TheBakersfieldCalifornian.com

Chilean guitarist Carlos Perez will perform in concert at the Dore Theatre as the final touch to CSUB's second annual Guitar Day on Saturday.

Guitar students, teachers and enthusiasts will be able to immerse themselves in all things guitar at the event, which begins at 9:30 a.m.

Events include rehearsals for classical guitarists to participate in a late afternoon of student recitals and a performance as the CSUB Guitar Orchestra, performing "Vals" and "Bondens Sang" by Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg, "Gymnopedie I" by French composer Erik Satie. Guitarists performing in all genres of music will be able to attend master classes with CSUB faculty Roger Allen Cope and Jim Scully, and Perez himself.

Students who have qualified for the master classes and who show enough ability will be invited to perform in recital. That concert starts at 4 p.m.

Scully said the event is funded by community sponsors as well as instructional funds, and funding from the university's First Year Experience program, a grant-funded program designed to assist incoming freshmen.

"Part of what they do includes supporting cultural events, so they contacted us and asked if they could help us," Scully said.

Scully said broad-based activities like Guitar Day are important in encouraging junior high school and high school students to think about college.

"Eighty percent of our students are first generation college students, mostly Hispanic," Scully said. "Last year 50 of the 60 students who attended Guitar Day were from out of the area -- Lindsey and Delano."

"That goes to our larger mission to bring students to campus to hopefully de-mystify college for students who would otherwise have no opportunity to walk onto a college campus," Scully said.

The all-day Guitar Day is part of a growing number of guitar-focused activities in Kern County, including the university's Guitar Arts Series, which features performers of national and international stature in concert. While students register and even audition to participate in the daytime activities, Scully stresses that the event is open to the public and all activities, including the evening concert by Perez is free.

Carlos Perez began to earn his international stature when he graduated with top honors from the University of Chile. He spent a decade of his performing career winning major international compositions in South America and Europe, and is regarded as one of the leading classical guitarists in the world.

"When Perez won the (Spanish composer) Joaquin Rodrigo competition in Spain, Rodrigo's daughter came up and handed Perez a manuscript of a work by her father that had never been published," Scully said.

"She left it to Perez to take it, interpret it and perform it."

Scully said Perez will perform the "Grande Sonate" by Ferdinando Carulli, "Four Pieces Breve pour la guitare" by Frank Martin, the "Fantasy" by Mikhail Vysotksy, and Perez's own transcriptions of the Cello Suite, BWV 1009 by J. S. Bach, and "Four Pieces" by Ernesto Nazareth.