Exactly on November 1, 2025, GitarreHamburg will celebrate its 25th anniversary. What began in 2000 as an exchange platform for young guitarists and teachers has developed over the past few years into one of the most successful institutions in the field of promoting young musicians in Hamburg. Since then, offerings such as the "Hamburger Gitarrentage" concert, course, and workshop series, the international "Hamburger Gitarrenfestival," the "HANSE GUITAR CUP" young talent competition, the "Gitarre Billstedt" project, the information portal www.gitarrekonkret.de, and many more have established themselves in Hamburg's music scene. In 2011, all projects were consolidated under the umbrella of GitarreHamburg.de gGmbH.
A central component of the youth development program is "Hamburg's flagship guitar ensemble" (acoustic guitar magazine) - the JugendGitarrenOrchester Hamburg (JGOH), which won first prize in this year's German Orchestra Competition. To mark its anniversary, it will perform a concert at the Albert Schweitzer School (Schluchtweg 1 / Stübeheide entrance, 22337 Hamburg) at 7:00 p.m. on November 1, 2025. The auditorium of this school, with its special educational significance, was deliberately chosen as the venue, as it was here that GitarreHamburg's first guitar ensemble began rehearsing.
Concert “25 Years of GuitarHamburg”
with the Hamburg Youth Guitar Orchestra
Date/Time: 01.11.2025, 19:00
Location: Albert Schweitzer School Auditorium (Schluchtweg 1 / Entrance Stübeheide, 22337 Hamburg)
Admission: Free, donations welcome
Argentina tour program for 2025: To mark its anniversary, the young ensemble will present a program of European and South American compositions on a concert and encounter tour in Argentina from October 15 to 30, 2025, with stops in Buenos Aires, Mar del Plata, and Bahia Blanca. Works by Máximo Diego Pujol, Andrés Villamil, Jorge Cardoso, Patrick Roux, Edward Elgar, Maurice Ravel, Johann Sebastian Bach, Olga Amelkina-Vera, and many others will be performed.
Youth Guitar Orchestra Hamburg | With the Youth Guitar Orchestra Hamburg, the JGOH Junior Team North, and the JGOH Junior Team East, founded in 2020, GitarreHamburg—a recognized provider of independent youth welfare services since 2025—organizes three free ensemble programs for Hamburg's children and young people. In recent years, the members have won well over 300 prizes in the Jugend musiziert competition, including first prizes with the highest scores in the final national competition. In 2025, the Hanseatic city's "unofficial" youth guitar ensemble was awarded first place in the German Orchestra Competition, where it had already been a prizewinner in 2012. In 2011, 2015, 2019, and 2024, it won first prizes in the state orchestra competition "Orchestrale" four times in a row. In addition to concerts at the Elbphilharmonie, Laeiszhalle, Rolf Liebermann Studio, and the Fabrik, as well as tours at home and abroad, the young ensemble has attracted attention with six self-produced CD and DVD productions. With the JGOH Junior Teams East and North, it has two of its own youth ensembles, where children can prepare for later participation in the "big" JGOH.
Chronology of successes: JGOH successes as pdf
Further information:
Internet – www.jgo-hamburg.de
Facebook – www.facebook.com/gitarrenorchester
Instagram – www.instagram.com/jgo_hamburg/
YouTube – www.youtube.com/gitarrehamburg
GitarreHamburg.de gGmbH | GitarreHamburg.de, a non-profit limited liability company, is the sponsor of several successful guitar-related projects in Hamburg. In addition to the intensive work surrounding the Hamburg Youth Guitar Orchestra and its young ensembles, the Hamburg Guitar Days and the International Hamburg Guitar Festival (winner of the Hamburg-Nord Cultural Prize in 2010) host inexpensive to free concerts, courses, and workshops with internationally renowned guitarists from a wide variety of styles. Free open masterclasses with top guitarists such as Pepe Romero, the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, Carlo Marchione, and many others are held regularly. From 2003 to 2025, the supported young guitarists won well over 300 prizes in the "Jugend musiziert" competition, including first national prizes with top scores. In 2022, GitarreHamburg, in collaboration with the Haspa Music Foundation, will host the young guitarist competition for the first time...
