Running through August 9, this year’s festival serves as a flagship cultural event celebrating both the 70th anniversary of the Ho Chi Minh City Conservatory of Music's founding and seven decades of classical guitar development in the country.
Over the past 14 years, the Conservatory has successfully hosted 10 editions of the festival, fostering international musical exchange and drawing thousands of local concertgoers and foreign tourists.
Positioned as a prestigious international gathering, the 2026 edition brings together more than 20 acclaimed guitarists from Argentina, Poland, Denmark, the Czech Republic, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam. Throughout the festival, artists will collaborate and perform, presenting a vibrant tapestry of cross-cultural traditions and diverse global guitar styles.
On the opening night, "Concert 1 – Heart, Soul and Passion" presented audiences with a captivating performance featuring multiple generations of guitarists from the Ho Chi Minh City Conservatory of Music. The program featured the Saigon Guitar Quartet, Vietnam’s pioneering classical guitar quartet comprising Nguyen Thanh Huy, Nguyen Tri Doan, Huynh Ba Tho, and Tran Hoai Phuong, alongside The Winners Duo, featuring Ricky O. Hermansyah from Indonesia and Vuong Quoc Anh from Vietnam, and Danish oboist Joakim Dam Thomsen.
This year's festival features a series of six elaborately produced concert nights, each centered around a distinct theme designed to take listeners through diverse emotional landscapes and aesthetic spaces.
Following the opening performance, subsequent nights will cater to classical guitar enthusiasts through themed concerts, including "Concert 2 – Renaissance to Modern". "Concert 3 – Roses of SIGF: Asia & Europe," "Concert 4 – Guitar & Woodwind Chamber," "Concert 5 – The Winners," and the closing performance, "Concert 6 – Dances of the Festival."
