South Korean guitarist Young Taek Jo has been crowned winner of The 2024 Adelaide International Classical Guitar Competition. He collects a $10,000 prize, a guitar built by Australian classical guitar luthier Jim Redgate (valued at $23,000), and secures a performance engagement with the 2025 Adelaide Guitar Festival.

Young Taek Jo, the 2024 Adelaide International Classical Guitar Competition winner. Photo © Kyahm Ross

Greek-born, Paris-based Sotiris Athanasiou was awarded the $4,000 second prize, and Japanese guitarist Nene Yokomura was awarded  the $2,000 third prize.

Entrants for this year’s competition included guitarists from countries including Australia, the US, Spain, Malaysia and Germany.

The Adelaide International Classical Guitar Competition was founded in 2010 as a part of the Adelaide Guitar Festival. This year, the competition joined the World Federation of International Music Competitions, which includes over 110 international music competition and is a part of UNESCO’s International Music Council. The 2023 Competition winner, South Korean Guitarist Deion Cho, featured in a recital in this year’s Adelaide Guitar Festival.

Other past winners include Andrew Blanch, Miles Johnston, Andrey Lebedev and...