• Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • Features
  • Campus News
  • CSUDH.edu
  • Contact
  • People
    • Staff Spotlight
    • Faculty Highlights
    • Alumni
  • Magazine
  • For Journalists
    • CSUDH In The News
    • Press Releases
    • Facts and Figures
    • Find Media Experts
    • Gallery
    • News Reporting on Campus

CSUDH News

The primary source of news and information about California State University, Dominguez Hills, its students, faculty, and staff.

You are here: Home / Archive / Features / Music student, guitar player Carlos Bolivar wins solo performance at LA symposium

Music student, guitar player Carlos Bolivar wins solo performance at LA symposium

November 3, 2015

Carlos Bolivar with guitar
Music student Carlos Bolivar wins solo performance at Guitar Foundation of America symposium.

While just looking to have a little “fun,” Carlos Bolivar, a music education major at California State University, Dominguez Hills (CSUDH) won first place at the Guitar Foundation of America’s (GFA) Regional Symposium and the opportunity to play solo guitar during the GFA’s Evening Showcase Concert on Oct. 17 in downtown Los Angeles.

“I didn’t plan or prepare to compete, but my instructor Mathew Greif suggested that I should, so I did—to just have fun, meet other guitarists and to get feedback from the judges,” said Bolivar, who competed against 22 others in the college and pre-professional category during the performance auditions. “Since I didn’t have the mindset that I might win, I didn’t feel nervous or pressured to perform. I was very comfortable. I think that is why I won.”

The GFA is the nation’s leading guitar organization and largest multi-national guitar society. GFA members benefit from a full-range of educational and performance resources. In addition to holding regional symposiums, the foundation hosts a national convention and competition that draws performers, educators, and guitar enthusiasts worldwide.

Bolivar competed in morning performance auditions against guitar students from such universities as USC, Vanguard University, and CSU Northridge.

Carlos BolivarScott Morris, supervisor of the Guitar Studies Program at CSUDH; Matthew Greif, a member of the Grammy-winning Los Angeles Guitar Quartet who also provides private lessons in classical and guitar jazz for the music program at CSUDH; and David Isaacs, a new music faculty member who teaches guitar, served as judges during the solo guitar auditions. They did not, however, judge competitions that featured CSUDH students.

“I am very proud of Carlos for playing as well as he did. He was not intimidated by the students from the bigger, more established music schools. He made us all look really good!” said Morris, who directed the GFA national convention in 2007 when it was hosted by CSUDH.

Along with the evening concert, symposium participants had the opportunity to perform in the event’s Symposium Guitar Orchestra and in the evening recital, which was conducted by Grammy Award winners Andrew York and Scott Tennant. Many attended the College Guitar Ensemble Showcase, heard some of the top college guitar chamber ensembles in the nation, and sat in on guitar technique workshops to better hone their skills and to interact with peers.

“While the auditions were going on in the morning I attended a class about guitar improvisation. I learned that the way students learn scales and pieces in class is a bit square, even non-artistic to some extent,” said Bolivar. “You do have to learn it that way—it’s mostly memorizing—but when it comes to playing in a live setting to perform something like jazz, it’s much more difficult. So he gave us practice ideas to develop more fluently—to be able to improvise more.”

After he graduates from CSUDH, Bolivar plans to earn a graduate degree and is thinking about applying to USC or Pepperdine University before launching his professional career.

“In 10 years I see myself being a music director at a church,” he said. “I can also see myself performing for audiences, recording albums, maybe teaching at a school—doing everything that I possibly can to live off of music.”

Filed Under: Features Tagged With: Students

Recent Features

Ricardo Martinez with fellow youth commissioners at an outreach event in 2022.

Toro Makes an Impact as Youth Commissioner

January 12, 2023

At 23, CSUDH junior Ricardo Ortega Martinez Jr. is already a veteran in California politics. “My advocacy and community organizing started at the age of 17,” says Martinez, a political science major whose early experience with foster care growing up in Huntington Park helped shape the focus of his current advocacy ... Read More

Ken Seligson with The Maya and Climate Change book in foreground

New Book Explores the Resilience of the Ancient Maya

December 2, 2022

Throughout human history, civilizations have had to adapt to ever-shifting environments in order to survive—whether sudden, catastrophic climate events, or gradual changes that span centuries. These human-environmental relationships are at the center of The Maya and Climate Change (Oxford University Press, Nov. 2022), ... Read More

Helping Student Vets Chart a Path to Success

November 10, 2022

Tucked away on the third floor of Leo F. Cain Library, the Veterans Resource Center (VRC) may be small, but it exerts an outsized influence on the lives of students making the challenging transition from military service to academic life. “The Veterans Resource Center is the reason I’m here today and about to ... Read More

... see all Featured Stories

Footer

California State University, Dominguez Hills Logo

1000 E. Victoria Street, Carson, CA 90747
1-310-243-2001 • Send Email

Related Sites

  • csudh.edu
  • magazine.csudh.edu
  • gotoros.com

EMAIL NEWSLETTER

Get CSUDH News directly in your inbox

Copyright © 2023 · California State University, Dominguez Hills