Home » Blog » Grant Benefits Shenandoah Guitar Festival

Grant Benefits Shenandoah Guitar Festival

Shenandoah Conservatory Event in June Welcomes Pros, Students and Anyone Who Loves The Instrument

A $13,000 grant from The Augustine Foundation is supplementing Shenandoah Guitar Festival operations this summer. 

The festival brings together guitar professionals, students, amateurs, enthusiasts, and a local and regional audience to celebrate the art of the guitar through concerts, masterclasses, presentations, and a participant guitar ensemble. The June 27-29 festival, held at Shenandoah Conservatory on Shenandoah University’s main campus in Winchester, Virginia, includes a lineup of world-class performers and educators. 

The festival’s director is Colin Davin, M.M., director of Shenandoah’s Guitar Studio and associate professor of guitar. Guest artists include Sharon Isbin, Rafael Padron, Jocelyn Gould, the violin-guitar duo ArcoStrum, and Nicoletta Todesco, who also directs the festival’s guitar orchestra. 

Shenandoah Conservatory, Virginia’s oldest center for performing arts training, is a perfect fit for the guitar festival, as it has a long legacy of shaping musical and performing arts in Virginia and beyond. It is an incubator for groundbreaking initiatives and home to award-winning students and faculty as well as some of the nation’s top performing arts degree programs.

Although the classical guitar is at the core of the Shenandoah Guitar Festival’s programming, the festival also embraces the brilliant and deep artistry of guitarists from other genres. Festival organizers believe that the history and traditions of the guitar demonstrate a profound integration across cultures, styles, time, and place.

The Augustine Foundation was established approximately 45 years ago through a donation by Rose Augustine, whose husband Albert Augustine developed modern classical guitar strings, which are still sold through Augustine Strings/Albert Augustine, Ltd.

Learn more about the Shenandoah Guitar Festival >

Categories: , , , ,

Recent News

Camilla Hollen and Zoe Star stand with a sign for the Future Africa Campus at the University of Pretoria in South Africa.

Shenandoah University PA Student Presents Research At International Conference

Zoe Star ’24, ’26 attended the International Academy of Physician Associate Educators Conference in South Africa

Mural outside of Allen Dining Hall, painted by artist Sarah Callahan, featuring bright, rich colors, including a sunrise/sunset, pink and blue blossoms, and iconic Shenandoah and Winchester structures.

Mural Makes Over Allen Entrance

Exciting New Look Brings Added Vibrancy To Shenandoah University’s Main Campus

2025 Shenandoah Top Ten

The Shenandoah Top 10 for 2025

As an another exciting year at Shenandoah closes, we’re taking a few moments to look back at our top videos, posts and stories of 2025 – our sesquicentennial year.

The 2025 Shenandoah University Marching Band celebrates in the stands.

Class of 2026 Reflects on the Growth and Evolution of the Marching Band

Seniors become the first students to spend all four years in the band

Monthly Archives