Featured Artists
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, and 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 a soloist, chamber musician, musical director, and producer, including a collaboration with Grammy-winning 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, and 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.
Marcos Vinicius's
Guitarist • Teacher • Composer
Marcos Vinicius's journey with the guitar began in a uniquely magical way at just eight years old. While visiting a bazaar in Congonhas—a UNESCO World Heritage Site—he spotted a guitar hanging from a rope amidst various objects. Instantly captivated, this chance encounter marked the beginning of a lifelong artistic path.
Marcos launched his remarkable career by winning the prestigious international "Villa-Lobos" competition at a very young age. He later earned the Certificate of Merit from the Chigiana Music Academy in Siena, Italy, where he was recognized as the best student of the legendary Oscar Ghiglia.
From the outset, he has performed internationally across diverse stages and countries, including the Vatican City, Spain, Serbia, Montenegro, Mongolia, Ukraine, Austria, the UK, Finland, Turkey, Peru, Cyprus, Poland, Italy, Palestine, Israel, the USA, China, and many more. In China, he serves as the Artistic Consultant for the Xi'an Baroque School of Music, and has performed in esteemed venues such as the National Library Music Concert Hall, Beijing University, and Ningbo Concert Hall.
In his home country of Brazil, he is a frequent guest at festivals and seminars. He also founded and directed Violão América, the country's first guitar-focused magazine, and established the Belo Horizonte Guitar Ensemble.
Among the highlights of his performing career are appearances at the iconic Wigmore Hall in London and the United Nations Headquarters in New York.
The prestigious publisher Carrara (distributed by Schott Music) dedicated an entire series to him—the Marcos Vinicius Guitar Collection. This series includes original compositions, technical treatises, and transcriptions of works by Telemann, Rossini, Bach, Handel, Weiss, Sanz, Paganini, and Pernambuco.
He has collaborated with respected publishers such as Pongo Classica, Rugginenti Editore, Preludio Music, and Sonitus in Italy; Doz Productions in Canada; and Periferia Sheet Music in Spain.
Marcos is often featured in special programs on major radio and TV broadcasters worldwide—including RAI Radiotelevisione Italiana, Vatican Radio, and China's CCTV-9 Music Stories—celebrating his influential work as a performer and composer.
His compositions, praised for their originality, span a variety of formats beyond solo guitar, including works for strings, winds, chamber ensembles, duos, and quartets. He has received several honors, including the Premio Bolgheri Melody (also awarded to Gianna Nannini and former Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi), and the REA Award during the renowned Sanremo Music Festival.
In 1992, after a celebrated performance of Joaquín Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez with the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra—an interpretation so appreciated that Rodrigo personally invited him to his summer residence—Marcos was named Best Solo Player of the Year by Brazilian critics.
In 2004, he headlined a commemorative Mass concert in Milan, organized by the Brazilian Cultural Institute in honor of the late racing legend Ayrton Senna.
In 2010, he was appointed a cultural ambassador for the United Nations and FAO, performing in Jericho—the world's oldest city—during its 10,000-year celebration. He later performed at the UN Central Palace in New York before Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf.
He was also a featured performer at the International Food Day celebration, sharing the stage with Dee Dee Bridgewater, with Jeremy Irons being named Goodwill Ambassador. The event also featured appearances by Carl Lewis, Carla Fracci, Gina Lollobrigida, Pietro Mennea, Nino Benvenuti, Céline Dion, and Roberto Baggio, all supporting FAO campaigns for the Horn of Africa.
His collaborations with orchestras include the Pernambuco Symphony Orchestra, Minas Gerais Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Sinfonica Italiana, and the Kyiv Symphony Orchestra. He has performed in Brazil's major cities—including São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte, Recife, Olinda, Belém, and Florianópolis—and internationally, including at Istanbul's prestigious Cemal Reşit Rey Concert Hall.
Recently drawn back to the expressive power of the human voice—he once sang as a tenor—Marcos composed a stunning Ave Maria for mixed choir, which won the Victoria International Choir Festival in Kiev. He has since continued to compose choral works, including complete Mass settings, Salve Regina, Magnificat, Anima Christi, and others.