USAO Guitar Day 2025

Saturday, October 11, 2025
University of Science & Arts of Oklahoma
Music Annex & Te Ata Auditorium

A day of workshops, performances, competitions, & more for guitarists.

COST: Free for students & teachers, $15 entry fee for ensembles competing, $10 entry fee for students competing with solos.

WHO: Open to all middle school and high school guitar students/programs/ensembles.

REGISTRATION: September 16 – October 11

• Competition Registration CLOSES: Tuesday, October 7th*.
• Masterclass Registration CLOSES: Tuesday, October 7th*.
• Registration is available day of for participants only, no masterclass or competitors after the dates above

* Competition Guidelines below schedule

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Schedule

10:00am-12:00pm	Solo Competition (Chapel)
	Ensemble Adjudication (Te Ata)
	Vendors Exhibition (Davis Hall Lobby, Room 124)
12:00-1:00pm	Lunch Break
1:00-3:00pm	Vendors Exhibition
1:30pm	Student Masterclass with Audrey Oden (Chapel)
3:30pm	Concert: Carey Morrow and Rachel Neece (Chapel)
4:30pm	Awards Ceremony following concert

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Competition Guidelines

• Ensemble Adjudication
• Large ensemble, Small ensembles (duos, trios, and quartets) are welcome to attend
• No more than 10 minutes of music
• Solo Competition

Rules:

The solo guitar competition will be a single round and  is open to pre-college students 18 years and younger. The performer will be given 8 minutes (maximum) to perform a program of their choice. The time limit will begin starting from the first note. If the performer goes over this time limit, they will be cut off with no penalty. All judges’ decisions are final.

Judges:

 (TBA)

Prizes:

First Prize admission to USAO guitar program and $1,000 scholarship 

Second Prize admission to USAO guitar program and $750 scholarship

Third Prize admission to USAO guitar program and $500 scholarship

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Clinicians:

Audrey Oden

Audrey Oden began playing guitar at the age of 11 in her hometown of Oklahoma City, OK. Her first formal training came from Classen School of Advanced Studies, where she graduated with a performing arts diploma. She continued studying guitar at the collegiate level at Oklahoma City University and earned a Master of Music degree in Classical Guitar Performance and a Performance Certificate from the University of Denver. Now, she is a DMA student at the University of Oklahoma. She holds prizes from multiple guitar festivals, including 2nd prize at the San Antonio International Guitar Festival and Competition and 3rd prize at GuitarFest West in Calgary, AB. Currently, she lives in Oklahoma and teaches guitar at University of Science and Arts in Chickasha, OK.

Rachel Neece

Guitarist Rachel Neece earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in performance from the Eastman School of Music under the tutelage of Nicholas Goluses. She has also studied with Italian guitarist Lorenzo Micheli in Lugano, Switzerland, and had lessons and masterclasses with Paul O’Dette, Matteo Mela, Patrick Roux, Ana Vidovic, Scott Tennant, and others. In addition to her guitar studies, Neece pursued her love of early music and research by earning a second master’s degree in musicology from Eastman.

Neece began teaching guitar lessons during graduate school. After relocating to Wisconsin, she taught at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point and at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music. She became fascinated with the Suzuki teaching philosophy, and has taken Suzuki method courses (Books 1-5) with MaryLou Roberts and Mychal Gendron. She taught Suzuki lessons at the Aber Suzuki Center before moving to Oklahoma.  

Currently, she is the Instructor of Guitar at the University of Oklahoma, where she also teaches courses in music appreciation and popular music history, and has a Suzuki guitar studio at the Norman School for Strings. 

Carey Morrow

Carey is an accomplished musician who teaches and performs on guitar as well as historical plucked string instruments including lute and theorbo. His musical studies began at Oklahoma City University, where he initially focused on classical guitar. During his time there he was awarded the 1^st place prize for the Guitar Foundation of America ensemble showcase. He then pursued studying lute at Indiana University’s historical performance institute, where he was awarded the Barbara and Davis Jacobs Fellowship for his studies and successfully earned his master’s degree in 2019 studying under the renowned lutinist Nigel North. 

He also shares a passion for teaching and presently, is the guitar instructor at Southwestern Oklahoma State University in his fourth year. He has performed with prestigious ensembles such as Santa Fe Desert Chorale, Nashville Baroque, Kansas City Baroque Consortium, and Oklahoma Baroque.

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