Aurora Guitar Quartet

Rafel Padron began playing guitar at the age of eleven in his native Havana, Cuba. He received his Licenciado in Music degree from the Superior Institute of Art in Havana in 1991 and received a scholarship to the Peabody Conservatory of Music, where he is working toward the Graduate Performance Degree. Padron was a professor of classical guitar at the Costa Rican University in San Jose, Costa Rica, and also at the National University of Caracas in Venezuela.

Akiko Sumi is a native of Tokyo, Japan, where she studied guitar with Kosaku Masuda and Masahiro Ojiri. She received the Bachelor of Biological Science Degree from the Science University in Tokyo, and is currently in the Graduate Performance Degree program at the Peabody Conservatory of Music. Sumi has won prizes at the ABC Guitar Festival Competition, the Spanish Guitar Music Competition, the Nagoya Guitar Competition, and the Classical Guitar Competition in Japan. She also won first prize in a guitar duet with her brother Keishi Semi in the Sendai International Guitar Festival Competition in 1992 and the Japan Guitar Ensemble Competition in 1998.

Keishi Sumi also studied with Masuda and Ojiri in his native Tokyo. He received the Bachelor of Arts on Literature degree from the Rissho University of Tokyo and is currently in the Graduate Performance Degree program at Peabody Conservatory. A frequent recipient of competition honors, Sumi took first prize for solo guitar in the All Japan Guitar Competition, the Sendai International Guitar Festival Competition, and the Spanish Guitar Music Competition. He and his sister Akiko made their debut recital in 1998 and perform extensively both in Japan and the United States.