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North American Rock Guitar Competition Winner Announced


North American Rock Guitar Competition winner, Les Robot

The winner for the North American Rock Guitar Competition is Les Robot of Edmonton, AB.

Robot has been named as best rock guitarist during the 6th Annual WNED Buffalo Niagara Guitar Festival, which was co-presented by WNED and the University of Buffalo Centre for the Arts. He was awarded $1,500 and a Les Paul Classic from Gibson. He also received the Tommy Tedesco Award. “This event is beyond what I expected,” he says. “I came to Buffalo thinking this would be a beautiful holiday and ended up part of the ultimate rock show. I couldn’t be happier.”

He first started his guitar career in an abandoned house on his parent’s farm. Since then he has toured across Canada with Raddway, The Martin Andrew Band and Specula Black. He is now working on his second album that will be released in late 2006 with a Canadian tour following.

The runners up were Ron LoCurto of Kenmore, NY and Jamie Holka of Niagara Falls, NY. LoCurto received $1,000 and a Gibson Les Paul Studio guitar for coming in second place and Holka received a Gibson guitar and trophy for coming in third.

Five finalists were selected from nearly 100 applicants from the US and Canada. The CD recordings were judged on technique, accuracy, range and variety, choice of material, melodic and rhythmic creativity and overall artistry and musical expression. The final performances were judged by musician Johnny Hiland; Associate Editor for Guitar Player magazine, Jude Gold; Vernon Reid of Living Colour and Masque; Brett Scallions, bassists of The X’s and Fuel; Abby Gennett, lead singer and guitarist of Slunt; bassist Stuart Hamm; Kat Dyson, guitarist for Prince and Cyndi Lauper and Gibson Guitar Executive, Frank Johns.

“With the help of our industry partners, we are proud to showcase the talents of these remarkable guitarists, including several homegrown Buffalo-Niagara musicians,” said WNED’s President and CEO, Donald K. Boswell. “As the Competition continues to grow in stature, I hope this exposure will help bring their careers to the next level.”

For more information, visit www.guitarfestival.org.

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