Michael Colina:

New York-based composer Michael Colina is equally at home in the classical and jazz worlds.

After 25 years of helping others create their music as a multiple Grammy® winning jazz composer and producer, Colina is focusing today on the music that he has always dreamed of creating for himself. His most recent works reflect a new, classical direction, one that pulls threads from jazz, classical, and his Cuban-American heritage.

Examples of this new classical direction include The Isles of Shoals, a solo for flute and orchestra; The Idoru Piano Trio for piano, violin and cello; The People, an orchestral work for Richard Kuch commissioned by the Boston Ballet; and a modern dance score, A Time of Crickets, commissioned by Pauline Koner and supported by The National Endowment for the Arts.

Colina, born of Cuban-American heritage, studied composition at the North Carolina School of the Arts with Vittorio Giannini, Louis Mennini (brother of composer Peter Mennin) and Robert Ward. He continued studies at the Chigiana in Sienna, Italy with Thomas Pasatieri and Roman Vlad. He was the first recipient of the Vittorio Giannini Memorial Scholarship award.

As a jazz writer and producer, Michael Colina has written music for television, film, theatre, dance and the concert stage for more than 20 years, and has produced CDs for greats like Bob James, David Sanborn, Michael Brecker, Marcus Miller, Bill Evans, Michael Franks and Marilyn Scott. He has also worked alongside recording legends like George Benson, Earl Klugh, James Taylor, Linda Ronstadt and Bonnie Raitt, and his music has been performed throughout the United States, Europe and Japan.

He has three Gold Records to his name, and has been nominated for four Grammy® awards and won three in the field of Contemporary Jazz. His score for the 1985 Mary Tyler Moore-Robert Preston film Finnegan Begin Again, co-composed with saxophonist David Sanborn, won an ACE Award for Best Film Score.

Micaela Pittaluga:

Daughter of Michele Pittaluga, the Founder of the Alessandria International Guitar Competition, Micaela Pittaluga is the President of the Pittaluga Competition and has been the head of the Organizing Committee since 1995. She studied performing arts, music and architecture (Laureate of the University of Florence) and from 2003 to 2008 was President of the Board of Directors of the Vivaldi Conservatory of Music in Alessandria. Currently, she officially represents the Alessandria Competition at the World Federation of International Music Competitions.

Ernesto Bitetti:

Ernesto Bitetti has performed with orchestras worldwide, including chamber orchestras in England, Italy, Switzerland, Prague, Munich, Israel, and Zagreb, and the symphony orchestras of London, Munich, Frankfurt, Suisse Romande, Madrid, Hamburg, Liverpool, Saint Louis, Stuttgart, BBC, Jerusalem, Buenos Aires, and others.
Mr. Bitetti received Spanish National Awards records from 1979 to 1985. He was a member of the Composers Society of Argentina and Spain from 1976 to 1988. He has performed world premieres of works by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Joaquin Rodrigo, Tomas Marco, and Anton Garcia Abril. Mr. Bitetti has recorded on the EMI International and Deutsche Grammophon labels.

• "Bitetti is a concertist without frontier" -- Madrid ABC
• "A star of the guitar" -- Amsterdam Het Parool

"Ernesto Bitetti is a classical guitarist of the highest calibre"

Ernesto Cordero:

Composer and guitarist Ernesto Cordero (born in 1946 in New York and raised in Puerto Rico) has composed a large rich catalogue distinguished by its Caribbean flavor. He has written eight concertos (four for guitar, two for violin, one for flute-piccolo and one for the Puerto Rican cuatro), a variety of chamber works in which the guitar appears in diverse ensembles and numerous guitar solos, some of which have become standards. He has received important awards for composition and his music is performed and recorded worldwide by the finest artists. To date, there are more than forty recordings of Cordero's works and most of his several dozen compositions have been published by leading publishers.

Ernesto Cordero began his higher studies in 1963 when he entered the Conservatory of Music in Puerto Rico and he continued at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Madrid, Spain where he earned a diploma in 1971. Subsequently, he did post-graduate work in composition with Roberto Caggiano in Rome, Italy from 1972 to 1974 and with Julian Orbón in New York from 1977 to 1978. He first studied guitar from 1961 to 1964 with Jorge Rubiano and he later worked with several teachers, most importantly Regino Sainz de la Maza in Spain in the 60s and Alírio Díaz and Claudio de Angelis in Italy in 1972. Since 1971 he taught composition and guitar in the music department of the University of Puerto Rico. In addition to his activities as composer, performer and teacher, Ernesto Cordero, was music director since 1980 to 1997 of the International Guitar Festival of Puerto Rico. He is in demand throughout the world as a distinguished participant in leading competitions and festivals.

Laura Oltman:

Guitarist Laura Oltman has received acclaim for her recital and chamber music performances throughout the world.  THE NEW YORK TIMES described her debut performance at Carnegie Recital Hall as “remarkably successful—sensitive, well proportioned, and large on lyrical feeling.”

Laura is Co-Founding Director of Raritan River Music and the New York Guitar Seminar at Mannes.