Hanse Guitar Festival | “Fingerstyle-Night” mit Jon Gomm, Don Ross & Julie Malia, Jaco Liu und Giovanni Weiss

Friday night at the Hamburg Guitar Festival is always reserved for fingerstyle guitarists, who put on a true guitar extravaganza at the Kulturhof. This year, four fantastic acts are set to perform: YouTube star Jon Gomm, Don Ross & Julie Malia, Jaco Liu, and Giovanni Weiss.

Jon Gomm is a singer-songwriter and solo acoustic guitarist from Yorkshire (UK) who is known for his virtuoso guitar style—an experience you’ll never forget once you’ve seen it. His playing is characterized by techniques such as slapping, tapping, and retuning the strings while playing; in this way, he creates a powerful, multi-layered sound on a single guitar—full of bass, drum rhythms, and an almost orchestral depth and complexity.

His songs are often deeply emotional—whether he performs them with or without his gentle, touching voice. His live performances are both intimate and powerful, yet are always infused with that natural wit and self-deprecating humor typical of the north of England.

In 2020, Jon was voted “Best Acoustic Guitarist in the World” as part of the world’s largest online poll of its kind—conducted by MusicRadar and Guitar World. In 2021, Ibanez Guitars launched the JGM10 and JGM5 models—Jon Gomm’s own signature guitars. He is only the third guitarist ever to have designed a signature acoustic guitar in collaboration with Ibanez; his predecessors were Joe Satriani and Steve Vai.

In 2023, Jon’s song “Passionflower” ranked sixth on *Total Guitar* magazine’s list of the “50 Greatest Acoustic Guitar Songs of All Time”—right behind “Blackbird” by the Beatles and “Tears in Heaven” by Eric Clapton.

Jiazhao Liu “Jaco” is one of the rising stars in the international “fingerstyle guitar scene.” He already enjoys great popularity in his home country of China, as evidenced by his more than one million followers on Chinese social media. In 2017, he won the “WAGF Fingerstyle Competition,” arguably the most prestigious guitar competition in China. Since then, he has shared the stage with renowned guitarists such as Vitaly Makukin, Petteri Sariola, Sönke Meinen, Richard Smith, and many others.

Jaco released his first album, “A Brand New Day,” in 2019. Just two years later, he followed it up with his second album, simply titled “17.” His personal guitar style is influenced by a wide variety of genres—including rock, pop, funk, and jazz—as well as East Asian elements, and it captivates audiences with its virtuosity, intensity, and breathtaking percussive effects.

To refine his compositional and playing techniques, he is currently studying in the World Music program at the Dresden University of Music. While he performs regularly—particularly in China and Vietnam, where he is celebrated by audiences and the press—and has inspired many children and young people in his home country to take up the guitar, Jaco is still relatively unknown in Europe. The concert, part of the “Neue Szene” series at the Hamburg Guitar Days at the Kunstklinik, aims to help change that.

Since March 2024, Liu has been the grand prize winner of the European Guitar Awards, which was open to entries from around the world for the first time.

Giovanni Weiss, born in Hamburg in 1980, has been playing the guitar since he was four years old. Raised in Hamburg-Wilhelmsburg, he still lives there today as part of the Weiss Sinti extended family, which has over 600 members. Since his studies at the Hamburg University of Music and Theater, he has been playing in a trio with his brother Jeffrey Weiss and his cousin Robert Weiss. In 2010, this led to the formation of Django Deluxe, a group dedicated primarily to the music of the great Django Reinhardt.

Giovanni received an ECHO Jazz award in 2013 for the Django Deluxe debut album “Wilhelmsburg” in the category “Instrumentalist of the Year—Guitar (National).” In 2015, Giovanni recorded the second album, “Driving,” with Django Deluxe alongside the NDR Big Band. This collaboration fulfilled a lifelong dream for him, and a year later he won another ECHO Jazz award, once again as Best National Guitarist. Before him, only one of his role models—the world-renowned jazz guitarist Pat Metheny—had achieved this feat.

Giovanni Weiss draws particular inspiration from the music of the legendary Django Reinhardt, but he wants to forge his own path and carry Django’s legacy into the future; in addition to classic gypsy jazz, Wes Montgomery, George Benson, and Pat Metheny are his greatest role models.To broaden his musical spectrum, he also constantly seeks to collaborate with artists from other genres.

Don Ross is undisputedly one of the most important pioneers of modern fingerstyle guitar playing and is celebrated worldwide as one of the best guitarists of his kind. If you ask acoustic guitarists of the younger generation, such as Andy McKee or Antoine Dufour, about their musical role models, the name Don Ross comes up almost reflexively.

In September 1996, he achieved what no other guitarist had managed before him: he won the prestigious U.S. National Fingerstyle Guitar Championship for the second time, following his victory in 1988. He describes his personal style—which blends elements of jazz, funk, folk, rock, and classical music—as “Heavy Wood.”

In 1983, Don Ross completed his studies in composition in the Department of Music at York University in Toronto. As a guitarist and workshop instructor, he is a guest at the world’s most important guitar festivals and concert series dedicated to the acoustic guitar.

Julie Malia (whose “real” name is Jule Malischke) is now regarded both nationally and internationally as one of the most exciting new talents on the current guitar and singer-songwriter scene. Through numerous concerts at home and abroad, appearances at major guitar festivals, and performances on radio and TV, she has earned a Europe-wide reputation and high regard.

What sets Julie Malia apart—and this is certainly a unique selling point—is her musical versatility. With her brilliant guitar playing, she moves effortlessly between the various styles of virtuoso concert guitar repertoire, complex fingerstyle arrangements, and her sung songs, which she presents with great passion and poetry. In doing so, she bridges the gap between classical and jazz, between instrumental and vocal music, between earthy grooves and ethereal sounds—a feat that is truly unparalleled. Her original songs authentically reflect the life of a young woman—with all her longings and dreams. She puts her own spin on the cover songs she occasionally intersperses into her set. In doing so, she plucks, strums, and works her instrument in such a way that a fresh, distinctive sound emerges.