A McCall, Idaho tradition since 2012, this week-long festival of classical and pops orchestra concerts returns in 2025 with Boise Philharmonic Music Director, Eric Garcia, at the helm as Artistic Director and Conductor.
In 2025, all concerts will be held at Mountain Life Church, 14180 Hwy 55, McCall Idaho
Schedule of Events:
7:30 pm: McCall MusicFest Orchestra opens 2025 opens Guitarist Mak Grgic
Touted as a "gifted young guitarist" by the New York Times, and "a guitarist to keep an eye on" by the Washington Post, 3-time Grammy-nominated artist Mak Grgic (GER-gich) is a star on the worldwide stage. An expansive and adventurous repertoire attests to his versatility and wide-ranging interests. From the ethnic music of his native Balkans to extreme avant-garde and microtonal music, his roles as soloist, collaborator, and Grammy-nominated recording artist are fueled by curiosity, imagination, and boundless energy. As a testament to his versatility and wide-ranging appeal, in 2018 Mak was invited by legendary singer-songwriter k.d. lang to perform as the opening act for the North American leg of her Ingénue Redux Tour.
An avid new music proponent, Mak has commissioned a multitude of new works for solo guitar and guitar with ensemble. Some of these include works by Michael Gordon, Julia Adolphe, Nina Senk, Leon First and Cengiz Eren, to name a few. In fall 2022, he premiered and toured a newly commissioned guitar concerto by Michael Abels, composer for the Oscar-winning motion picture Get Out, while future concerto commissions include those by composers Vito Zuraj, Austin Wintory and Christopher Tin.
In North America, he has performed at Walt Disney Hall (Los Angeles); The Morgan Library; The Kennedy Center; the National Gallery of Art; NAMM Show (California); Strathmore Hall (Maryland); the New York Classical Guitar Society; the Pacific Symphony; Mainly Mozart (San Diego); Beyond Microtonal Music Festival (Pittsburgh); the Dallas Opera for performances of Peter Maxwell Davies's The Lighthouse; Dumbarton Concerts (Washington, D.C.); the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society and numerous other venues and guitar societies across the globe.
Highlights of the '24/'25 season include appearances with the Pacific Symphony, Charleston Symphony, Boise Philharmonic, Sedona Symphony and the East Coast premiere of "Borders," by Michael Abels with the American Composers Orchestra in Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall.
An enthusiastic recording artist, Mak's albums capture a probing and continuous exploration of the world of guitar and all its possibilities. His most recent album "Entourer" is a celebration of Slovenian music, bringing to life the work of Slovenian composers Leon First and Nina Senk, for which it received a Grammy nomination. Together with the Ensemble Dissonance strings group, the music ranges from classical to ethnic to avant-garde. Other recent recordings, "Balkanisms" for Naxos Music plus "MAKrotonal" and Grammy-nominated "Mak|Bach" for MicroFest Records, explore a vast repertoire spanning ethnic music, microtonal, new music and early music on re-fretted instruments, such as a "zig-zag fretted Bach prototype guitar" that allows him to create a "well-tempered guitar" for "Mak|Bach." Mak is also featured on another Naxos release, "La Buena Vida" with flamenco guitarist Adam del Monte. Other albums include a Grammy-nominated project "A Night in Upper Town - the Music of Zoran Krajacic on Roundtone; "Peaceful Guitar" on Symphonic, Mak's first recording of his own compositions; and an upcoming all-concerto recording for Rodrigo's "Concierto de Aranjuez," Abels' "Borders," and "The Beatz" by Leon First with the Slovenian National Radio Symphony.
Born in Ljubljana, Slovenia, in 1987, Mak studied guitar in Zagreb with the revered Ante Cagalj at the Elly Basic Music Academy. By the age of 14, he was balancing his world champion status in karate with his love for the guitar. Following an injury to his left thumb, he made the decision to focus solely on a career in music, going on to complete a bachelor's degree with Alvaro Pierri at the University for Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. In the fall of 2017, he began the Artist Diploma program at USC, the first guitarist in the university's history to be admitted to this elite program. Mak currently holds a full-time teaching position at University of South Carolina.
Additional Dates:
