Eleanor Kelly (1995) is a classical guitarist based in Merseyside, UK.

 

Eleanor has extensive experience as a performer and recent engagements include Palacio del Portalet (Spain), Kings Place, London (UK), and Finding A Voice festival (Ireland), where she was Artist-in-Residence. In 2021, she was selected as an International Guitar Foundation Young Artist and made her London debut as part of the scheme and premièred works commissioned by IGF for her. In 2020, she performed at Uppsala Internationella Gitarrfestival (Sweden) after being awarded a EuroStrings Scholarship.

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A passionate advocate for women in music, Eleanor specialises in lesser-known repertoire by both historical and contemporary women composers. She gave the Irish première of Claudia Montero's Latin Grammy award-winning guitar concerto Luces y Sombras with ConTempo String Quartet in 2023, and the British première with Musica Argentina Ensemble in 2019. Eleanor has also premièred a number of new solo works by women: as an Illuminate Women's Music Artist, upon commission by IGF's La Leona scheme, and as a Faculty Artist at the Classical Minds Guitar Festival.

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In 2021, Eleanor graduated from the prestigious 'Máster en Interpretación de Guitarra Clásica' course at Universidad de Alicante, Spain, where she studied with the world's foremost performers and teachers including: David Russell, Ignacio Rodes, Ricardo Gallén, Hopkinson Smith, Xavier Díaz-Latorre, Tilman Hoppstock, and Roberto Aussel. In the same year, she was also awarded an ESTA PGCert in Plucked Strings Teaching from the University of Chichester.

 

Eleanor gained a Distinction in her MMus in Classical Guitar Performance from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in 2024 after studying with Helen Sanderson, John Mills, and Zoran Dukic. She has also taken masterclasses with Leo Brouwer, Petrit Çeku, and Sean Shibe.

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Eleanor plays a 2023 Steve Toon cedar guitar.

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