KINGSTON, R.I. – Sept. 23, 2025 – Renowned classical guitarist Adam Levin founded the University of Rhode Island Guitar Festival in 2015 with a vision to innovate, bring people together around the guitar, and establish URI’s classical guitar program as a destination for education and performance.
“My goal was to give back by creating a sanctuary where anyone—regardless of age or level—could come together to grow as guitarists and feed their musical muse,” said Levin, the festival’s artistic director and head of URI’s classical guitar program.
“My mentor Eliot Fisk always told me, ‘It is your responsibility to create opportunities where they didn’t exist before. The phone isn’t going to pick itself up—you have to take the bull by the horns and make things happen,’” he added. “That really resonated with me and served as the fuel to make this festival a reality.”
Ten years later, the new URI Guitar and Mandolin Festival, which returns Oct. 19-26, has grown from a one-day symposium he started with his “closest guitar friends” into a multi-day festival that celebrates the classical guitar as well as its related plucked-instrument siblings – adding mandolin, oud, harp, sitar, and more – and features performances from internationally renowned musicians. Not to mention, the festival offers robust education programs in guitar and mandolin from world-class artists.
This year’s festival will be the largest yet. Along with about a dozen concerts in and around the URI campus, it will offer a growing list of international competitions, workshops, private lessons, master classes, and lectures. The festival offers numerous ticket options for concert-goers and students of the guitar and mandolin. (For information on guitar and mandolin education programs and competitions, check out the festival website.)
Leading the festival’s list of performers this year are Grammy-nominated icon Tommy Emmanuel, one of a handful of people honored as a “Certified Guitar Player” by finger-style legend Chet Atkins, and virtuoso classical guitarist Meng Su, a faculty member at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music who mixes a busy solo career with regular tours with the Beijing Guitar Duo and as a soloist for orchestras. Emmanuel and Su will perform during the festival’s closing weekend.
“Within the United States, we’re shoulder-to-shoulder with the biggest and most profound festivals and competitions out there,” said Levin, a performer and recording artist with numerous albums that have reached the top 10 on Billboard’s Traditional Classical Albums Chart. “And I’m proud to say that this year we’re eight days long, we’re offering 11 performances, and three competitions. And Tommy Emmanuel is coming. It doesn’t get more A-list than that. We’re among the top mixed classical festivals in the world.”
As it did last year, the festival will open Sunday, Oct. 19, with a full day of music at the General Stanton Inn in Charlestown from noon to 5 p.m. The lineup features a mix of classical, jazz and progressive styles, opening with Levin, who will perform solo and with longstanding Duo Sonidos partner violinist William Knuth. The day will also feature bassist Joseph Bentley, a teacher of classical bass at URI; classical guitarist Thatcher Harrison; the Peter Hand Trio; and the Nashville-based indie band Quentin October.
On Monday, Oct. 20, at the Courthouse Center for the Arts, 3481 Kingstown Road, West Kingston, at 7:30 p.m., the festival will feature a lineup of soloists from the festival’s faculty–mandolinists Ekaterina Skliar, Dor Amran, and Norberto Cruz, and guitarists Ceili Connors, Victor Main, Jim Davidson, and Raffi Donoian, all Rhode Island natives. On Tuesday, Oct. 21, at 7:30 p.m., the festival’s international guitar and mandolin competition winners – guitarist Kostis Zachariadis from Greece and mandolinist Francesco Russo of Italy – will take the stage at the Courthouse. The night will also include Enoc Leiton, winner of The National Costa Rican Guitar Competition.
On Wednesday, Oct. 22, at 7:30 p.m., Duo Mantar – Levin and mandolin virtuoso Jacob Reuven – will perform the world premiere of “Seasons of Change” by the festival’s composer in residence, Curtis Stewart, a six-time Grammy nominated violinist and composer. The classical quartet the Texas Guitar Quartet will close out the night at the Courthouse.
The festival will change gears on Thursday, Oct. 23, as it shifts to Edwards Hall, 64 Upper College Road, Kingston, presenting a night of fusion. The trio of world-renowned tabla player Amit Kavthekar, Purbayan Chatterjee on sitar, and Grammy Award-winning guitarist Mark Lettieri will blend Indian classical music with a modern twist. Kavthekar and Michel Shein, an artist and teacher of cello at URI, will join French multi-instrumentalist Mathias Duplessy for the second half of the show. The concert starts at 7:30 p.m.
Canadian guitarists Adam Cicchillitti and Steve Cowan, known for their artistry and innovation in expanding the guitar duo repertoire, will perform Friday, Oct. 24, at Edwards Hall at 8 p.m. They will be followed by husband-and-wife duo Caterina Litchtenberg, Germany’s foremost classical mandolinist, and Mike Marshall, one of America’s most prominent bluegrass mandolinists.
Emmanuel will perform Saturday, Oct. 25, at 8 p.m. in Edwards Hall. “He was a guitar hero of mine growing up,” said Levin. “In the finger-style world, he is an icon. His artistic flair, his songwriting, his entertainment value is second to none.” Also on Saturday, students in the Elite Mandolin Soloists will perform at 4:30 p.m. at St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church on URI’s campus.
On Sunday, Oct. 26, Su, a faculty member at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music along with her recording and touring career and her blazing fast technique on the classical guitar, will close out the festival with the gala finale concert in Edwards Hall, starting at 5:30 p.m.
Opening the night, an orchestra of classical guitarists, led by conductor Scott Borg, will perform the world premiere of “Sofia’s Trip to Disney World.” The orchestra will bring together numerous organizations, including members of Levin’s guitar education organization, Kithara Project, and Sing Me A Song, a nonprofit organization that pairs young people facing health hurdles with composers and singer-songwriters to bring their stories to life through music. Written by New England composer Thatcher Harrison, “Sofia’s Trip to Disney World” is based on a story by Sofia, a 7-year-old Rhode Island girl who is battling cancer.
“We will have 50 to 60 classical guitarists on stage giving the world premiere of this fun and quirky piece not only for the audience but for Sofia and her family for the first time ever,” said Levin. “It will be a very emotional and evocative moment for everybody.”
The festival will also feature several free concerts. On Thursday, October 23, The Elite Mandolin Soloists will give a 5 p.m. performance at URI Hillel. On Saturday, Oct. 25, the semifinalists of the Young Artists Division of the festival’s guitar competition will take the stage in the URI Fine Arts Center Concert Hall at 9:30 a.m. The finals will be held Sunday, Oct. 26, at 12:30 p.m. at the Fine Arts Center. Also on Sunday, students from the festival’s education program – the Mandolin Lovers Ensemble, Rising Stars Ensemble, and community ensembles – will perform at 2 p.m. at Edwards Hall.