Watch amazing performances from the 2019 Young Guitarist of the Year finalists

News
By
published

The three players wowed the judges and audience at the UK Guitar Show

(Image credit: Olly Curtis / Future)

Yesterday, we showed you the electrifying performances the 2019 Guitarist of the Year finalists gave at the UK Guitar Show.

Now, we can show you some performance footage of the Young Guitarist of the Year finalists, which is pretty astonishing as well.

The three players - Joey Bissell, Liam Garcia and Yamato Mori - were handpicked by a celebrity panel that included Nita Strauss, Plini and Rabea Massaad, and then invited to perform in the live final.

At the live final, the panel of judges - which consisted of editors from GuitarWorld.com, Total Guitar and Guitarist, plus Brazilian sensation Lari Basilio -
crowned Yamato Mori the 2019 Young Guitarist of the Year, after he wowed everyone in attendance with a performance of his own composition, Eureka. 

Yamato was awarded a Sterling by Music Man Majesty guitar alongside plenty of other goodies, including Ernie Ball Expression Overdrive and Ambient Delay pedals, a capo, a 10ft cable, a 25ft cable, a pack of patch cables, a black poly pro strap, an Ernie Ball toolkit, guitar polish and cloth, a Flextune clip-on tuner, a Powerpeg winder, a Pick Buddy pick holder and 12 sets of strings, courtesy of sponsor Ernie Ball.

The live final of 2019's Young Guitarist of the Year, in association with Ernie Ball, took place at the London Business Design Centre on 21 September, as part of the wider UK Guitar Show and World Guitar Day Celebrations. 

You can check out Yamato's winning performance of Eureka, as well as the final performances from fellow finalists Liam Garcia and Joey Bissell, below.

Young Guitarist of the Year 2019 winner: Yamato Mori, Japan

Young Guitarist of the Year 2019 finalist: Joey Bissell, UK

Young Guitarist of the Year 2019 finalist: Liam Garcia, USA

Richard Bienstock
Richard Bienstock

Rich is the co-author of the best-selling Nöthin' But a Good Time: The Uncensored History of the '80s Hard Rock Explosion. He is also a recording and performing musician, and a former editor of Guitar World magazine and executive editor of Guitar Aficionado magazine. He has authored several additional books, among them Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck, the companion to the documentary of the same name.