The Ibison Guitar Duo with Josh J. Searles & Celso Machado

About Ibison Duo:

"Superb and sublime" - Austin American-Statesman

The Ibison Guitar Duo, Chad Ibison and Janet Grohovac, are Grammy-nominated guitarists whose performances have been praised as “superb and sublime" (Austin American-Statesman) while presenting a "refined and elegant style" (This is Classical Guitar). The duo performs throughout the US and abroad with recent appearances at the Festival Internacional de Guitarra de Taxco, Mexico; Christ Church Cathedral series, Canada; Ticino Musica’s concerts in Lugano, Switzerland; and the Houston Classical Guitar Festival and Competition. Both hold Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from The University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Ibison has won many top prizes in competitions including the prestigious Guitar Foundation of America and the JoAnn Falletta Concerto Competition. Dr. Grohovac won 1st prize awards at the Southern Guitar Competition, and the Northwest Guitar Competition. Chad was the Teaching Assistant to Professor Adam Holzman at UT-Austin for 5 years and is the Professor of Guitar at Austin Community College. Janet is the Professor of Guitar at Concordia University Texas. They also manage their own very successful Austin-based guitar studio where the duo teaches close to seventy students a week. Janet and Chad perform on Martin Blackwell guitars handcrafted in the Sunshine Coast of BC, Canada.

About Josh J. Searles:

Josh is a multi-talented classical guitarist, composer and music producer. Searles has been performing music throughout his life from a very young age. He has performed across Canada, US, the UK and Spain. He holds a masters degree in Classical Guitar Performance from the prestigious program at University of Alicante, having studied with some of the worlds most celebrated virtuoso guitarists, Grammy winning David Russell, Manuel Barrueco and Sergio Assad. Prior to Spain he studied with world-renowned Brazilian guitarist and percussionist Celso Machado and virtuoso Cuban guitarist Iliana Matos.

A music producer and composer with two decades of experience, his newest foray has taken shape under the name Ghost Orchid. In 2022 he was awarded a grant from the Canada Arts Council for the creation of a full album and live performance of his avante garde hybrid classical guitar and electronic music. The album released independently in Dec 2023, will be fully released for streaming in Dolby Atmos 7.1.4 in the spring of 2024. Ghost Orchid is booked to perform some of Canada's most innovative music festivals and venues in 2024.

About Celso Machado:

Virtuoso guitarist, percussionist, multi-instrumentalist, and composer Celso Machado transports his audiences through the richness and diversity of Brazilian music and beyond. He has performed and taught master classes throughout Europe and the Americas. Celso was named World Solo Artist of the Year at the 2008 Canadian Folk Music Awards and his last four CDs have been nominated for Juno Awards. Celso is equally well known as a composer; his compositions for guitar and ensemble are published by Editions Henry Lemoine in Paris and have been recorded by many fine guitarists worldwide.