Miquel Llobet Guitar Competition Brings Its 2026 Final to Barcelona With Brossa Quartet
Three finalists will play with a string quartet on November 15 as the long-running Barcelona competition closes its 23rd edition with an in-person final and awards ceremony.
· Edited by Peter Luha
Credit: mllobet.com
The Miquel Llobet Barcelona International Guitar Competition reaches its 2026 final on Sunday, November 15 at the Municipal Conservatory of Music of Barcelona. Three finalists will perform with the Brossa Quartet before the evening closes with the competition's awards ceremony. The official event page lists an 18:30 start, free admission by reservation and limited capacity.
The final is built around chamber repertoire rather than a standard solo round. Each finalist chooses between Manuel María Ponce's Quatour, in José Alberto Ubach's revision, and Lucas Saboya's Quinteto. A second part of the program gives the Brossa Quartet a Manuel de Falla tribute with guest artist Fix Nicolet, placing the competition final inside the wider Art Llobet festival program.
The 23rd edition began with two online stages. Entrants first submitted Llobet and Falla repertoire, while semifinalists added Falla's Danza del Molinero and Alejandro Marco Gómez Lopera's The Willow and the Storm. The 2026 rules also removed the age limit and kept the competition open internationally. The organization covers travel and accommodation for the three finalists, and the published prize structure puts €3,000 on first place, €2,000 on second and €1,000 on third, alongside concert and special-prize opportunities.
That format makes the Barcelona final more than a conventional recital: the decisive round asks classical guitarists to work inside a chamber setting after progressing through video-based qualifying stages. For players following the international competition circuit, it is a current snapshot of how one established guitar contest is combining digital access with a live collaborative final.
Credit: YouTube
Why it matters
The final puts three international classical-guitar competitors into a live quartet setting and turns a long-running Barcelona contest into a useful marker of how guitar competitions are evolving beyond solo-only formats.
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