Polish musician Janek Pentz is among a generation of young fingerstyle guitarists carving out a reputation for abandoning convention.

Still not even twenty, he is already in the top league of players, with a technique of astonishing maturity; his compositions range from emotionally charged mood paintings to cascades of bravura fingerstyle that push the dynamic spectrum of the acoustic guitar to its limits.

In 2015, aged barely 16, he won first prize at both the prestigious Morrison Acoustic Challenge and the Fingerstyle Feeling Festival – and deservedly so!

Pentz had been a regular competitor at the Festival since its inception five years before, when he was not even a teenager.

Now all his hard work and dedication had finally paid off, and he was suddenly in the spotlight on the guitar scene. Tours of Poland, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands followed, with opening spots for stellar names including Tommy Emmanuel, Andy McKee, Luca Stricagnoli, Igor Presnyakov and Adam Palma.

Both the judging panels of the competitions he entered and the acts for whom he opened on tour were stunned by his extreme maturity on the guitar, and his flair for memorable melodies, sophisticated composition and subtle detail. Janek released his first EP, “Heroic Dreams …” in 2017.