Featured Artists

Dr. Isaac Lausell
Artistic Director (Classical & Jazz Guitar, Composition)

Isaac Lausell has been the chair of the guitar program at Southern Illinois University Carbondale School of Music since 2012. At SIUC Lausell teaches courses in classical and jazz guitar, jazz ensembles, oversees the guitar area, performs and composes music for the jazz ensemble in residence the New Arts Jazztet.

As a recording artist and clinician, Dr. Lausell is active teaching and performing across the U.S., Latin America and Europe. He is the founder of the SIU International Guitar Festival and during the summer teaches at Festival Suoni D’Abruzzo, in the Abruzzo region of Italy.

As a writer, Dr. Lausell has developed methods for jazz improvisation and for classical guitar technique. His approach combines lute, classical and electric guitar technique along with modal, tonal and post tonal music theory models. His writings integrate various academic disciplines such as ethnomusicology, history, physical training and visual arts.

Dr. Lausell has played with artists such as the Altgeld Chamber Players, Ray Anderson, Ignacio Berroa, Coco Freeman, Kenwood Dennard, Ricky Encarnación, Jon Faddis, Frank Gambale, Eddie Gómez, Rick Latham, Eric Mandat, Matt Margvulio, Charles McPherson, Paoli Mejias, Fidel Morales, Zvonimir Tot, Marcello Pellitteri, Marco Pignataro, Proyecto EVIF, Luis "Perico" Ortiz, Bill Smith, Oscar Stagnaro, Norbert Stachel, Stony Brook Baroque Players and Douglas Worthen.

For more info visit: https://www.isaaclausell.com/

MAGIQ Illinois Guitar Quartet
Michael Patilla, Angelo Favis, Guido Sanchez-Portuguez, Isaac Lausell

Michael Patilla (USA) - Patilla currently serves as Dean of Transfer at Carl Sandburg College in Galesburg, Illinois. Prior to his appointment at Sandburg, he was Performing Arts Coordinator at Lincoln Trail College, Associate Dean of Correctional Programs at Lake Land College, and Professor of Music at Mississippi State University, where he created the guitar program and served on the faculty for 18 years. He holds a Doctor of Musical Arts Degree from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, where he studied guitar with Nicholas Goluses and early music performance practice with Paul O’Dette. His other teachers include Julian Gray, Bruce Holzman, Christopher Parkening, and Raphaella Smits. Dr. Patilla has performed and held workshops extensively throughout North America, Europe, and Asia, and held a Fulbright Lecture/Research award to the country of Honduras, where he performed concerts, appeared on various television and radio programs, and collected new works for guitar by Honduran composers for a published book and solo recording project. He has also participated in the Fulbright Senior Specialist Program and served on the National Peer Review Committee for the U.S. Fulbright Scholar Program.

Angelo Favis (Philippines) - Favis has been an active performer of solo and chamber music, giving recitals in the United States and abroad. He has been a featured soloist with the Saigon Philharmonic Orchestra and the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra. Favis has given the world premieres of several works and performed the Illinois premiere of Stephen Goss’ Concerto of Colours with the Illinois State University Wind Symphony. He has served as an adjudicator in several competitions and has taught master classes at the University of the Philippines, Roosevelt University, Mahidol University in Bangkok, Thailand, and the Ho Chi Minh City Conservatory of Music in Vietnam. Favis has recorded two solo CDs, Philippine Treasures, Vols. 1 & 2; both are available worldwide on the VGO label. He earned his B.M. and M.M. in Guitar Performance under Lawrence Ferrara and David Tanenbaum at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and his D.M.A. from the Manhattan School of Music under Nicholas Goluses and David Starobin. He is Professor of Guitar at Illinois State University.

Guido Sanchez-Portuguez (Costa Rica) - Sánchez-Portuguez embarked on his musical path at the University of Costa Rica’s School of Music, graduating with honors in 2001, and then continuing his graduate studies at the Jacobs School of Music in Indiana, completing both a Master’s program and a Doctoral degree under the mentorship of renowned guitarist Ernesto Bitetti. Guido has served as the first guitarist of the Guitar Orchestra of Costa Rica, recording five CDs and touring globally. He has also recorded full albums as soloist, chamber musician, musical director, and producer, including a collaboration with Grammy-winner Sylvia McNair, which became the best-selling album released by the Jacobs School of Music. He has performed alongside luminaries of the music world like Pablo Ziegler, Jovino Santos, Adam Del Monte, Pablo Aslan, Jorge Gómez, Gonzalo Grau, and others. Presently, he holds the position of Clinical Assistant Professor of Guitar and Theory at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and is the founder and director of the U of I Guitar Ensemble and the Illinois Latin American Ensemble.

Isaac Lausell (Puerto Rico/USA) - Lausell is the chair of the guitar program and director of Jazz Studies at Southern Illinois University Carbondale School of Music. At SIUC, Lausell teaches courses in classical and jazz guitar, jazz ensembles, oversees the guitar area, performs and composes music for the jazz ensemble in residence the New Arts Jazztet. As a recording artist and clinician Dr. Lausell is active teaching and performing across the U.S., Latin America and Europe. He is the founder of the SIU International Guitar Festival and during the summer teaches at Festival Suoni D’Abruzzo, in the Abruzzo region of Italy.