The 2020 Andrew Britton Fellowship winner is Damián Martín Gil. Damián (b. 1978) earned a Diploma in Classical Guitar (2002), BA in Physical Education (2002) and MA in Classical Guitar Performance (2008). He won the first prize at the “Young Performers of Extremadura” competition in 2001 and has obtained grants from institutions such as Junta de Extremadura, Caja Badajoz, Fundación Antonio Gala and The Research Council of Norway.

Since 2010 he has been teaching guitar at the Conservatory ‘Hermanos Berzosa’ in Cáceres (Spain). He is presently also completing a master’s degree in historical musicology at La Rioja University (Spain) with a thesis analyzing the guitar technique in Paris in the times of La Guitaromanie.

His articles have been published in leading guitar journals such as Il Fronimo (Italy) and Soundboard Scholar (USA). He has also presented papers at various international conferences including the Lake Konstanz Guitar Research Meeting, the Norwegian Guitar Conference in Oslo and the ‘Norba Caesarina’ Guitar Festival (Spain).

This year’s competition drew excellent candidates from many countries, including Guatemala, America, and Israel. each submitting a wide range of research proposals. Damián will give a paper at the next Consortium meeting in April 2020.