The Ste-Cat permanent guitar collection
Just as it is important to acknowledge the talent and true works of art of the luthiers participating in the Montreal Guitar Show, so too must we lend a helping hand to the most promising young musicians on the horizon. We have chosen to do so by offering them the means to develop their artistic talent and technique, mainly by giving them access to high-quality, valuable instruments that would otherwise be off-limits to them. In the spirit of promoting music making, the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal and the MGS created a permanent guitar collection bearing the name Ste-Cat. Made at the rate of at least two a year by luthiers chosen randomly from among the many renowned artists participating in the Montreal Guitar Show, these choice guitars constitute a veritable bank of exclusive collector's instruments. They are designed specifically to give concrete free assistance to young musicians in the form of one-year instrument loans. The instruments, whether classical, acoustic, archtop jazz, gypsy-style or electric guitars, are created from precious woods and the highest quality materials. In addition to the luthier's signature and the year in which it was made, each instrument bears the logo of the friendly cat Ste-Cat. As well as giving his name to the new prestigious instrument collection, this endearing cat has become famous as a symbol of the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal. The collection constitutes a loan bank intended to advance and enrich the musical futures of young guitarists.
Luthiers Peter Hopkins (archtop), Jean Rompré (classical), Rick Davis and Tim McKnight (acoustic) are thus the first to have crafted superb, matchless guitars for this original collection, specially created as a concrete means of promoting music making. They then passed the torch to three other renowned artisans, randomly chosen during the 2007 Show: Jef Demers (archtop), Michael Dunn (gypsy) and Michael Lewis (archtop). In 2008, the selected luthiers are l'Atelier de Lutherie Moustache (manouche), Sigmund Johannessen (archtop) and Paul Woolson (acoustic).
2009-2010
2008-2009
2007-2008
2006-2007