Wes Montgomery Competition Finalists: Pick the Winner!

The 5 finalists for the Wes Montgomery international Jazz Guitar Competition were announced on September 1, 2015 (for background read my earlier post here or visit the website here). In alphabetical order they are:

• Roland Balogh from Budapest, Hungary.
• Pasquale Grasso from Italy.
• Lucian Gray from Toronto, Canada.
• Michael Valeanu born in Paris but now residing in New York.
• Dan Wilson from Akron, Ohio, US.

I have included their video submissions below (you can find their other submissions on the website here). After listening to the finalists, I have my favorites. Can you pick the winner? What do the selections tell you about the criteria used by the judges (compare your guesses to mine here).












The 30 semi-finalists were announced in September (here). What is a bit surprising to me is that Graham Dechter was not a finalist. I've included Graham's video submission below. My guess is that Graham is considered an already established guitarist.



Graham is playing a great song by Josh Nelson "Takin' It There". In a future post, I'll analyze the songs that were used in the submissions and give you a chance to match your technique to the finalists.

The winners will be announced at a concert given by the finalists on October 10, 2015 at Merkin Concert Hall in New York City. If you're free, it should be interesting!