• 2023 San Diego Classical Mandolin Camp, August 14-19


    SAN DIEGO, CALIF. — The 2023 San Diego Classical Mandolin Camp, led by classical mandolinist, composer and educator Chris Acquavella will take place August 14-19, 2023 at Handlery Hotel San Diego.

    The 10th Annual Camp will explore the depth and breadth of the classical mandolin, from baroque to modern times, through five days of classes, orchestra rehearsals, and evening concerts.

    SDCMC is very excited to welcome this year's artistic staff, Chris Acquavella, Iain Lennon, and Takaaki Shibata. The Camp strives to create a fun musical experience for mandolinists of all ages and abilities. Chris, Iain and Takaaki will lead attendees through a well thought out curriculum of the classical mandolin's technique and repertoire, as well as music history. Throughout the week, there will be featured artist concerts with the final evening culminating with the SDCMC orchestra performance. SDCMC offers two classes per day, daily orchestra rehearsals with all three instructors, evening concerts & events as well as a final SDCMC orchestra performance at Kensington Community Church.

    Full SDCMC Participant tuition for the 2023 SDCMC is $495, which includes all classes, orchestra rehearsals and performance, music/class materials and evening concerts. Tuition cost does not include food or lodging. The Handlery Hotel is offering a special room rate of $139/night (plus tax). Special rate is available three (3) days prior to or three (3) days following your group dates, SDCMC will run from Monday, August 14 – Saturday, August 19, 2023.

    NOTE: Full tuition scholarships are available for participants under the age of 21 years old. Please contact Chris Acquavella directly through his web site to inquire.

    L-R: Chris Acquavella, Takaaki Shibata, Iain Lennon

    Faculty Bios

    Chris Acquavella - graduated First Class Honors from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music & Dance, London. Chris studied mandolin under the instruction of Alison Stephens and composition with Andrew Poppy. He won the Wolfsan Foundation Music Award; was awarded the TCM Trust Silver Medal for String Studies and won 1st Prize at the 2016 Call For Scores hosted by the Kalamazoo Mandolin & Guitar Orchestra. Chris Acquavella has released four CDs and performs across Europe and America. He has performed as a soloist & orchestral musician with various orchestras throughout the world including Duo Acquavella (DE), Dartington Festival Orchestra (UK), Detmold Landestheater (DE), Ensemble Lippe Barock (DE), GER Mandolin Orchestra (USA), Bach Collegium San Diego (USA), San Diego Opera (USA) and the San Diego Symphony (USA). He has performed and taught workshops at the Classical Mandolin Society of America Conventions, River of the West Camp, the David Grisman & Mike Marshall Mandolin Symposium, the annual course of the Austrian Federation of Amateur Musicians (VAMÖ), the Summer School of the British BMG Federation as well as being founder and Director of the San Diego Classical Mandolin Camp. Acquavella is a published composer of new mandolin repertoire with Joachim-Trekel-Musikverlag, Hamburg and Astute Music Ltd, UK. J.S. Bach - Giga from Partita No. 2, BWV1004.

    Iain Lennon - Iain Lennon was introduced to the mandolin at the age of 11 in Scotland. After graduating from the University of Glasgow in 2017 (where he had lessons with Barbara Pommerenke-Steel and Chris Acquavella), he moved to Germany and completed his master’s degree with full marks under Prof. Caterina Lichtenberg, Annika Hinsche and Mike Marshall at the Cologne Academy of Music and Dance/ Wuppertal. Iain Lennon was a prize winner at the 2019 Modena International Solo Mandolin Competition. He has performed solo around the United Kingdom, at the San Diego Classical Mandolin Camp (2017) in the USA and since 2019 with Musiktheater im Revier Gelsenkirchen as well as the Cologne Opera in Germany. He has appeared in various pop and rock formations, has worked as a church musician and has been concertmaster of the British Fretted Orchestra and Jugendzupforchester NRW. He is also a keen chamber musician and is a founding member of Chordofonia chamber orchestra for plucked strings, Alafia Ensemble and Ensemble del Pesciolino. Iain Lennon regularly leads workshops, tutors mandolin, and is also a committee member of the British BMG Federation. Since 2018 he has been musical director of numerous mandolin and guitar orchestras (in Dortmund, Wuppertal, Kirchhellen and Troisdorf) and teaches students of all ages and abilities in music schools and in a private capacity. Maurice Ravel - Toccata: Le tombeau de Couperin.

    Takaaki Shibata - completed the mandolin instrumental pedagogy course at the Musikakademie der Stadt Kassel. He won second place at the 15th Japan Mandolin Solo Competition, third place at the 2 nd International Mandolin Solo Competition in Schweinfurt, and the first place at the 2 nd European International Mandolin Solo Competition in Saarland (both in Germany). He toured with the Ensemble Philmusica, headed by the late Yasuo Kuwahara, performing in Germany and Spain. As a soloist, Takaaki Shibata has been invited to international music festival in Friedrichshafen, Bamberg, Bruchsal(Germany), and Rioja(Spain). He released CDs “Jag vet en dejlig rosa” with the guitarist Keigo Fujii, “Chronicle” with the Mandolinist Goshi Yoshida, “sky blue flower” with the mandolinist Christian Laier, and "Elegy in Winter" with the violinist Motoko Mito, Violist Rieko Kohno, and the cellist Yosuke Ozawa. He wrote a column on the history and technic of the mandolin for 13 years for the mandolin magazine “Kanaderu Mandolin”. At present, Takaaki Shibata performs a mandolin soloist around Japan and lecturer at Osaka College of Music. He is a chairman of Mandolin Orchestra Guild, also Music instructor in Kyoto University Mandolin Orchestra, Uji Mandolin Ensemble Flora and Japan Super Youth Mandolin Orchestra. He has studied under Masaki Kinoshita, Gertrud Weyhofen, and Steffen Trekel. Raffaele Calace – Prelude 14.

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