Global guitar stars bring magic in their fingertips

Eighteen years ago, while traveling to Frankfurt, Taiwan-based musician Huang Chia-Wei came across a group of German finger-style guitarists at a musical-instrument exhibition. He was struck by the distinctive sounds made by plucking the strings directly with the fingertips, fingernails, or picks attached to fingers, which spanned a broad range of genres, including folk, jazz and blues, and intrigued by the guitarists' techniques, like finger picking, strumming and harmonics. As soon as he returned home, Huang began digging into finger-style guitar playing.

"That's when the obsession started. I knew that's the thing I wanted to do with my life," says Huang. His interest grew into a guitar club in Taiwan, which gathered and trained finger-style guitarists. He also wrote several books introducing this style and has released five studio albums since 1998.

The International Finger-Style Guitar Festival, another brainchild of Huang's, will see its sixth year in 2015. With headliners including Jacques Stotzem from Belgium, Claus Boesser Ferrari from Germany, and Americans Justin King and Trace Bundy, the festival will come to Beijing and Shanghai in July and then move on to South Korea, Malaysia and Vietnam.

"I want people to share the feeling I had 18 years ago in Germany when I saw those finger-style guitarists performing. That feeling is unforgettable," says the 49-year-old Huang, who will perform himself this year. "Though finger-style guitar shows are not mainstream in the market, I believe that this festival is much anticipated by a group of loyal fans just like people who await the Carnival of Brazil."

German solo guitarist Ulli Boegershausen, who performed at the festival last year, agrees that this specialty guitar scene is finding its feet in China. He adds that it's always hard to attract big audiences with instrumental music played on a virtuoso professional level. On the other hand, finger-style guitar music has won new popularity among young people worldwide due to the Internet.

"The audience was very enthusiastic, especially the young people who mostly played guitar themselves," recalls Boegershausen, who was invited by Huang for a concert tour to Taiwan in 1998. The two toured the Chinese mainland together in 2009.

Besides concerts, Boegershausen did a guitar workshop in Beijing's Baroque Academy and connected with some of his biggest fans.

"It was a wonderful experience to see how eager these young people were to learn about my style of playing and arranging," he says. "Huang has been consistently promoting acoustic guitar events in Asia. I hope to return to perform in China again with him next year."

Huang says that he does not just invite the established guitarists but also young talents. This year, he has 18-year-old Japanese guitarist Kanaho joining the festival.

"It will inspire our young audiences, who want to learn guitar," says Huang.

Born in Tanjung Balai in Indonesia's North Sumatra province, he started to play guitar at 16 after watching his classmate play it well. In 1986, Huang went to Taiwan to study mechanical engineering at National Cheng Kung University and has lived there since. In the 1990s, he sang at local restaurants and piano bars, and wrote pop music.

"The instrument leaves something magical for both the players and listeners, on a personal and spiritual level," he says.

However, Huang says, people usually start learning the guitar at a young age and stop playing it after they take full-time jobs.

"It saddens me that Asian guitar stars, such as South Korea's Sungha Jung and Japanese guitarist Kotaro Oshio, have all graced the stage but I cannot find a Chinese guitarist," he says. "If I could have a jam session with any artist someday, I hope it would be someone from China."

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chennan@chinadaily.com.cn