Davis; Santa Rosa Symphony; Berkeley Symphony; Diablo Valley Ballet; and many other Bay Area groups.

* Thursday, Jan. 19, 2 to 4 p.m., free: Guitarist and lutenist Richard Savino, a recent Grammy Award nominee who teaches at Sacramento State, will bring his collection of early plucked instruments (theorbo, lute, vihuela, renaissance and baroque guitars) to demonstrate the origins of the modern guitar, and how it evolved.

He will demonstrate and discuss how music associated with the modern guitar sounded on the original instruments of the Renaissance, Baroque and Classical periods.

* Friday, Jan. 20, 2 to 4 p.m., free: Guitarist Doug Martin will explain the essential elements of gypsy jazz guitar playing. The first half of the workshop will deal primarily with the le pompe (swing rhythm) style, and the second half will cover devices and characteristics of Django Reinhardt’s approach to solos.

For this portion, Martin’s transcription of Django’s solo from the 1937 recording of “Minor Swing” will be provided for attendees. Guitarists are encouraged to bring a guitar, and observers are welcome.

* Friday, Jan. 20, 7 p.m., $20 for adults and $8 for students/children: Guitarist Marc Teicholz is on the faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. He won first prize in the 1989 International Guitar Foundation of America competition and has traveled extensively throughout America and the world, giving recitals and master classes.

Teicholz’s latest album, “Valseana,” includes works performed on historic guitars of the period for each selection. Works include Mendelssohn’s “Three Songs,” Sergio Assad’s “Seis Brevidades,” J.S.  Bach’s Chaconne in D Minor, and Rodrigo’s “Sonata Giocosa.”

Also performing will be Doug Martin’s Gypsy Jazz Quartet. Martin has performed with some of the finest artists on the West Coast and abroad, including Germany-based gypsy guitarist and composer Lulo Reinhardt, Grammy Award-winning guitarist John Jorgenson, gypsy guitarist Mike Reinhardt, French vocalist Jessica Fichot and jazz guitar virtuosos Howard Alden and Mimi Fox.

Quartet members include Doug Martin, lead guitar; Jason Vanderford, rhythm guitar; Tony Ballog, violin; and Joe Kyle, bass.

* Saturday, Jan. 21, 10 a.m. to noon, free: Guitarist Jason McGuire (“El Rubio”) will cover Rasgueados, Pulgar, Alzapua, Arpeggio and Picado technique in this flamenco workshop in context with some simple variations on important flamenco song forms. Guitarists are encouraged to bring a guitar, and observers are welcome.

* Saturday, Jan. 21, 2 to 4 p.m., free: Four pre-selected players will perform a master class for guitarist Marc Teicholz, who is on the faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Observers are welcome.

* Saturday, Jan. 21, 7 p.m., $20 for adults and $8 for students/children: Tanenbaum, renowned for his classical guitar performances and recordings, will perform with Caminos Flamencos. In 1988, he became the first American guitarist to be invited to perform in China by the Chinese government.

Works to be performed include Ronald Bruce Smith’s “Five Pieces for Guitar and Live Electronics” (2007), Lou Harrison’s “Scenes from Nek Chand” (2001-02) and Steve Reich’s  “Electric Counterpoint” (1987).

Caminos Flamencos is made up of guitarist Jason McGuire, Emmy Award-winning dancer and choreographer Yaelisa and Kina Mendez, a singer from Jerez do la Frontera, Spain.

In 1995, McGuire recorded with flamenco guitarist Carlos Heredia on his album “Gypsy Flamenco,” and released a recording of his own composition, “Distancias,” in 2005.

Tickets for events that require them are available at www.mondaviarts.org or (530) 754-2787.

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David Tanenbaum, who chairs the guitar department at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, has appeared as soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the San Francisco Symphony, the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra and the Minnesota Orchestra, among others. He will be among the visiting performers at a three-day guitar festival next week at the Vanderhoef Studio Theatre at the Mondavi Center at UC Davis. Courtesy photo

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David Tanenbaum, who chairs the guitar department at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, has appeared as soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the San Francisco Symphony, the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra and the Minnesota Orchestra, among others. He will be among the visiting performers at a three-day guitar festival next week at the Vanderhoef Studio Theatre at the Mondavi Center at UC Davis. Courtesy photo

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