Eva Sandoval, directora de Radio Clásica, junto al director general de Radio Nacional de España, Roberto Santamaría, Presidente y directores de la Fundación Alhambra Guitarras, la concertista Julia Trintschuk, Ayuntamiento de Muro de Alcoy Sergi Silvestre, el director adjunto de la Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, José Luis Turina.
The Alhambra Guitar Foundation presented yesterday, 26th March, its III International Guitar Excellence Award to RNE's Radio Clásica in a ceremony held at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, in Madrid. With this recognition, the Foundation highlights the work of the radio station in the dissemination of music and, in particular, its contribution to the promotion of the Spanish guitar at an international level.
The ceremony was attended by prominent representatives from the world of music, culture and communication. During the event, the attendees were able to enjoy the performance of the guitarist Julia Trintschuk, winner of the first prize at the Alhambra International Guitar Competition (CIGA) in 2024, who gave a brilliant performance that demonstrated the richness and versatility of the instrument and its ability to surprise a totally devoted audience.
In its previous editions, the International Guitar Excellence Award has been granted to prestigious figures and entities, such as the legendary guitarist Pepe Romero and the Victoria and Joaquín Rodrigo Foundation. With this third edition, the Alhambra Guitar Foundation reaffirms its commitment to excellence and the dissemination of the classical guitar as a fundamental pillar of the universal musical heritage.
For Eva Sandoval, new director of Radio Clásica: ‘To receive this award for Excellence from the Alhambra Guitar Foundation is an honour, and, moreover, in the months before Radio Clásica celebrates its 60th anniversary. Six decades with the same objective: to preserve, disseminate and transmit to future generations great music, that very important universal intangible heritage which is what unites us all here today’.
Sandoval also stressed that ‘throughout our history we have taken great care in disseminating music written for the guitar, one of the most widely played instruments in the world. Its polyphonic quality, its warm timbre and its great capacity to adapt to the classical and popular repertoire, give the guitar a great versatility that has won the affection and love of musicians and listeners of all kinds’.
For his part, the president of the Alhambra Guitar Foundation, José Botella Trelis, ‘to give the Award of Excellence to Radio Clásica is to recognise all its work over 60 years, where many masters of the Spanish guitar have been interviewed on its programmes. Radio Clásica has taken great care in the dissemination of the guitar and for musicians and listeners it has been part of their lives as a means of listening, knowledge and promotion’.
The event was attended, among other personalities, by the General Director of Radio Nacional de España, Roberto Santamaría; the Deputy Director of the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, José Luis Turina; Cecilia Rodrigo, daughter of Joaquín Rodrigo and director of the Fundación Victoria y Joaquín Rodrigo; the violinist Agustín León Ara; part of the members of the board of the Alhambra Guitar Foundation and a large representation of presenters, editors and publishers of the Radio Clásica programmes. It was also attended by several internationally renowned guitarists and representatives of academic and cultural institutions from all over Spain.
For more information: José Luis Ruiz del Puerto, Artistic Director of the Foundation
Telephone 610 43 77 06 / Email: dartistico@fundacionalhambraguitarras.org
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.
The Radio Nacional de España (RNE) station dedicated to the broadcasting of classical music was born with the original name of ‘Segundo Programa’ in July 1965, thanks to Enrique Franco, who was its first director.
In 1981, it was renamed ‘Radio 2’ and from 1994 it began to be known as it is today: ‘Radio Clásica’.
In 2024 it celebrates the 30th anniversary of its definitive name and in 2025 it will celebrate the 60th anniversary of its creation as a station dedicated to classical music.
For all music lovers, radio has been, is and always will be a very present medium in our lives. Its incessant and tireless work for the benefit of the dissemination of any style of music is meritorious and has brought us enormous emotional benefits over the decades.
In particular, Radio Clásica has been for music lovers, students and professionals of music, a bottomless ‘well’ of wisdom, of novelties, of continuous discoveries about the history of music, its performers, the works...
Radio Clásica has taken great care in the diffusion of the guitar: (repertoire, authors, performers...) broadcasting records, interviews, presentations... in its different programmes.
July 2011 saw the start of the programme: La Guitarra, directed by Ángel Sánchez Manglanos, dedicated exclusively to the dissemination of the classical concert guitar, a programme that has been broadcast uninterruptedly on Saturday afternoons until June this year.
Radio Clásica has been awarded several important national and international prizes such as the Gold Medal for Merit in Fine Arts, which it received in 2006, and the Ondas Prize in 2023.
The awarding of this Prize is a further recognition of her excellent work in favour of music and the guitar, and joins the two previous editions, in which the brilliant guitarist Pepe Romero (2022) and the Fundación Victoria y Joaquín Rodrigo (2023) received the Prize.
The Award will be presented in person on forthcoming dates that we will announce appropriately.
José Luis Ruiz del Puerto
Director of the Alhambra Guitars Foundation
Enrique Franco, first director of Radio Clásica
