The GSI Foundation Scholarship Grows: Four More Scholars Join the 2026-2027 Class!

The GSI Foundation family just got bigger! Earlier this fall we introduced Igor Klokov and Hao Yang as the newest recipients of the GSI Foundation Classical Guitar Scholarship at the USC Thornton School of Music. Today we are thrilled to share that four more outstanding guitarists are joining them this academic year: Enzo Risi, Eduard Hrmushyan, Qianxiang Wang, and Karl Vardanyan. And that's not all. One more scholarship will be awarded this coming spring semester.

That means the GSI Foundation will support seven young artists in a single academic year, a milestone made possible entirely by the generosity of our donors.

Enzo, Qianxiang, and Karl join us for the first time this year, and we couldn't be more excited to welcome them. Each was selected by the USC Classical Guitar Department, and we look forward to getting to know them, and to letting you hear them, in the months ahead.

Many of you will already know Eduard Hrmushyan, who received the GSI Foundation scholarship last year and recorded a few GSI videos.. Originally from Armenia, Eduard graduated from the Yerevan Conservatory and earned his Master's degree at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music under David Tanenbaum. He has won first prizes at the Mottola, Montenegro, and Portugal international guitar competitions, appeared as a soloist at the Guitar World Festival in Kaluga, Russia, with the Kaluga Chamber Orchestra, and performed his own arrangement of Vivaldi's Violin Concerto with the Tbilisi Chamber Orchestra. In 2025 he made his debut with the Master Symphonia Orchestra in Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez. We are so happy to continue supporting him for another year.

We look forward to welcoming all of our new scholars to GSI in our Santa Monica showroom to record them for the GSI YouTube channel. They join a growing community of past scholars who have gone on to wonderful careers, including Mei Yin Steadman, Juri Yun, Ashley Lucero, Mircea Gogoncea, Tomasz Fechner, Laura Mazon Franqui, Grygorii Koval, Robert Wang, and Pietro Ruscigno.

Help Us Support the Next Generation

Seven scholars in one year is something we never could have done alone. Every GSI Foundation scholarship is funded by people who love the classical guitar as much as we do, and with your help we want this to be just the beginning.

Do you have a guitar at home that no longer gets played? Donate it to the GSI Foundation and give it a second life. We'll help you pack and ship it, cover all expenses, and send you a tax-deductible donation letter. Every donated instrument is sold through GSI, and the proceeds go directly toward scholarships like these.

Prefer to give another way? A cash donation of any size helps us keep these young artists focused on what matters most: their music.

Donate a Guitar or Make a Cash Donation

To learn more about our mission, visit the GSI Foundation section of our website (https://www.guitarsalon.com/foundation).