CLASSICAL guitarist Callum Henshaw is the latest in the line-up of brilliant young ANU School of Music guitar students to take out first prize in the IX Concurso Internacional de Guitarra at the Festival de Córdoba in Spain where, at 22, he was the youngest finalist.

Canberran Henshaw is finishing his honours degree in guitar performance at the ANU School of Music under Minh Le Hoang and Timothy Kain, and both seem to have the Midas touch when it comes to training golden guitar players.

“I have an education allowance,” Henshaw says. “I choose to use it to pay for lessons with both of them – both are amazing.”

With hindsight, Henshaw’s trajectory to guitar stardom seems inevitable. Sent to Ainslie Primary School by his mother, who’d regretted never getting a good music education, he started playing on a half-size baby guitar at age six.

He played around with electric guitars, but by age 15, he reports, “I really started thinking about it is something I’d like to do… something clicked and I started practising properly”.

He tried hard as a secondary student at Radford College to give himself other options but, as he says, “I knew what was going to happen”.

On returning to Canberra from Spain, he recorded at the ANU studios his debut EP, entitled “2012”, featuring a lute work by Bach, Nigel Westlake’s “Hinchinbrook Riffs,” and a Spanish suite, “Collectici intim”, by Asencio.

So what’s next? First, there’s some playing at the Canberra International Music Festival. Then he must complete his honours. Then, a trip to Europe beckons, for what he calls “guitar business”.

Sample or buy Henshaw’s EP at callumhenshaw.com