Photo Credit: Blaine Schultz
Recently engaged guitarists Millisa Henderson and Max Boras took home first and second place in the ‘Rock’ category.
On Saturday, Aug. 17, the Wilson Center Guitar Festival named winners in five genres: Blues, Classical, Fingerstyle, Jazz and Rock. The three-day Guitar Festival in Brookfield welcomed a total of 61 semi-finalists from 15 cities around the world for a chance at a share of $40,000 in cash prizes and a performance at Milwaukee’s Irish Fest.
“We want our festival to offer emerging guitarists a chance to not just win prize money, but to confirm their calling as artists. To be an artist takes hard work, practice—and just a bit of luck,” said Wilson Center Guitar Festival Manager and Engagement Director Annaliese Wolff.
In the Blues competition, first place was awarded to Roger Schaumann (Canyon Country, Calif.), second place to Jackson Potter (South Miami, Fla.) and third place to Aaron Bissoondial (Wayne, N.J.).
In Classical, Kacey Ellis (Chicago, Ill.) earned first place, second place was awarded to Samuel Hines (Mora, Minn.) and third place was awarded to Yerum Yoon (Columbia, Md.).
Milwaukee and Minnesota guitarists shared the awards stage in the Fingerstyle competition, with Michael McKinnon (Milwaukee) placing first, Casey Smithley (Plymouth, Minn.) placing second and William Boulé (Milwaukee) placing third.
In Jazz, first place was awarded to James Zito (New York, N.Y.), second place to Robert Varon (Pittsford, N.Y.) and third place to Nathan Borton (Lansing, Mich.).
Recently engaged guitarists Millisa Henderson and Max Boras, both from Boston, were respectively awarded first and second place in the Rock category, with third place awarded to Yeril Lozano (Simpsonville, S.C.).
Henderson and Boras
Rock winner Henderson’s journey began with a Sesame Street Elmo doll guitar then to hand drums to a Sears First Act guitar with a portable amp. “My mom was into ’80s rock and I learned some easy Green Day riffs. I got it for Christmas in 2008 and I haven’t put it down since,” she says. Today, she plays a custom-made Equilibrium brand seven-string. She is in her final year at Berklee College of Music.
Runner-up Boras’ father played drums and his grandfather played piano. Growing up in Manhattan, he watched the VHS tapes of his father’s band, Looking for Art, playing club gigs. The marinating blend of classic rock, metal and grunge expanded when Boras began studying classical guitar and learned to read music.
The recent Berklee graduate says studying jazz workshops on Wes Montgomery and George Benson also opened his musical boundaries. “I’m not a jazz guitarist, but learning bebop was a whole different mindset in the ’50s and ’60s.”
What does the future hold? In 10 years, what would we be taking about? “Hopefully, the tour and record we have coming up!” says Boras. “We are forming a band together,” says Henderson, “a progressive rock duo where the two guitarists work together in terms of harmony and melody.”
“I want to play The Dark Side of the Moon on the moon,” Boras says.
